By ELAP intern Annika Hauer
When Judge Catherine Shaffer retired after 23 years as a King County Superior Court judge, she wasn’t planning to take on other work. However, when the current presidential administration took office, she said, “I started looking into getting involved as a volunteer attorney.”
She connected with ELAP’s pro bono program and began volunteering in the family law clinics.
Shaffer spends a couple hours each month in an ELAP clinic, meeting with clients individually over Zoom. She brings decades of experience working with domestic violence survivors.
She’s heard a lot, she said. “It’s not that hard to talk to folks about what’s happening to them because if you know about the subject, you can be direct and supportive.”
In addition to the monthly clinics, Shaffer takes on one longer-term case at a time, specifically for domestic violence survivors who have cases in the family law system. Her current pro bono case is set for trial in January.
“There’s not a lot of support anywhere for people who are being victimized,” Shaffer said. “I think a lot of people don’t pick up on what’s happening, even with folks that are close to them, and they tend to accept easy things like minimizations and denials, because that way they don’t have to get involved or feel too concerned, or they can blame the victim.”
Much of this minimization and victim-blaming comes from legal professionals themselves, Shaffer said, and it’s disappointing. Shaffer volunteered as a sexual assault advocate in law school, and she’s been involved in domestic violence cases since.
“It’s fun to be working with people (like the staff at ELAP) who really get domestic violence… Most of them are younger than me, and it’s easy to fall back into a little bit of a mentoring role, though I’m also being mentored by (them), people who are more current and have been doing this more consistently than I have,” Shaffer said. “And it’s really rewarding to work with clients. They’re so grateful.”
By giving her time as a volunteer attorney, Shaffer helps ELAP serve vulnerable community members—and urges others to step up alongside her.
“ELAP screens cases carefully,” Shaffer said. “The folks that they need attorneys for are incredibly deserving of legal help. It’s not that huge a commitment of time to do the work, and it’s very effective in terms of helping someone who really needs and deserves help.”
