2023 June Hearsay

HearSay

June 2023

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

JACOBS DON JACOBS

June Hearsay Contributors

Judge Susan L. Clark

Clark County Superior Court

Judge Clark graduated from the University of Oregon College of Law in 1986. She practiced law in Washington and Oregon prior to being appointed to the bench in May 2013.

Courtney Mendoza

Petersen Rothermel Law Firm

Courtney Mendoza’s practice focuses on criminal defense and family law, including dissolutions, parenting plans, and child support .

Whitney Hawke

Wheeler Boyd, Attorneys at Law

Whitney Hawke is a partner at Wheeler Boyd. Her practice focuses primarily on family law.

McKinley Irvin attorneys are known for their relentless pursuit of successful results, whether representing individuals in financially complex divorce or high conflict parenting disputes. But perhaps our most noted distinction is our steadfast commitment to protecting what our clients value most.

We protect what our clients value most.

teresa foster partner in charge

vancouver

During my presidency I really wanted to focus on expanding some of our membership benefits, and one of the first ideas I had was to offer free CLEs for our members. I was a little overly ambitious at first, thinking we could immediately offer these monthly, but logistics prevented that (at least for now) so we are starting off offering two free CLEs per year.

We had our first one on May 31st, and longtime attorney Tom Phelan graciously agreed to present (and by agreed I mean I told him he was giving a CLE and he had to say yes because I am his daughter).

The CLE, titled Tips and Tales from Tom: Lessons from Over Four Decades in the Trenches, covered a wide array of thoughts and advice Tom had for attorneys in all stages of their practice based on his 43-year career as an attorney. While I had practiced under Tom for almost 10 years, and already knew a lot of his war stories and general views on the legal profession, I still thoroughly enjoyed in presentation. There were a lot of great reminders about how to be a good lawyer, both in your own practice and in the legal community at large. His remarks about collegiality particularly resonated with me, especially in an age of Zoom court/meetings and fre-

quent emails, where a lot of comradery that was around when I began practicing has been lost. We no longer spend hours at a time sitting in court with one another, talking to our coworkers and adversaries. Instead of meeting up to discuss cases, we often resort to quick and somewhat impersonal emails to try and resolve things. And while all of this can often make our practices run more smoothly and can definitely be a more efficient use of our time, it can sometimes come at a cost. I hope that we can all strive to maintain the personal connections and relationships with others in the profession despite all the technological advances that have occurred and will no doubt continue in the future.

Our next free CLE will be in the Fall, so keep an eye out for the announcement. And as always, if anyone has any additional comments or ideas on how to improve our member benefits, feel free to reach out to me.

Volunteer of the Month April 2023

Chelsie Elliott

This amazing co-owner of Navigate Law Group has been a regular monthly volunteer with us for almost 6 years and contributed a total of (drum roll). . .219 hours!

Why do you volunteer with the CCVLP?

What might be a simple question or issue for a family law attorney is sometimes an insurmountable obstacle to a lay person, and by volunteering a little bit of my time each month, I can help bridge that gap. I can't even begin to count the number of times someone has called into the office desperately needing assistance but not having the funds to hire an attorney, and it is so wonderful to have the CCVLP as the clear choice to refer them to. I had a great relationship with the Spokane County VLP, so it was a natural transition to build a relationship with the CCVLP when I moved to Vancouver. I simply adore everyone at the CCVLP, and they do such amazing work on a daily basis. I went into law hoping to help as many people as I could through one of the toughest points in their lives, and what better way to give back and work towards fulfilling that goal than by volunteering at the CCVLP?

Some words from staff about Chelsie:

We regularly receive compliments from clients about their experience with Chelsie. Can we blame them? She radiates kindness and warmth, she makes you feel comfortable, she's patient, she's knowledgeable (we could go on, but you get the idea). Chelsie is truly a dear friend of the CCVLP and we love her so much. Thank you for all of the time and support you ' ve given us; our program is truly better off because of you.

Honestly? We could easily make the case for Chelsie as VOTM every month.

Chelsie has been a consistent monthly volunteer who we know to be empathetic, responsive, and experienced with all facets of family law. She frequently goes above and beyond what is asked of her, whether that means offering to help draft proposed orders when a pro se client is struggling to do so on their own, researching case law and being prepared to advise on those outside of the norm cases, or rallying others at Navigate to cover a clinic for us last minute (shout out to Chelsey Butchard and Conor Buie for stepping up -- we love you guys!). Regardless of the situation, we can always count on Chelsie to be there with a smile, and that means so much to all of us and those we serve!

Thank you to everyone who volunteered last month!

April 2023 Attorney Volunteers:

Anne Ajayi, Rachel Brooks, Conor Buie, Chelsey Butchard, Gideon

Caron, Ed Dawson, Scott Edwards, Chelsie Elliott, Philip Foster, Laurie Garber, Lindsey George, Moloy Good, Marlene Hansen, Lincoln Harvey, Courtney Himes, Jennifer Joslin, Jeff Keddie, Beatrice

Lucas, Jeffrey Peterson, Mercedes Riggs, Tonya Rulli, Amber

Rushbanks, Shada Salameh, Michael Trotter, Marisa Nelson, Michelle

Prosser, and thank you to support staff at Stahancyk, Kent & Hook.

We always welcome new volunteers. Contact our Volunteer Manager if you ' re interested in volunteering (attorneys and non-attorneys):

mia@ccvlp.org

1 A Proclamation on Juneteenth Day of Observance, 2021; The White House Briefing Room; June 18, 2021; https://www.whitehouse.gov/ briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/06/18/a-proclamation-on-juneteenth-day-of-observance-2021/.

2 Juneteenth: Fact Sheet; Congressional Research Service; Updated June 21, 2021; https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R44865.pdf (emphasis added).

3 See footnote 1.

4 Id.

5 RCW 1.16.050, Finding—Declaration—2007 c 61; https:// app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default. aspx?cite=1.16.050.

6 Id.

7 Id. at Findings—Intent—2021 c 295.

Clark County Bar Association

CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION BOARD MEETING

May 2, 2023

Minutes for the CCBA Board of Trustees Meeting May 2, 2023

Called to order 12:05 pm. Phelan, Larson, Melnick, Aquadro, Sutanto, Jacobs and Executive Director Darco

April 4, 2023 board meeting minutes: Motion to Approve (Aquadro/Phelan) Approved

Treasurer’s Report (Melnick): Reviewed financial reports for April. Another Barrister’s Ball bill was received, which increased the event loss. had a nearly $6k loss.

Ongoing Action Items

Committee Reports:

Hearsay Committee: no update

Social Committee:(Phelan) will schedule a meeting soon; social events are scheduled in June, Au gust, and September

CLE Committee: (Aquadro) 5/11/23 Mediation CLE ; the first brown bag CLE (free for members) 5/31/23 with speaker Tom Phelan. June 14, 2023 business law CLE with speaker Jeff Peterson. The committee is planning for the fall.

DEI Committee: no updates

Membership Committee: (Sutanto) working to get WSBA info regarding attorneys new to Clark County. They are evaluating the Lawyer Referral Service and comparing it to other similar programs.

Previous Action Items

Judicial Survey: (Phelan) an email is being drafted to send to CCBA members about creating a work group

Membership Update (Darco) no updates

Current Action Items

Dues Increase for 2023/2024: Discussion. Reviewed proposal to increase Attorney dues (to $195), New Attorney dues (to $95), and Associate Member dues (to $195) by $20 per year and Emeritus dues (to $97.50) by $10 per year. Motion to adopt the proposed dues increases (Melnick/Jacobs) Approved.

Adjourned 12:29

Clark County Superior Court

BENCH/BAR COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

April 11, 2022

Persons in attendance: Nicholas Alexander (nick@vancouverwillsandtrusts.com) Rachel Brooks (rachel@ guardianship-law.com) Jessi Anderson (jessi@ccvlp.org) Leslie Lopez (Leslie.Lopez@clark.wa.gov), Curtis A. Welch (cwelch@sussmanshank.com), Jeffrey Keddie (jeffreyk@nwjustice.org) and Judge Fairgrieve (John.Fairgrieve@clark.wa.gov)

If you have matters that you would like to bring to the attention of the Bench/Bar, you are welcome to contact the above-mentioned members of the committee.

OLD BUSINESS: No old business to report.

NEW BUSINESS: Judge Fairgrieve: In criminal world, in Superior Court we have started judicial rotation, about a month into it now. All in all, going well from all reports. The docket structure is running as we hoped. Still open to recommendations for modification. We are seeing fair amount of trial activity, five cases beginning the same day, which is not that uncommon now. Change of plea docket usage has not been even. There are multiple days available to practitioners and some days are favored by practitioners over others; issues with hearings and what need to be in-person or via zoom, such as change of plea and sentencing. Now that we can have people in court the question is, do we keep the remote participation? On going discussions. Any litigators listen up – JAVS (the court recorder) system is aging, we have begun to have issues. We selected FTR (For The Record) as a replacement and they set up a demo in my courtroom if you want to take a look.

Dan Lloyd: Timeline for implementation? We do not have clear picture but are on-board and will be letting us know timeline soon.

Curt Welch: Ex parte question--Asked if there is in-person ex parte now, in addition to submit ting papers through the clerk’s office for the clerk to submit to ex parte. Judge Fairgrieve stated that the court does not do in-person ex parte anymore.

Dan Lloyd: Body cam is going well, links going well and everything is going smoothly.

Jessi Anderson: Is the 3-year rotation of Judges staggered or all rotate at the same time?

Judge Fairgrieve: All driven my fam law and did not want a full rollover – they are staggered and only one is supposed to leave per year – one-in-one-out. Mia looking for more volunteers on the 20th 9 am – Noon. CCVLP getting ready to launch silent auction Saturday June 24th at Hidden House – NEED ART! To be shown and auctions. More info to come check out https://ccvlp.org/art-auction/ and for more information on how to submit art.

Jeffrey Keddie: Judicial mentorship program: See Hearsay for more info. Reach out to Judge Sheldrick for questions or to apply. NWJP update – legal assistant got accepted to law school. Also starting a name change and gender marker clinic – May 24th at 3:00 both in-person and remote. Court gives a lot of deference to the practitioners if you have thoughts.

Judge Retsinas: (not in attendance): Please review the proposed rule changes and give the bench comments, if any: https://clark.wa.gov/superior-court/proposed-local-court-rules

MEETING ADORNED 12:16 pm.

Respectfully Submitted, Nicholas Alexander

Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 | 12pm

Panelists Include:

Megan Harney

Northwest Justice Project Attorney

Jonathon Lack

Commissioner, King County Superior Court

Erin Smelser

La Center Para-educator & Clark County Pride Board Member

Mia Yamamoto

California Criminal Defense Attorney & Civil Rights Activist