WSBA Governance: The Board of Governors is the governing body of the WSBA that determines the general policies of the Bar and approves its budget each year. The Board moves the Bar forward with an eye toward its long-standing mission, guiding principles, and short-term strategic goals. The Board consists of the president and members elected from each congressional district and at-large. The president-elect and immediate past president are WSBA officers.
Francis A. Adewale
President
2025-2026
Francis A. Adewale is the 2025-2026 WSBA president. He was elected to the Board of Governors in 2021 and elected by the Board as treasurer in 2022 and president-elect in 2024. Adewale is one of the attorneys who helped establish Spokane Community Court, and his commitment to community and movement lawyering is epitomized by his work on several community-based boards and activities in Eastern Washington. Adewale is former chair of the Access to Justice Board (ATJ) and a former member of the Washington Supreme Court’s Interpreter and Language Access Commission. He is currently a board member of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), board president of Multi-Ethnic Business Association-AHANA, and an adjunct faculty member of both Whitworth University and Gonzaga University School of Law. He is a founding member of the Washington Statewide Reentry Council, having been reappointed three times by former Gov. Jay Inslee. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Spokane City Credit Union, Adewale and his wife also own and run a small business in Spokane.
LEARN MORE > Read a Q&A with President Adewale here.
Sunitha Anjilvel
Immediate Past-President
2025-2026
Sunitha Anjilvel served as the 2024-2025 WSBA president. She joined the Board of Governors as District 1 governor in 2019, was reelected to the Board in 2021, and was elected by the Board as president-elect in 2023. She has practiced family law and estate planning in the Pacific Northwest since 2008. Since her first admission to practice law in 1990, Anjilvel has practiced in a variety of courts in Canada, California, and Washington in family law, criminal law, and civil litigation. In 2005, she served as director of a bipartisan campaign to support a redistricting reform initiative on California’s statewide ballot. She is committed to social justice and served as chair and member of the WSBA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council for three years running, and served on the board of Domestic Relations Attorneys of Washington (DRAW). Anjilvel has also volunteered for the Kinship Care Project and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. She has a B.A. from McGill University and a J.D. from Dalhousie Law School. She is licensed to practice law in Washington and California.
Kari Petrasek
President-Elect
2025-2026
District 2 Governor
2025-2028
Kari Petrasek was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022 and reelected in 2025. She served as 2024-2025 WSBA treasurer and was elected by the Board as 2025-2026 president-elect. She is a graduate of Seattle University School of Law. She is a solo attorney, having started her own firm, Petrasek Law, in Mukilteo in January 2015. She is a civil litigator with significant experience in the areas of juvenile law, guardianships, estate planning, elder law, and family law. Petrasek is a dedicated advocate for children, having served as a volunteer and attorney guardian ad litem for dependent children. She has been a Snohomish County CASA Program attorney for over 15 years. In addition, Petrasek has served as a judge and commissioner pro tempore for Snohomish County Superior Court since 2010. She is a past-chair of the WSBA Solo & Small Practice Section, the treasurer of Washington Women Lawyers, a past-president and past-treasurer of the Snohomish County Bar Association, and a leader in the ABA GPSolo and Judicial Divisions. In her free time, Petrasek enjoys skiing, golfing, football, and baseball.
Parvin Price
District 1 Governor
2024-2027
Parvin Price was elected to the Board of Governors in 2024. At 15, in a small rural town, he decided to become a lawyer. Following college at the University of Evansville and law school at the University of Louisville, he was admitted to the Indiana State Bar Association. He began his legal career with state government, first as a deputy attorney general and then as the director of a state agency. At 35, he opened a solo practice. At 39, he was invited to join a midsize firm to build a practice group focused on utilities. At 64, he was invited to join a large firm, Barnes & Thornburg, where his practice continued to focus on litigation, funding, and permitting for various utilities. During his private practice years, Price was involved in numerous community activities including, among others, being elected as a member and president of his local school board. In 2021, he became a member of the Washington Bar with the sponsorship of his oldest daughter. In 2022, he was appointed to the WSBA’s Pro Bono and Public Service Committee (PBPSC). In 2023, he was appointed co-chair of the PBPSC. Price and his wife of 50 years are residents of Bothell.
Allison Widney
District 3 Governor
2023-2026
Allison Widney was elected to the Board of Governors in 2023. She graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in 2011. Before that, she earned a criminal justice bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University. After law school, she worked as a public defender in Clark County. In 2017, she moved into civil law and currently works as a civil defense attorney. Widney grew up in Yakima. She enjoys running, her dogs, and traveling.
Mary M. Rathbone
District 4 Governor
2024-2027
Mary M. Rathbone was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022 and reelected in 2024. She is a partner at Moberg Law Group, P.S. She has a B.A. in business administration from Washington State University, with an emphasis in international business. She obtained her license to practice law through the APR 6 Law Clerk Program. For the last 14 years, she has worked primarily in civil defense litigation. When she is not at the office, she can be found balancing ballet, piano, karate, and baseball with her two children.
Emily Arneson
District 5 Governor
2024-2027
Emily K. Arneson was appointed to the Board of Governors in 2024. She is a privacy attorney and public administration professional with extensive experience working with state and local government agencies on a variety of matters, including data privacy, civil rights compliance, legislative analysis, public records, and stakeholder relations. A proud graduate of Whitman College, Arneson earned her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law and her master’s degree in public administration from Eastern Washington University. Arneson contributes her time and leadership to organizations including the Spokane County Bar Association (fmr. president), Inland Empire Legal Aid (president), and the Spokane Chapter of Washington Women Lawyers (fmr. president). She is honored to have received the Washington Young Lawyers Committee Public Service & Leadership Award (2016), Spokane Journal of Business Rising Stars (2018), Inland Business Catalyst Magazine Top 20 under 40 Award (2017), and the WSBA’s APEX Outstanding Young Lawyer Award (2017).
Todd A. Bloom
District 6 Governor
2023-2026
Todd A. Bloom was elected to the Board of Governors in 2023. He is a sole practitioner with over two decades of experience in providing professional services to private and publicly held companies, high-net-worth families, executives, and private business owners. Bloom’s prior experience includes over a decade as a tax attorney and senior manager in Big Four accounting, as well as in-house counsel. Recalled to the Navy after 9/11 and having served over a decade, Bloom retired as a Lieutenant Commander in 2018. Bloom earned his B.A. from Simpson College. He received M.B.A. and J.D. degrees from Tulane University, an M.A. from the Naval War College, an LL.M. from the University of Washington, and a diploma from the College of Naval Command and Staff. Originally from the Midwest, Cmdr. and Mrs. Bloom and their two sons came to the Pacific Northwest by way of New Orleans, Louisiana, where Bloom was first admitted to the Bar.
Matthew Dresden
District 7-North Governor
2023-2026
Matthew Dresden was elected to the Board of Governors in 2020 and reelected in 2023. He is a solo practitioner at Dresden Law PLLC in Seattle, where he handles a wide range of corporate and transactional matters, with an emphasis on media and entertainment, international intellectual property, and cross-border work. Before attending law school, Dresden worked in Hollywood for several years as an independent filmmaker. Dresden served on the Executive Committee of the WSBA International Practice Section for eight years, including a term as chair. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he teaches a clinic on legal issues for independent filmmakers. He served as a law clerk in the Southern District of Texas for U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jeff Bohm. He has a B.A. from Stanford University, a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and LL.M.s from New York University and the National University of Singapore.
Alain Villeneuve
District 7-South Governor
2024-2027
Alain Villeneuve was elected to the Board of Governors in 2024. He is senior vice president and general counsel at TRX, where he has spent more than a decade as the company’s lead intellectual property prosecutor, litigator, and enforcer. He has practiced law for more than 20 years and taught international IP law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Villeneuve is admitted in both state and federal courts of Washington and Illinois, before the U.K. Law Society as U.K. solicitor, and with the U.S. Patent Office and the U.K. Trademark Office. Before his pivot to law, he was a mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineer. Villeneuve has a bachelor’s degree from Polytechnique of Montréal and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law. He is a dedicated runner and cyclist, winning the triathlon gold at the 2009 OutGames, silver medal in the 3,000-mile Race Across America road cycling race, and the Abbott World Marathon Majors 6-marathon medal. He authors the six-book sci-fi series The Attractor on Amazon.
Kristina Larry
District 8 Governor
2023-2026
Kristina Larry was elected to the Board of Governors in 2023. She is a true solo with her firm Sassy Litigations where she practices trademark, small business, cybersecurity, and data privacy law. She also created the legal sub-brands The PreNup Princess and the Seattle Wedding Lawyer. Larry is a former lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law. For 10 years she was a volunteer with the King County Bar Association’s Housing Justice Project. From 2015 to 2019, she served as a trustee of the Washington State Bar Foundation and from 2019 to 2021 she served as president. She also served on the Executive Committee of the WSBA Solo & Small Practice Section for eight years and was a member of the Practice of Law Board. In 2018, she was named as one of the 40 Under 40 by South Sound Business magazine. Larry completed her undergraduate work at the University of Wyoming and earned her J.D. at the HBCU Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
Kevin Fay
District 9 Governor
2025-2028
Kevin Fay was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022. Prior to serving on the Board, he served on the Executive Committee of the WSBA Corporate Counsel Section, the Washington Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Washington Chapter of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. He retired after decades of service as in-house counsel for VMware, Inc., PACCAR Inc, and Microsoft Corporation. Prior to going in-house, he was in private practice at Mudge Rose and Shearman & Sterling in New York City, and Bogle & Gates in Seattle. Originally from Seattle, he earned undergraduate degrees in political science and history from the University of Washington, a J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. When not governing, he plays clarinet in the Port Townsend and Port Angeles Symphonies, saxophone in the Washington Wind Symphony and the MachOne Jazz Orchestra, and spectacularly poor golf on courses throughout Western Washington.
Nam Nguyen
District 10 Governor
2025-2028
Nam Nguyen was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022 and reelected in 2025. He was also elected by the Board to serve as 2025-2026 WSBA treasurer. Nguyen was an assistant attorney general in the Revenue and Finance Division in Tumwater. Prior to the Attorney General’s Office, Nguyen worked in private practice in Bellevue and Houston, Texas. Immediately after law school, he volunteered in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, for AmeriCorps’ BP oil spill relief program. Aside from the WSBA, Nguyen serves on the board and as treasurer for the Judicial Institute, an organization that provides a comprehensive clinic, other introductory programs, and mentors to develop the skills and connections necessary to seek appointment or election to the bench. Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and grew up in the South Seattle area. He graduated from the University of Washington and Boston University School of Law, and he has a master’s degree in foreign policy from the University of Michigan. Nguyen resides in Tumwater and enjoys running, reading, cooking, and spending time with his dog, Dog Vader.
Christopher Takashi Bhang
At-Large Governor
2025-2028
Christopher Takashi Bhang was appointed to the Board of Governors in early 2025 as an at-large member, filling a late-term vacancy, and reelected for a three-year term in June 2025. Bhang started his legal career as an immigration attorney, providing low and pro bono services thanks to a grant from Seattle University School of Law’s incubator program. He currently works for King County Metro, leading civil rights programs in service to Metro’s 6,000 employees and millions of customers and riders. Previously, he was a full-time community volunteer, high school science teacher, bass guitar player, and a student volunteer at the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality. He is a graduate of the University of Washington (B.S. in Microbiology), Eastern University (M.A. in Community Development), and Seattle University (J.D., cum laude). He loves speculative fiction, puzzles, and lives in Renton with his wife and son.
Jordan L. Couch
At-Large Governor
2024-2027
Jordan L. Couch was elected to the Board of Governors in 2021 and reelected in 2024 to represent new and young lawyers in an at-large position. Couch is a partner at Palace Law, practicing workers’ compensation and personal injury. In his spare time, he is an avid outdoorsman—probably stemming from his childhood spent between an island in Alaska and the Bighorn River valley in Montana. Prior to joining the Board of Governors, Couch served as a trustee for the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association, chair of the Access to Justice Board’s Technology Committee, and chair of the Washington Young Lawyers Committee (WYLC), and has held various leadership roles on the WSBA Solo & Small Practice Section’s Executive Committee. Couch is passionate about increasing access to justice by helping lawyers build better, more client-centric practices, and never gets tired of talking about how to improve our profession (or fishing).
Tom Ahearne
At-Large Governor
2023-2026
Tom Ahearne chose this photo of himself because it illustrates why inclusion is so personally important to him. An Air Force brat who grew up all across our country, he has been a Seattle litigator since 1986. He admits that for most of his life he didn’t know what it was like to feel like the outsider in a group, or discriminated against, or excluded. But a 2014 accident reversed his perspective by imprisoning him in the wheelchair from which he now sees and feels that aloneness, inequity, and exclusion every day. So he ran for a diversity/equity/inclusion seat on the WSBA Board of Governors to focus on the WSBA’s equity and justice for all efforts, because he believes that we’re all better off if every person has a realistic opportunity to become the best that they can be. His other activities have included serving on the boards of the NAACP Alaska/Oregon/Washington Conference, Washington Defense Trial Lawyers, King County Bar Association Appellate Section, and Washington Council of School Attorneys. His non‑work activities include using an arm-pedal tricycle in bicycle races like the Seattle‑To‑Portland STP, Mount Rainier RAMROD, Mt. Baker Hill Climb, and Ride‑the‑Hurricane. His ultimate goal is to be a sheep instead of a goat. (Matthew 25:31-46).