WSBA Executive Committee Meeting Remains Unscheduled Despite Urgent Role

The Washington State Bar Association’s Executive Committee exists to handle emergent, non-policy-making matters that need timely attention between Board meetings, yet its next gathering is listed simply as “TBD” — a striking mismatch for a panel designed to act when the full Board cannot convene, WSBA (wsba.org) reported.

Established by WSBA Bylaws Article VII, Section D, the committee derives its authority solely from the Board of Governors and is limited to whatever powers the Board grants it. That mandate is meant to bridge the gap between regular Board sessions, where the full Board — consisting of the president and members elected from each congressional district and at-large, with the president-elect and immediate past president serving as officers — determines general policies and approves the annual budget, WABarNews (wabarnews.org) reported. But with the date, time, and agenda still unset for the upcoming Zoom-only meeting, the committee’s next move remains unclear.

The six-member panel includes President Kari Petrasek, President-elect Nam Nguyen, Immediate Past President Francis Adewale, Treasurer Alain Villeneuve, Personnel Committee Chair Tom Ahearne, and Executive Director Terra Nevitt. While these meetings are open to the public except during executive sessions, creating a transparent window into the Bar’s operations, only the President, President-elect, and Governors may vote — a sharp contrast between who can watch and who can decide.

WSBA Executive Committee Meeting Remains Unscheduled Despite Urgent Role — Photo: wabarnews.org

Open to the Public, Closed to Most Votes

The split is structural: anyone can join the Zoom session — Meeting ID 895 6043 2174, Passcode 478676 — and observe, but participation and comment are at the Chair’s discretion, and the actual votes rest with just three categories of members. That concentration of power means the committee can hear public input yet resolve emergent issues with a narrow voting bloc, a dynamic that becomes critical when urgent matters arise between the Board’s regular meetings. Reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are provided upon request by emailing Shelly Bynum at [email protected] or calling 206-239-2125, according to the notice.

The Officers Behind the Votes

Kari Petrasek, a solo attorney who started Petrasek Law in Mukilteo in January 2015 after 13 years in Everett firms, was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022 and reelected in 2025; she served as 2024-2025 treasurer and was elected 2025-2026 president-elect, WABarNews reported. A civil litigator in juvenile law, guardianships, estate planning, elder law, and family law, she has volunteered as an attorney guardian ad litem for dependent children and served as a Snohomish County CASA Program attorney for over 15 years. She has also served as a judge and commissioner pro tempore for Snohomish County Superior Court since 2010, is a past-chair of the WSBA Solo & Small Practice Section, a past-treasurer of Washington Women Lawyers, and a past-president and past-treasurer of the Snohomish County Bar Association.

Francis Adewale, who served as 2025-2026 WSBA president, was elected to the Board in 2021 and previously served as treasurer in 2022 and president-elect in 2024. One of the attorneys who helped establish Spokane Community Court, he is a former chair of the Access to Justice Board and former member of the Washington Supreme Court’s Interpreter and Language Access Commission. He currently serves on the boards of Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, is board president of Multi-Ethnic Business Association-AHANA, teaches as an adjunct at Whitworth University and Gonzaga University School of Law, and is a founding member of the Washington Statewide Reentry Council, WABarNews noted. He also serves on the board of Spokane City Credit Union and owns a small business in Spokane with his wife.

Nam Nguyen, the 2026-2027 president-elect, was elected to the Board in 2022 and reelected in 2025, serving as 2025-2026 treasurer. An assistant attorney general in the Sexually Violent Predators Unit in Tumwater, he previously served as executive director of the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, and raised in the South Seattle suburbs, he graduated from the University of Washington and Boston University School of Law, volunteered in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, for AmeriCorps’ BP oil spill relief program, and serves on the board and as treasurer for the Judicial Institute, which mentors those seeking judicial appointment or election.

What Happens When the Board Can’t Wait

The committee’s purpose is to act between Board meetings, yet with no date set for its next session, that emergency function sits idle. Whether the Board will schedule the meeting soon to address pending emergent matters — or leave the TBD in place — remains the open question facing Washington’s legal community.

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