Retiring doesn't mean slowing down

When Bob Boruchowitz retires this month, public defense in King County will never be quite the same.

The only consolation for those who know him is that Boruchowitz, the longtime director of the largest and oldest of the county's four public-defense agencies, isn't headed to Arizona with a golf bag and season tickets to the opera.

Instead, the man many credit with transforming the practice of public defense in Washington will be working even harder to fight injustice and correct wrongs.

Boruchowitz, who steps down Friday after 33 years at The Defender Association — 28 as the head of the organization — will leave behind 120 employees and 11,000 clients for Seattle University's law school. He plans to teach and develop a Defender Institute, where he and students can study and address issues such as defense standards and people's right to have a lawyer.

It will be somewhat of a luxury for Boruchowitz, 58, who has already spent decades researching and advocating legal-defense issues while balancing bloated caseloads, begging for funding, inspiring young defense attorneys to work long hours for less-than-stellar pay and trying to keep his paper-covered desk from sinking through the floor under the weight of so many demands.

The mess is legendary in local circles: Beneath a collection of Native American artwork, stacks of papers climb past window ledges and balance precariously on Boruchowitz's sprawling desk. Friends remark on how organized the lawyer is despite the apparent chaos.

The list of Boruchowitz's projects and accomplishments is dizzying: He began The Defender Association's Racial Disparity Project; oversaw the establishment of TeamChild with Columbia Legal Services; led a management team in negotiating the first collective-bargaining agreement for public defenders in the county; helped develop state and national public-defender standards; served as president of the Washington Defender Association for 20 years and served on dozens of other local and national committees and boards; and argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, just to name a few.

Yet even after so many years and so many issues, his energy and enthusiasm haven't waned, say friends and colleagues.

"He's a bulldog, an extremely tenacious advocate. He never lets go," said King County Superior Court Judge Jim Doerty, who once worked alongside Boruchowitz at the agency, which receives contracts from King County to defend the many people who cannot afford a private attorney for felony, misdemeanor, juvenile, family-advocacy, civil-commitment and appeals cases.

"In terms of sheer stamina, it's just been incredible," said Christie Hedman, who now heads the Washington Defender Association that Boruchowitz helped found.

Its establishment brought financial and political recognition to issues of public defense and helped improve the resources at defense attorneys' disposal — which in turn helped strengthen the quality of the legal system as a whole, Hedman said.

"Public defense, in general, has not been a valued component in the criminal-justice system, and trying to get money for services for poor people accused of crimes is never a popular thing. But it's important for public defenders to be well-trained, because they protect people's rights," she said. "I'm really sad to see him leave, but I do have a long laundry list of things I want him to work on next."

That Boruchowitz is still enthused about public defense is no small feat. While prosecutors often have vast public support for the work they do, defense attorneys often are reviled. They are sometimes the only ones who seem to care about the welfare of their clients — accused murderers, rapists, car thieves — and their position can be unpopular.

Throw in not just basic defense but larger advocacy for defendants' and criminals' rights, and folks like Boruchowitz are not always the star of the cocktail party.

George Finkle, an arbitrator/mediator who worked at The Defender Association for five years and served part of that time as the deputy director, recalls one case he worked on that had the potential to become a lightning rod aimed at the heart of King County government.

Finkle wanted to represent in federal court pretrial inmates who had complained about the conditions in the old King County Jail — things like poor medical and dental care, unsanitary conditions and improper treatment of the mentally ill. It was hard to find anyone sympathetic toward the living conditions of accused criminals, but Boruchowitz recognized the case as representing a larger issue of fairness and hungrily took it on, said Finkle.

"It had a political risk, it required resources, and he was committed," Finkle said.

In the end, the case spurred changes that resulted in construction of a new jail.

Even those on the other side of the table have come to admire and respect Boruchowitz.

"Of course we have a different viewpoint, but I respect him," said King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng. "He's seeking justice; he's concerned about the poor and the marginalized, and the people who get caught up in the system."

Success has often meant demanding more from the hand that feeds. The Defender Association — along with the county's three other nonprofit public-defense agencies — are paid with public funds and take on about 90 percent of indigent cases in the county. Boruchowitz has fought for years, often successfully, to lower caseloads for public defenders to match those of publicly funded prosecutors and to get higher salaries for defenders.

"The most experienced defenders still have salaries far below the most experienced prosecutors," Boruchowitz said. Juvenile-case defenders carry 350 cases a year, when the state standard — which he helped develop — is 200, he said.

Boruchowitz said he will keep working on that issue and many others, and he'll contract some work so that he doesn't stray too far from the courtroom. "I'm just going into the next phase," he said. "I'm leaving when things are good and strong. I didn't want to get dragged out of here on a stretcher."

Floris Mikkelsen, who has been deputy director of the agency since 2002, will replace Boruchowitz.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com