Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Monday appointed Seattle litigator Theo Angelis to the state Supreme Court to replace outgoing Justice Barbara Madsen.
Angelis, 53, comes to the high court from law firm K&L Gates, where he worked with Ferguson more than 20 years ago, before the governor sought public office. The two teamed up on a case or two in that time, Ferguson said.
“It didn’t take long for me, at that time, working with Theo on those cases, to realize what a brilliant legal mind he had,” said Ferguson, the former state attorney general. “He has a heart that looks out for all the people in our state.”
Angelis is believed to be the first justice of Middle Eastern descent on the high court. He comes in with no judicial experience.
Both he and Ferguson acknowledged he has a steep learning curve ahead.
“I will work hard every day to be worthy of your example and the great reputation that this court has, and hopefully will continue to have,” Angelis said in the appointment ceremony at the Temple of Justice in Olympia.
Madsen announced her retirement last month, effective April 3. Her term expires in January 2029. Angelis will be up for election this year to serve the remainder of Madsen’s term. Incumbents usually sail to election in judicial races.
Madsen has been on the Supreme Court since 1993. She’s a trailblazer, having been the first woman to win election to the court. She was also the first to be picked to serve two terms as chief justice, from 2010 to 2017.
Angelis cited her work as chair of the state’s Gender and Justice Commission.
“The reforms you champion have made the courts better, fairer, more equal and more accessible,” he said.
The appointment is the latest development in a period of deep turnover on the nine-member state high court.
Angelis is Ferguson’s second appointment to the Supreme Court, after he tapped his former attorney general’s office colleague Colleen Melody to replace retiring Justice Mary Yu.
The court’s longest-serving current justice, Charles Johnson, is serving his final year on the court, as he turns 75 this year. The state constitution requires justices to retire at the end of the calendar year in which they reach that age. Johnson has been on the court since 1991.
His seat is up for election this year. Multiple candidates have filed to replace him. Justices serve six-year terms.
Earlier this year, Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis announced she wouldn’t seek reelection after serving on the court since 2020. Montoya-Lewis is the first Native American elected statewide in Washington’s history. Her seat is also open for election this fall.
Chief Justice Debra Stephens said the ongoing overhaul is a “sad time for me losing some colleagues who I’ve served with my entire career.”
“And also an exciting time in the life of the court,” she added.
The new justice
Angelis, a partner at K&L Gates, has degrees from Claremont McKenna College, the London School of Economics, Oxford University and Yale Law School. He clerked on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals before joining the Seattle firm.
At K&L Gates, he focuses on intellectual property litigation, with experience representing companies from the United States and Asia.
Ferguson emphasized Angelis’ pro bono work representing immigrants seeking asylum. He has also challenged the federal government’s practice of requiring children to represent themselves in immigration court if they couldn’t afford a lawyer.
Angelis noted his father immigrated alone to the United States from Greece at age 15. He became a Greek Orthodox priest. And his mother’s parents were refugees from Turkey.
“The two of them together raised me to value the importance of hard work,” Angelis said, “and to always have the fundamental knowledge and that we have responsibility to feed the hungry, to help the homeless, to care for the sick and to visit and to have compassion for those who are incarcerated.”
Ferguson said he thinks courts are best when they are made up of judges “that have a range of backgrounds,” including coming in without experience on the bench.
The court is tasked with, among other things, interpreting state laws.
Attention on the justices will be high as they likely consider the fate of the Democrats’ proposal for an income tax on households earning over $1 million. To uphold the proposal, which is likely to pass the Legislature this week, the court would need to overturn its nearly century-old precedent that says a state tax on income is unconstitutional.
Ferguson said this issue didn’t come up in the appointment process, adding that “it’s just not really appropriate” to quiz applicants on how they’d rule in potential future cases.
The process was made easier by Ferguson already having a crop of candidates from the Melody appointment. Five options from that appointment were interviewed again for the position that eventually went to Angelis, along with five additional candidates, Ferguson said. The only prerequisite for prospective justices is that they’re admitted to practice law in Washington.
The Democratic governor said he looked for a candidate who “isn’t just a good lawyer; isn’t just a great lawyer.”
“I’m looking for people who are exceptional,” Ferguson said. “Because the challenges facing our state, and the complexities of the cases that come to the Supreme Court are, by definition, complex and extremely challenging.”
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