LexisNexis Practice Guide: Washington Trial and Post-Trial Civil Procedure

Judge John Erlick is a retired King County Superior Court judge. Judge Erlick is a panelist at Judicial Dispute Resolution (JdR) in Seattle, Washington serving as a mediator, arbitrator, special master, and hearings officer. He was trial court judge for nearly 20 years. He served for several terms on the Court’s Executive Committee and as Chief Civil Judge and presided over civil, criminal and juvenile cases during his tenure on the court. He served as a judicial and Executive Committee member on the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, was a member of the Superior Court Judges’ Association (SCJA) Education Committee, Mentorship Committee, and Scholarship Committee and served as chair of the SCJA Ethics Committee from 2005–2014. He is President Emeritus of the William L. Dwyer Inn of Court. Judge Erlick was the Dean of the Washington State Judicial College in 2014–15.

Judge Erlick is dedicated to the training and teaching of judges and law professionals in legal ethics. Since 2007, he has been an adjunct professor in professional responsibility and the judicial externship program at Seattle University School of Law, where he received the Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award in 2011. Judge Erlick graduated from the international law training program at the Center for International Legal Studies (CILS), in Salzburg, Austria, has served as a Visiting Professor at the Far Eastern Federal University, in Vladivostok, Russia, at the University of Szczecin Law School in Szczecin, Poland, Master of International Law Program, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, and was a member of the Academic Committee of the International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT). He has also been involved as a coach and instructor in countless mock trial and moot court competitions. In addition to authoring numerous articles on professionalism and ethics, Judge Erlick has also lectured on these and other topics at judicial conferences, bar association meetings, and law schools, and is the consulting editor for Washington Trial and Post-Trial Civil Procedure (Lexis-Nexis.) Judge Erlick previously was the SCJA appointee to the State’s Ethics Advisory Committee and also served as the chair of the King County Superior Court Ex Parte and Probate Committee, and on the Jury Committee, Governance Committee and King County Bench/Bar Efficiencies Task Force. Prior to his election in 2000, he was in private practice, concentrating on defense of professional liability cases. Judge Erlick graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts with honors and from the Georgetown University Law Center with honors. He is a graduate of the National Judicial College general jurisdiction program. Among the many awards and recognitions that Judge Erlick has received are: Volunteer of the Year, Harvard Club of Seattle (2020); Outstanding Judge Award, King County Bar Association (2018); Judge of the Year, American Board of Trial Advocates, Washington Chapter (2017); and Washington State Association for Justice Judge of the Year (2020).

Vanessa Soriano Power is a litigation partner at Stoel Rives LLP in Seattle. She has a broad range of trial and appellate experience representing clients in state and federal courts as well as arbitration. Vanessa has experience in disputes involving commercial contracts, fiduciary duties, class actions, intellectual property rights, initiatives and referenda, employment, and environmental law.

Before joining Stoel Rives, Vanessa was an associate at Dorsey & Whitney LLP; an analyst with Washington State Senate Committee Services; and a clerk (for Commissioners) at the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division 1. Before law school, Vanessa was a Teach for America corps member in Oakland, California. Vanessa is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Law.