Chapter 18

• Jurisdiction: United States

Chapter 18 National College of District Attorneys

Houston

In 1978, I had a speaking engagement in New Orleans, and, while there, the Dean of the National College of District Attorneys invited me to interview for the job of Director of Training for the College. The College at that time was housed in Houston, Texas. They flew me from New Orleans to Houston, and I met with Dean John Jay Douglass and Associate Dean Robert Fertitta for a couple of hours, and then I went to the airport and flew back to Seattle.

The job of Director of Training appealed to me for several reasons. By this point in my career, I had been with the King County Prosecutor's Office for many more years than was normal at the time for lawyers to stay. When I started in the office, the expectation was that a deputy prosecutor would be there for a couple years and then move on to private practice or elsewhere. Today, the frame of mind is quite different; lawyers join the office with plans to serve there for a full career.

Another reason that the job offer was appealing was because I had tried cases ranging from driving-while-intoxicated to death penalty cases. Also, I was a senior deputy prosecutor, but did not expect that I would ever advance beyond that position. My outlook at the time was that working in the prosecutor's office was never going to be a career.

Most of all, the idea of being the Director of Training and designing and conducting continuing legal...