THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION February 2025
Lawyer Sweethearts get engaged!
The Clark County Bar Association is a professional organization that serves to support our local attorney community through providing education and networking opportunities designed to enhance and foster better relationships within the local legal community.
All business, commercial & family law appeals.
Kurt Greg Greg Cheney: 14+ years experience. Dedicated. Meticulous. Strategic.
Kurt Rylander: 30+ years. All levels of appeal including before the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Contact us today.
www.RylanderLaw.com Rylander@RylanderLaw.com
February Hearsay Contributors
Courtney Mendoza Mendoza Law
Courtney Mendoza’s practice focuses on criminal defense and family law, including dissolutions, parenting plans, and child support
Chelsey Butchard
Butchard Law
Chelsey Butchard is the owner of Butchard Law and focuses her practice on family law and civil protection order matters. She is involved in numerous CCBA boards, including the Family Law Section, Young Lawyers Section, and DEI Committee.
Jean Mccoy Landerholm, P.S.
Jean McCoy’s practice focus is real estae transactions and conflict resolution, landlord/ tenant and creditors’ rights.
Jesse Jacobs
NW Injury Law Center
Jesse Jacobs is a trial attorney representing personal injury clients in Southwest Washington. He is the immediate past president of the CBBA.
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Celebrating 10 Years: Navigate Law Group
By: Navigate Law Group
Navigate Law Group just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. They had a blowout NYE/Anniversary fundraiser party to ring in 2025 on the beautiful Vancouver Waterfront. It was so fun to see everyone dressed beautifully and letting loose to help celebrate this incredible milestone. Some fun photos are included from the event. The firm has been reflecting on the years of hard work, dedication, legal advocacy, but also on the trust and relationships it has built with clients, partners, and communities. This milestone is a testament to Navigate’s commitment to the Clark County legal community.
Originally founded in December 2014, by Amber Rushbanks, Colin McHugh and Eli Rushbanks. Today, Navigate has 14 incredibly talented attorneys and an equal number of amazing and professional paralegals, legal assistants and admin team. The founding members all grew up here in the Pacific Northwest, and they knew they wanted to establish their legal careers here. At the time, they were pretty fresh out of law school and new to the Clark County legal community. When they first arrived it was pretty daunting to start with zero clients and minimal contacts, but they made it their mission to get to know everyone, and many of you may recall those three young bucks mobbing around Clark County together shaking hands with everyone. Fortunately, the Clark County legal community is a gem, and our colleagues' local businesses made it warm and engaging to grow. 21
About a year after Navigate started, they hired their first associate attorney, Chelsie Elliott. Soon after we hired Chelsie, coincidentally, everything finally started to fall into place. For the last number of years, attorney Trevor Cartales has also been at the helm with Chelsie and Amber Rushbanks steering this ship. Amber, Trevor and Chelsie’s leadership have kept the focus on strong and diligent advocacy for their clients, consistent pro bono work, and a healthy work/life balance for their attorneys and staff.
Navigate rounded out their 10th year by being honored with the Pro Bono and Public Service Award for a group by the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA). This award recognized their firm-wide commitment to providing pro bono services and giving back in impactful ways to the Vancouver and surrounding communities. This has been such a meaningful recognition of our diligent effort to provide as much pro bono work as possible to those in need. For over 4 years, Navigate has hosted and sponsored a weekly free legal clinic on Thursday evenings every week, offering a 20 minute consult for a wide variety of legal issues (both Washington and Oregon). They all regularly volunteer at the Volunteer Lawyers Program, work alongside the court on their pro se dockets to help with drafting orders and providing assistance to pro se parties, and more. All of their attorneys and staff are dedicated to these public service efforts and are very proud of that work.
Over the years, Navigate has been so lucky to be surrounded by such smart and hardworking individuals. What started as a small firm with a handful of dedicated professionals has grown into a seasoned and thriving group that serves clients across multiple sectors, including but not limited to business, employment, family law, estate planning, bankruptcy, personal injury and real estate. The company’s leadership attributes its success to a clear vision of blending tradition with innovation and a supportive firm culture.
As Navigate marks its 10th anniversary, it is clear that the firm has not only built a successful business but also a lasting legacy of trust, integrity, and excellence in the legal profession. With a solid foundation and a forwardlooking vision, the company is poised to remain a staple in the legal services industry for years to come. Here’s to another decade of success, growth, and impact.
Clark County Superior Court
BENCH/BAR COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
January 2025
This month’s Bench/Bar communication took place via email. The next Bench/Bar meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 11th at 12:00. If you would like to attend, please email Jessi Anderson at jessi@ccvlp.org to be added to the calendar invite. Updates provided for the month of January include:
Judge Sheldrick:
• If local practitioners want to suggest local rule changes, they should forward their request to the Superior Court Administrator, Pamela Hartman Beyer, (Pamela.HartmanBeyer@clark. wa.gov) by mid-March in order to have the request reviewed by the bench. Alternatively, they could submit the request to the Bench Bar Committee at our meeting on March 11th.
Commissioner Sasser:
• Mock Trial is coming! Wednesday, February 12th and Thursday, February 13th—we will get the round times out shortly.
From Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program:
• CCVLP is being awarded HUD Eviction Protection Grant Program (EPGP) funding. This grant is designed to expand the reach of legal services to tenants at risk of, or subject to, eviction. CCVLP is one of 21 recipients nationwide to have received funding through this grant. The organization wants to expand the work done in its pre-eviction program (Housing Justice Project) by adding additional attorneys and support staff to provide legal assistance to tenants before formal eviction proceedings begin. Together with Council for the Homeless (CFTH), CCVLP wants to combine legal expertise with resource navigation and outreach efforts to have a more effective and responsive system to meet client needs. We are at the very early stages, having recently learned of the award. A contract has not yet been provided or agreed upon so we are unsure at this moment of the timeline for expanding the Housing Justice Program, but are excited to have the opportunity to hire two additional attorneys and a legal assistant to support the program in the future.
Respectfully submitted,
Jessi Anderson
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.
Clark County Bar Association
January 7, 2025
Minutes for the CCBA Board of Trustees Meeting January 7, 2025
1.Called to order 12:11 pm, Wechselblatt, Petersen, Larson, Busby, Rapp, Mendoza, Hawke and Executive Director Darco
2. December 3, 2024 board meeting minutes: Motion to Approve (Hawke/Rapp) Approved 3. Treasurer’s Report Financials in board folder.
4. Family Law Section Funds CCBA board members met with FLS board members and will meet again.
5. Membership Engagement Committee Update (Wechselblatt): 2024/2025 members: 406; 1/1/24 members: 408; non renewed: 67; new members: 33; 2023/2024: 439 members. We need to get 450 members for this fiscal year to meet our budget projections. The Membership Engagement Committee met 12/13/24, next meeting is 1/24/25. Wechselblatt proposed that September through December the board should focus on membership.
6. CCBA Big Picture (Wechselblatt) Proposed that in January and February the board should engage in big picture work.
Review Trustee Job Description and Mission Statements: tabled to February meeting
Other bar associations: What programs do other bars have that we may want to consider? Should we connect with other bar associations? Darco is attending a WSBA conference in April for local bar leaders. This is the first conference of this nature by the WSBA. The WSBA is paying the expenses for leaders to attend. She hopes to get ideas and insight from other county bar associations around the state.
7. Lawyer Fee Survey: CCBA is not continuing with this project. Sections could take it on if they want a survey.
8. Lawyer Referral Service: While the service will continue, the CCBA board is evaluating whether to continue the project to revise it. The program needs more attorney participants. Some areas in need of attorneys are administrative law/social security, landlord/tenant, workers’ compensation, and medical malpractice. Could publicize the service to attorneys via the CCBA sections. The CCBA gets many calls about the service.
9. Upcoming Meetings/ Events
Barrister’s Ball 3/8/25: The theme is Vintage Hollywood. Seeking Sponsors! Please contact Lisa Darco to find out sponsorship opportunities. The Social Committee meets 1/21/25.
