Page 38 - Pierce County Lawyer - September October 2024

TACOMAPROBONO COMMUNITY LAWYERS
HOW WE GOT HERE, PART 1 (1883-1984) –
A short history of Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers and Legal Aid in Pierce County
Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers is now an independent nonprofit with an annual budget of approximately $4.5 million and a staff of 55 providing legal aid to vulnerable populations in our community with the dedicated help of hundreds of awesome TPCBA volunteer attorneys. How did we get where are today in 2024 from a ‘legal aid bit’ with no budget or staff operating out of the Perkins Building in 1964? 140 years of fascinating history, collaboration, fighting for funding and passion for service tells the story!
1883 – Tacoma Bar Association formed, with 20 members. (Although the TPCBA officially began in 1852 when Pierce County was brought into existence by an
act of the legislature of the Oregon Territory, no counsel were named in written opinions until 1861 and there was no official social/professional organization
until 1883. Originally called the Tacoma Bar Association, it was subsequently renamed the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association.) In the early days of the TPCBA, office business of the TPCBA was conducted by volunteers, usually wives of attorneys, on the third floor of the Perkins Building. One of the purposes was to furnish legal counsel for indigents and also to hold activities for the improvement of its members and for professional social activities.
1964 – Attorney Patrick Steele was one of the community leaders who assisted in forming Tacoma/Pierce County Opportunity and Development, Inc., to develop projects to receive federal funding from the new Office of Economic Opportunity. He wanted to include a project to establish a legal assistance foundation to do a better job of meeting the need for legal services than the “legal aid bit” which had operated out of the Perkins Building for many
years. It was necessary to go to the Bar Association to obtain their cooperation. After heated argument the TPCBA voted to participate. The original trustees of the Pierce County Legal Assistance Foundation included Dale Carlisle, Edward Wheeler, Richard Hodge, Curtin Hilton, Alfred Kucklick, Valen Honeywell, Perrin Walker, John Troup, William Brown, Luther Carr, Melvin McKenny, James Johnston, Mertin Elliott, and J.A. Boles. (Photo shows Pierce County Prosecutor Patrick M. Steele examining evidence in a murder trial. Mr. Steele would later represent the 26th District in the state legislature. from Northwest Room at The Tacoma Public Library, Image D27383-8)
1976 – The Pierce County Legal Assistance Foundation was replaced by the Puget Sound Legal Assistance Foundation (PSLAF) which provided representation for low-income clients from Pierce, Thurston and Mason Counties. Evidently some ‘restructuring’ was required when the federal Legal Services Corporation (LSC) was created by President Nixon in 1974 to oversee the legal services entities in
the US receiving federal funding to provide legal aid. In 1976 LSC funded three programs in Washington: Spokane Legal Services Center, PSLAF, and Evergreen Legal Services. The PSLAF board in 1978 included TPCBA members Thomas Oldfield, Larry Couture, George Kelley, Frederick Hayes, Paul Murray, Frank Girolami, James Moceri and Corinne Rohrer.
By Laurie Davenport
Individual passion has always been important as it is today – here is a studio portrait of Judge Elizabeth Shackleford,
who died in 1989 at the age of 94 and was known for championing the causes of minorities and the disadvantaged. The daughter of
a lawyer, she was admitted to the Washington State Bar in 1922 without first going to law school. She obtained an undergraduate degree from the College of Puget Sound in 1918 and learned enough as an apprentice in her father’s, Pierce County Superior Court Judge John Shackleford’s, office to pass the state bar exam. She was one of only 5 female lawyers in the area at that time and clients were scarce, so she worked for the IRS while building her practice. In the fifties and sixties, she was the only area female attorney and one of few who took black clients. She was appointed Pierce County Justice Court Judge in 1954, a title that changed in 1963 to District Court Judge, and a position she held until 1967. She practiced law until her retirement at the age of 85 in 1981. She was honored by black, Indian and religious groups in a special ceremony in 1981 in recognition of her efforts to help black women and businessmen establish clubhouses in Tacoma and for providing free legal assistance to minorities.
Image, Northwest Room at The Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio D101757-4
38 PIERCE COUNTY LAWYER | September/October 2024