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Governor Gregoire Appoints Bruce Heller to King County Superior Court

For Immediate Release: September 19, 2007

OLYMPIA � Governor Chris Gregoire today announced the appointment of Bruce Heller of Seattle to the King County Superior Court. He will fill the newly created 52nd judge position, which will be effective October 1.

�Bruce Heller has an extensive background as a litigator, both in civil and criminal cases, and has worked on a wide range of issues, which will make him a well-rounded judge who will serve the people of King County well,� said Governor Gregoire.

Heller, 57, is a partner at the law firm Garvey Schubert Barer in Seattle, where his focus is labor and employment law. In addition to his litigation practice, Heller negotiates collective bargaining agreements, conducts workplace investigations and advises clients on a wide variety of legal compliance issues. As a labor lawyer, Heller has represented employers, employees and labor unions. He also has been a public defender and tried numerous criminal cases.

As an appellate lawyer, Heller has appeared before the Washington Supreme Court, the Washington Court of Appeals, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Alaska Supreme Court. Washington Law and Politics magazine has named him a �Super Lawyer� for four consecutive years. He is an arbitrator for the King County Superior Court and has served as a mediator in civil cases.

Heller is the chair of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission and a volunteer attorney representing Court Appointed Special Advocates in dependency hearings. He has received the Pro Bono Publico Commendation from the Washington State Bar Association. Heller was a commissioner on the Seattle Human Rights Commission, where he was the chair of the appeals committee, and a citizen member of the Seattle City Council WTO Accountability Review Panel. He served as a volunteer attorney for the King County Bar Association�s community legal services program and was on the board of the Center for Human Services in Shoreline.

Heller received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with distinction, from Stanford University, and his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California Berkeley�s Boalt Hall School of Law, where he was an associate editor of the Industrial Relations Law Journal. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable James M. Fitzgerald, United States District Court in Anchorage, Alaska.

Heller, who has two daughters, resides in Seattle with his wife, Deborah.