Access to Justice Board outlines new mission, centers lived experience in talk with Bar governors

At a Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors meeting, Mike Chin, chair of the Access to Justice Board, presented the board's revised mission and vision and outlined steps to bring lived-experience community members into decision-making. Chin said the board's vision is "The Access to Justice Board envisions a future where justice is accessible and is achieved through equity, healing, belonging, and community centered solutions, fostering a society where all can thrive."

Chin told governors the board undertook a year-long process to "reset" its mission and broaden its focus from primarily economic justice to include racial justice and community-centered approaches. He said the board's work builds on its 1994 founding by order of the Washington State Supreme Court and long-standing support from the Washington State Bar Association.

The presentation described five pillars that will guide ATJ's priorities this year: aligning vision and strategy, catalyzing systemic change, building capacity, fostering culture shifts and prioritizing community-centered solutions. Chin and other ATJ members said those pillars will shape how the board allocates limited staff time and resources.

A central topic was ATJ's effort to include "lived-experience" members on the board: nonlawyer community members who represent populations most affected by the legal system. Several lived-experience members and ATJ appointees said the board now provides stipends and specific policies to reduce financial and logistical barriers to participation. "We implemented lived-experience stipends for members representing most impacted communities," a lived-experience member said, and ATJ members described additional supports to make participation meaningful rather than tokenistic.

Governors pressed ATJ on evaluation and prioritization. One asked whether ATJ had conducted research on the impact of community advisory input; ATJ members said they had not commissioned formal studies but rely on extensive community engagement, on-the-road listening sessions (for example in Clark County) and iterative feedback to shape policy recommendations. Governor Chris Brown and others raised the challenge of prioritizing diverse needs (homelessness, immigration-related legal needs, rural access); ATJ members said outreach events and local engagement help identify common priorities.

Several governors and board leaders urged practical measures to increase access, citing examples such as rule changes to allow emeritus attorneys to serve pro bono without dues and expanding remote appearances to reduce barriers. Nick Larson, who chairs the ATJ rules committee, said modest rule adjustments and better public information can increase the supply of volunteer lawyers and lower procedural obstacles for unrepresented litigants.

As a next step, board leadership introduced a justice-gap scoping work group, a joint effort between ATJ and the Board of Governors to draft a scoping charter, review existing literature and inventory state and local efforts. The session recessed at 10:30 a.m. for a short break; the work group and the charter were presented as the forum for more detailed follow-up and for answering questions about metrics, funding and concrete actions.

The presentation and discussion closed with repeated emphasis that inclusion of community voices must be sustained and accompanied by follow-up: ATJ members said they pass community findings to the Supreme Court and other decision-makers and plan to continue on-the-road events and partnerships with the Board of Governors' DEI council to translate input into policy and practice.