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Michele Shaw – President's Award
Michele has been practicing criminal law for over 35 years. After graduating from Gonzaga Law School in 1989, she worked in the King County Prosecutor’s Office for 6 years, then began a very rewarding career as criminal defense counsel. Michele has been very fortunate to work with some of the top attorneys in the criminal defense bar, including Mike Frost, David Allen, Tony Savage and John Wolfe. Each of these attorneys also took the time to mentor Michele for years while they practiced and gave her amazing opportunities. Michele has had a passion for working on cases involving all sorts of mental health presentations which often are the impetus for clients finding their way into the criminal justice system. Michele has fostered relationships with many outstanding treatment providers and experts in the community and strives to treat these clients with the utmost dignity and respect. Michele has been successful in working with the government and the State in treatment based resolutions. Michele feels extremely fortunate to have practiced among the dedicated and passionate group of defense attorneys in Washington State. WACDL is truly a force and the vibrant members encourage all of us daily. Having this community to rely on has truly been a gift.
Christopher Swaby – President’s Award
 Christopher Swaby is a known and respected leader across the state of Washington with more than three decades of litigation experience. Christopher began his career in 1990 as a staff attorney for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Christopher moved to eastern Washington in 2000, where he practiced on the felony defense panel in Benton County. He moved to the Seattle area and joined the Defender Association (TDA) as a staff attorney in the felony division and was later promoted to felony division supervisor. Christopher left TDA in 2012 and joined a small boutique criminal defense firm. In 2015, he left the firm to start a solo criminal defense practice. He has represented clients in matters in Benton, Cowlitz, Franklin, Grays Harbor, Island, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, San Juan, Snohomish, Spokane, Thurston and Yakima counties. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Georgetown University of Law Center. He is the co-chair of the WSBA Council on Public Defense, past president of the Washington Defender Association, and a member of the WSBA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.
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Mark Middaugh – President's Award
Mark Middaugh knew he wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer from the time he was 10 years old. Inspired by his father, a former King County Public Defender, he attended Stanford Law School, clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and then started working as a PD--first in Santa Clara County, then in Seattle. He's tried dozens of cases to verdict, including charges of homicide, rape, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Mark is also a seasoned appellate lawyer, having handled cases in the Washington Court of Appeals, the Washington Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Mark currently serves as the Chairman of the WACDL Amicus Committee. He is on the trial advocacy faculty of the University of Washington School of Law, and he regularly guest lectures at both UW and Gonzaga Law School on evidence, criminal procedure, and appellate advocacy. He also serves as a member of the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School. Mark graduated summa cum laude from Duke University. Prior to attending law school, he worked for several years as a congressional aide in Washington D.C. and earned a Master's Degree in Strategic Security Studies and Counter-Terrorism from the National Defense University.
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President's Awards are given to recognize distinguished service to the highest traditions of the criminal defense bar. This award may be given to recognize achievement in a particular case or series of related cases, or long-time service to the criminal defense bar. Up to three President’s Awards may be given each year.
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Jon Zulauf – William O. Douglas Award
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Jon Zulauf was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, grew up near Dayton, Ohio, attended Emory University in Atlanta and graduated from the University of Georgia Law School. In 1976, he moved to Seattle, where he met his wife, Octavia, while they studied together for the bar exam. In 1977, Irving Paul at the Associated Counsel for the Accused hired Jon to be a public defender, handed him dozens of files, and told him that his first five trials would begin on Friday. In 1983, Jon began a 20 year partnership with Larry Finegold, focusing on complex criminal investigations in State and Federal Courts. He has been lead counsel on more than a dozen homicide cases, represented a lawyer charged with “Racketeering" in Alaska, defended against land forfeitures in Hawaii, and was counsel for a co-defendant of Pablo Escobar in Jacksonville, Florida. Jon and Pete Mair represented a husband and wife in Federal Court in Seattle on 64 counts of conspiracy to commit tax fraud and won acquittals on all 64 counts. He also represented a mechanic who was investigated (but ultimately never charged) for causing an airline crash in California which killed 88 people. He represented several Seattle doctors in a multi-year investigation of Medicare Fraud, but no criminal charges were brought. When a pipeline exploded in Bellingham, Jon represented an employee who had been assigned the job of doing a safety inspection shortly before the explosion. After a lengthy Federal Investigation, charges were not filed against his client. Jon has been listed in "Best Lawyers in America" for more than 20 years in a row. His Pro Bono work includes representing a man convicted of child molestation in Wenatchee. Working with the Innocence Project, Jon filed a personal restraint petition alleging prosecutor and police misconduct. Jon was able to reverse the convictions and obtain his client's immediate release from prison. Jon also represented two of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. His clients were held by the U.S. government for more than 7 years without charges and without evidence that they were terrorists. Jon travelled to Cuba to meet his clients, then worked with Congressman Jim McDermott to secure their release. In 2016, Jon and Jennifer Smith founded the Seattle Clemency Project matching rehabilitated prisoners with lawyers to draft clemency petitions. As a volunteer lawyer, Jon has been lead counsel on nearly a dozen successful clemency petitions. In addition, he has coached Little League baseball, youth soccer and Rainier valley basketball teams and has been part of the Big Brother program, mentoring two young men. He has also been on the boards of Powerful Schools and Pratt Fine Arts. In 1998 he was chosen to be the President of WACDL.
The William O. Douglas Award is WACDL’s most esteemed award, and is normally given to recognize a pattern of extraordinary achievement, courage, and dedication in the practice of criminal law. Normally, only one Douglas Award is presented.
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Certificates of Appreciation
Each year, WACDL’s President selects recipients for Certificates of Appreciation in recognition of their outstanding contributions and dedicated service to the organization. These awards honor individuals who have gone above and beyond to support WACDL’s mission—whether through leadership, advocacy, education, or tireless behind-the-scenes efforts.
This year’s recipients include:
- Robin Emmans – For her dedicated board service and substantial work stepping into the role of legislative co-chair
- Jessica Fleming – For her dedicated board service and key contributions to WACDL’s legislative advocacy.
- Rachel Forde – For her lengthy and valued board service and her continued contributions to WACDL’s CLE programming.
- Sonja Hardenbrook – For her instrumental leadership concerning 71.09 (SVP) advocacy in Olympia.
- Greg Link – For his years of service on the Sentencing Guidelines Commission and steadfast support of defense-centered policy work.
- Brad Meryhew – For his long-standing work on the Sex Offense Policy Board, legislative advocacy, and a list-serve presence that spans multiple careers’ worth of advice.
- Kristen Murray – For her contributions as a CLE presenter and her work as the Annual Conference Co-Chair.
- Emma Scanlan – For her thoughtful leadership and coordination of the annual conference.
- Diego Vargas – For his enthusiastic volunteerism and leadership in building out WACDL’s legal resource library.
- Jennifer Wellman – For her role as CLE co-chair and her leadership in organizing the Annual Conference.
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