Ahead of the Curve, Washington Women Lead the Way by John Hughes

Author:John Hughes [Hughes, John C., & Young, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction/History
Publisher: Legacy Washington

Justices Madsen and Fairhurst. Washington Attorney General’s Office

THOUGH FAIRHURST’S calendar is overflowing right now, she smiles broadly when she talks about being chief justice:

I love being chief. It’s a perfect job for me. But it’s a very hard job, as Justice Madsen knows. There are a lot of administrative and public outreach duties. As chief, I’m the spokesperson for a non-unified court system. I’m a co-chair of the Board of Judicial Administration. I run all the meetings of the court conferences. I run the department meetings and the en banc meetings where we decide what cases we’re going to do and what we’re going to decide. Separate and apart from being chief, I’m chair of the Judicial Information System Committee. I speak in many settings—from statewide conferences to the annual State of the Judiciary address. I convene work groups and task forces. I’m dedicated to increasing access to the justice system and working to promote better understanding of the foundations of our democracy. The YMCA’s Youth in Government program is very important.

Fairhurst is also dealing with Bar Association discontent over the approval of Limited License Legal Technicians to improve access to the justice system. Madsen championed the plan during her term as chief justice. “It was like throwing a hand grenade in the middle of a bowl of soup because it gives people who have legal training but not a full legal degree the right to practice law in a limited scope,” Madsen explains. “And why do that? It’s because over the years it had become clear to me that the average person cannot access the justice system because they can’t afford the cost of legal services and they can’t navigate the system without some help from a legally trained person. I wanted to expand the resources available for people who can’t afford to access the system, or even are so fearful of lawyers that they wouldn’t go to see a lawyer even if they knew they needed a lawyer! I am proud that the court adopted the rule.”

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