In the final episode of this series of GBI Conversations, Anita Ramasastry, Senior Advisor to GBI discusses what commercial lawyers can do to support their companies to navigate mandatory human rights due diligence requirements in a meaningful and effective way, and shares insights on how to scale expertise among the legal profession to ensure companies can access high-quality advice and support.
Students in the law school’s Workers’ Rights Clinic joined Gov. Jay Inslee in Olympia on Thursday as he signed a bill aimed at helping low-wage workers in Washington recover from victimization by their employers.
University of Washington Law professor Ryan Calo has argued that dark patterns can result in three kinds of harm typologies: economic harm, privacy harm and vulnerability as autonomy harm.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has called a special session after state lawmakers were unable to reach a compromise on a drug bill during the last day of the recent legislative session. Hugh Spitzer, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
The issue of off-reservation hunting rights is a thorny one for tribal citizens in Wyoming, largely due to the state’s ongoing attempts to have a say in the treaty-protected rights of Indigenous hunters. Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is quoted.
Billionaire Elon Musk plans to compete with OpenAI, the ChatGPT developer he helped found, while calling out the potential harms of artificial intelligence. Ryan Calo, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
Washington state’s consumer privacy act also enables state judges to triple damages and legal fees resulting from such a lawsuit. “That is a significant risk,” says Jevan Hutson, a legal associate and data-privacy expert in Washington. “The penalties for noncompliance could be impactful.”
Prosecutors have filed charges for the murder of Leticia Martinez-Cosman, who was killed after attending a Mariners game in March. Mary Fan, professor of law at the UW, is interviewed.
Duplexes, fourplexes or sixplexes will soon be legal in nearly every neighborhood in nearly every city in Washington, after the state Legislature passed ambitious legislation last week overriding cities’ power to restrict land to single-family homes only. But the new rules will not apply to some of the state’s wealthiest neighborhoods — such as Broadmoor in Seattle and Innis Arden in Shoreline — which will be able to continue to be enclaves of single-family homes even as surrounding areas open up to new development. The UW's Hugh Spitzer, professor of law, and James Gregory, professor of history, are quoted.
An abortion pill remains on the market but the U.S. Supreme Court is set to make a ruling on the access to mifepristone Friday after an uncommon move to delay the decision. Jessica West, lecturer of law at the UW, is quoted.
In the summer of 2022, a partnership between Washington’s three law schools, Seattle University School of Law, ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, and Gonzaga University School of Law, and Heritage provided a 13-week course designed to make a law degree more accessible to Native American and Latinx students in central Washington.
Heritage partnered with three law schools in Washington, Seattle University, University of Washington and Gonzaga University, with a course to help minority students reach their dreams of law school.
Associate Teaching Professor Terry Price is quoted in the Seattle Times regarding whether a married minor in Washington can get a divorce.
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Professor William H. Rodgers, Jr. While the Pacific Northwest has had its heroes and pioneers in the environmental movement, few have been more consequential than Professor Bill Rodgers.
Washington’s K-12 school finance system remains broken just six years after an overhaul effort. And state education leaders have demonstrated a lack of urgency to address the fundamental problems.
Higher education is facing a pivotal moment as leaders reckon with U.S. News & World Report’s rankings and the outsize role they play in setting the agenda.
School districts are increasingly turning to the court system to address the negative impacts they see social media has on American kids. Across the country lawsuits are being filed against big tech companies for allegedly creating a toxic environment that’s harmful to kids in the name of profit. Ryan Calo, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
The only two dissenters in Quinn v. State didn’t stand a chance of persuading their centrist colleagues on the Court to invalidate the capital gains tax. After all, as University of Washington Law professor Hugh Spitzer explained 30 years ago, their arguments are bunk.
Seattle officials tell KUOW they’re considering a local tax on capital gains. This follows last month’s state Supreme Court ruling that a state tax on capital gains is constitutional. According to City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, it’s just one possibility for new sources of revenue in the coming years to fill a giant “revenue gap.” Scott Schumacher, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
"In his State of the Union Address, President Biden reminded us that Americans spend more on prescription drugs than any other major country. ... Fortunately, Washington has a nation-leading program, the Prescription Drug Assistance Foundation (PDAF), to assist individuals in obtaining prescription drugs at little or no cost," co-writes Thomas Tobin, affiliate instructor of law at the UW.
"As a 17-year-old kid, bring him to the police station and interrogate him for 14.5-14 hours," said David B. Owens, Wright's attorney. "At the end of the day, he signed a confession, we are done. And then he is criminally prosecuted and had a mandatory life sentence as a juvenile."
"The only evidence that ever existed against Mr. Wright was the statements that they said that he gave as a juvenile," said his attorney, David Owens, with The Exoneration Project. "There was no eyewitness. There is no forensic evidence. There's no bullet evidence. There's no nothing like that. It's just, 'Oh yeah, this kid after 15 hours of interrogation said this,' and that's all it was. So once we showed that the cops lacked reliability, that was part of it."
Wright was convicted on the sole basis of a confession he signed after a 14-hour interrogation during which he was abused and coerced by detectives, according to attorney David Owens.
Take a moment and think of what you feel when you hear the word "conflict." Does your heart beat a little faster? Do you get a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach? Mediators might feel this sometimes, but they can't avoid conflict because they work in it every day. They handle divorce proceedings, custody disputes, property damages, and other potentially very messy civil disputes. Christine Cimini, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
Over the phone, University of Washington law professor Hugh Spitzer, who filed a brief with the Court in defense of the capital gains tax, argued that a majority of the justices would likely overturn that old 1930s precedent and uphold an income tax if the Legislature or the people (via an initiative) enacted one. "But I think the Court is reluctant to assume the role of policymaker," he said.
