Updated: June 6, 2019

The Washington State Bar Association and the Washington Young Lawyers Committee (WYLC) have prioritized the use of funds to send new and young lawyers to attend American Bar Association Young Lawyer Division (ABA YLD) meetings and/or conferences. This scholarship fund is designed to:

  • encourage attendance and participation at the ABA YLD meetings, and
  • create the opportunity for scholarship recipients to bring ideas back to the WYLC about how to engage and serve new lawyers in Washington.

Scholarship for the ABA Midyear Meeting: There was one $250 scholarship awarded to attend the ABA Midyear meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada in January 2019. 

Scholarship for the ABA Annual Meeting: There will be two $225 scholarships awarded to a new and young lawyer to attend the ABA Annual meeting in San Francisco, California on Aug. 8-10, 2019. The scholarship will come in the form of a reimbursement.

The deadline has now passed for applications for the 2018-2019 scholarships. Applications for the 2019-2020 scholarships will be posted late 2019 early 2020.

Responsibilities
Following attendance at the ABA Midyear meeting, the scholarship recipient is required to attend a WYLC meeting (either in person or over the phone), to share what they learned that may be applicable to new and young lawyers in Washington state, and be prepared to answer questions from the WYLC. Additionally, scholarship recipients may also be asked to provide a written summary for new and young lawyers via the WSBA new lawyers list serve and/or the WSBA blog, NWSidebar. The scholarship recipient is also encouraged to attend plenary and closing sessions and at least one block of programming on each day.

Requirements to Apply

  1. Applicants must be a current member or become a member of the ABA YLD.
  2. Applicants must be considered a "Young Lawyer" as defined in section XII of the WSBA Bylaws at the time of the selection. The WSBA considers an active member a "Young Lawyer" if at least one of the two criteria below is met:
  • the member has been admitted to practice for fewer than five years (in any state), or
  • the member is under 36 years of age.

Selection Process

The WYLC ABA Subcommittee has authority over who will be awarded a scholarship. All applicants will be notified via email about whether they were selected as a scholarship recipient prior to the ABA meetings. Contact newmembers@wsba.org for questions.


Please view the right-hand side of this page for the scholarship application.