The Washington Young Lawyers Committee honors two local leaders
BY AARON HAYNES
The Washington Young Lawyers Committee (WYLC) recently asked the legal community to nominate new or young lawyers who are dedicated to serving their communities for its annual Public Service and Leadership Award. The WYLC selected award recipients with a history of exemplary leadership and commitment to public service.
For each nominee, the committee weighed the following factors:
- leadership and service in the local community or within a bar association;
- mentoring;
- involvement in the WSBA, American Bar Association, and/or local bar association activities; and
- volunteer work with pro bono or public service programs.
The committee balanced the factors in light of the award’s goal of highlighting the exceptional public service work of new or young lawyers across Washington.
Within this framework—and after deliberating over the nominees—the committee selected Danielle Dallas and Angélica María González to receive the 2023 Public Service and Leadership Award.
Danielle Dallas
Danielle Dallas is a staff attorney at TeamChild in Spokane. She also provides outreach services at Camp Hope in Spokane and regularly volunteers at Crosswalk, a shelter for homeless and runaway youth, and the Youth Crisis Residential Center.
Since graduating from law school in 2022, Dallas has worked tirelessly as an advocate for homeless and unaccompanied youth as a staff attorney for TeamChild. She has helped youth abandoned in hospitals, counseled them through minor guardianships, assisted them in securing housing and Social Security benefits, and served as their advocate in emancipation proceedings. In the words of her nominator, “Danielle is a fierce attorney for trans youth. She does it all: gender marker changes, name changes, and … legal safe placement solutions. She is … saving lives [and] many trans youth have come from hospitals or the streets into safe and stable living options because of her.”
Angélica María González
Angélica María González is an associate at Lane Powell in Seattle. She currently serves on the Board for the Children’s Campaign Fund and is Region 16 president (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Washington) for the Hispanic National Bar Association. She also serves as the vice president of development for the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington.
González is an exemplary community leader. She has a history of pro bono work for women and children and recently completed a term as co-chair for the Legal Foundation of Washington’s Associates Campaign for Equal Justice. Beyond her volunteer work, González is a dedicated mentor. She has spent countless hours helping guide law students through their bar studies, job applications, and interviews. Her nominators praised her for giving them “hope for a new generation of lawyers who genuinely care about the legal community.”
Putting Others First
Danielle Dallas and Angélica María González have shown a strong public service ethic and a track record of responding to the needs of their community. The WSBA is fortunate to have such inspiring members.
LEARN MORE > For additional information about the Public Service and Leadership Award, or to learn about ways to volunteer with a pro bono or public service program, please visit www.wsba.org.
About the author
Aaron Haynes is an associate at CSD Attorneys at Law in Bellingham and chair of the Washington Young Lawyers Committee. He can be reached at: