NW Lawyer - September 2014

Paula Littlewood

WSBA Executive Director

We’re Still Listening

Listening Tour III visits the Olympic Peninsula, Island County, and the San Juan Islands

Thethirdannual WSBAListen- ingTourthis pastJunefound PresidentPal-ace and I traipsing through the upper portions of the Olympic Peninsula and up into the San Juan Islands. The route commenced with lunch in Montesano followed by an evening reception in Bremerton; that night we drove on to Port Angeles to spend the night and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast conversation the next morning. From Port Angeles it was onto Coupeville on Whidbey Island for lunch, on up to Mount Vernon for an evening reception, then out to the San Juans where we culminated the trip with lunch in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. A special thank you to WSBA Legal Community Outreach Specialist Sue Strachan, who worked with Bar leadership in all of these communities to plan these great get-togethers and our vigorous schedule!

The turnout was great all along the way — thank you to all of you who took the time to come out and share your ideas with President Palace and me! The groups we met with ranged from 8 people to a high of 20.

The groups were wide-ranging in interests and backgrounds, and I believe what struck us most was the generational strata we found in almost every community. As we’ve been writing about and discussing for the past several years, the Baby Boomers are starting to transition out of the practice and we expect to lose more than 50 per-

1. Lunch with Island County Bar members in Coupeville. 2. Lunch with San Juan County Bar members in Friday Harbor. 3. Members of the Skagit County Bar share their concerns in Mount Vernon. 4. President Patrick Palace hangs on tight to the Deception Pass Bridge connecting Whidbey and Fidalgo islands. 5. Sign along the way. 6. The 1914 Clallam County Courthouse in Port Angeles. 7. Members of the Kitsap County Bar chat with President Palace in Bremerton. 8. Members of the Grays Harbor County Bar discuss the issues in Montesano.

9. Executive Director Paula Littlewood, President Palace, and WSBA Legal Community Outreach Specialist Sue Strachan pose in front of public art in Bremerton.