Perkins Coie Receives Volunteer Law Firm of the Year Award from the Eastside Legal Assistance Program

Perkins Coie received the first annual Volunteer Law Firm of the Year award from the Eastside Legal Assistance Program (ELAP), a non-profit organization providing free or low-cost, high quality civil legal services to low-income residents of East and Northeast King County, Washington and domestic violence legal aid throughout King County, Washington. The award was given in recognition of our firm's establishment of a pro bono program to represent ELAP clients, specifically domestic violence victims. In particular, after working on one case for more than a year, Seattle associates Ashley Locke and Nicole Sporer successfully represented a domestic violence victim in King County Superior Court through which the court granted the client full and sole custody over her children, limited the abusive ex-husband's contact with the children and required him to pay substantial child support. Joe Silvernale and Sue Bilger assisted Nicole and Ashley with trial preparations. Nicole and Ashley accepted the award on behalf of the firm on May 5, 2011, at the ELAP "Breakfast for Justice" at the Bellevue Hyatt Hotel.