Washington Courts: Press Release Detail

Judge of the Year teaches teens, lawyers, foreign officials

Pierce County District Court Presiding Judge Jack Nevin has been named "Judge of the Year" by the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association.  He will be honored during the association’s Law Day dinner on May 1 at the Hilton Hotel in Seattle.

Nevin has worked to improve the justice systems in Central America, Africa and Europe, and works locally to educate young lawyers and high school students on the fundamentals of trials and the law.   He is being honored for his leadership in promoting the civil justice system and his work on behalf of the global community.

Also being honored May 1 are Washington Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland and Chief Judge John Schultheis of the Court of Appeals Division III, for their 20 years of service to the law.

Nevin is a graduate of Washington State University and Gonzaga University Law School. He served as an Army lawyer at Fort Lewis before joining the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office in 1984. He was appointed to the Pierce County District Court bench in 1997 and later was elected to the position.

Nevin traveled to El Salvador in 2002 to help establish a victim-witness assistance program, and was chosen by the United Nations in 2001 to serve on a detention review commission in Kosovo, where he also helped draft guidelines for the country’s first bar exam in 10 years. In 1999 and 2000, as an adjunct faculty member of the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies, Nevin traveled to Malawi in south central Africa to teach government officials about law and human rights, with an emphasis on women’s rights.

Nevin also teaches in the Judges in the Classroom program in local schools and teaches trial advocacy at the University of Puget Sound and Seattle University School of Law. He started a monthly trial practice program in his courtroom to teach young lawyers trial fundamentals, and teaches rules of evidence to new judges in the state as a State Judicial College faculty member.

Contact:  Judge Jack Nevin, Pierce County District Court 253-798-3314.

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