Robert A. Harvie Social Justice Lecture Series

Friday, November 16, 2007 at 4:00 p.m., Worthington Center

Sally Harrison, Director of the Thurston County Office of Assigned Counsel, will speak on indigent criminal defense. Admission to the lecture is free and open to the public.

Harrison has been an attorney for 30 years. A graduate of Suffolk University Law School, she began her career as an attorney for prisoners at Washington’s maximum security prison in Walla Walla. In 1991, she was hired by Thurston County as the director of a new county agency — the Office of Assigned Counsel. The office provides criminal defense representation to indigent people in Superior Court, District Court and Juvenile Court, and provides representation for mentally ill offenders in civil hearings and in Mental Health Court. Under Harrison’s direction, the Office of Assigned Counsel is currently establishing an in-house program for parents’ representation in dependency and termination cases at Family and Juvenile Court.

Harrison is past president of the Thurston County Bar Association. She helped lead the development of the Thurston County Drug Court program and remains an active supporter of that program. Harrison also participates on committees that impact the criminal justice system in Thurston County and manages grants provided by Washington State.