Our History
Our History
The WA Medical-Legal Partnership began in 2008 with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. After three years of start-up funds, the community came together to ensure the Washington Medical-Legal Partnership continued. Supporters included the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, foundations, law firms, and generous individual donors. Relying on grant funding was not sustainable long term, the need was great. It was at this time that Seattle Children’s Hospital and Harborview Medical Center invested in MLP to insure it continued and that it became fully integrated into healthcare.
Legal services are provided by Northwest Justice Project (NJP), Washington State’s largest publicly funded legal aid program. Alongside its healthcare collaborators, NJP invests in the partnership to keep it going – and growing! The commitment of these three entities has allowed Washington Medical-Legal Partnership to grow from one attorney and a part-time legal assistant to multiple attorneys, legal assistants, and a program coordinator.
”MLP exists because many people realized the need in healthcare for legal advocacy – that people’s health depends on laws, policies, regulations, and justice. It took an enormous village to start MLP. Core founders, both people and organizations, had a vision to work upstream and make generational changes. They knew we could do better and then worked really, really hard to make it so.“
Annette Quayle, MLP’s former Co-Director, MLP’s 10th Anniversary Celebration (2018), shared with permission
”MLP exists because many people realized the need in healthcare for legal advocacy – that people’s health depends on laws, policies, regulations, and justice. It took an enormous village to start MLP. Core founders, both people and organizations, had a vision to work upstream and make generational changes. They knew we could do better and then worked really, really hard to make it so.“
Annette Quayle, MLP’s former Co-Director, MLP’s 10th Anniversary Celebration (2018), shared with permission
In addition to the Founding Partners listed below, the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT) was key to launching MLP. DWT contributed the time and essential skills of partner Mary Steele who was instrumental in organizing MLP startup efforts. Mary became the Chair of the MLP Advisory Board and contributed her leadership skills for many years. DWT has also generously supported MLP since it began.
MLP’s Founding Partners
Harborview Medical Center
“Having an attorney in our back pocket makes a huge difference because we can ask questions about the social circumstances under which our kids and their families are living, and we can actually act on the answers. This makes everybody’s job easier because social determinants of health are the elephant in the room in a clinic like ours where people don’t have the resources, time or wherewithal to advocate for themselves. While we’ve always known at some level that these factors are influencing health outcomes, we have not always been able to do anything about them. With MLP, we can recognize them, ask the right questions and begin to address them.”
Dr. Brian Johnston, Founding Partner of MLP
“Having an attorney in our back pocket makes a huge difference because we can ask questions about the social circumstances under which our kids and their families are living, and we can actually act on the answers. This makes everybody’s job easier because social determinants of health are the elephant in the room in a clinic like ours where people don’t have the resources, time or wherewithal to advocate for themselves. While we’ve always known at some level that these factors are influencing health outcomes, we have not always been able to do anything about them. With MLP, we can recognize them, ask the right questions and begin to address them.”
Dr. Brian Johnston, Founding Partner of MLP
Northwest Justice Project
“Patients go to see their doctor once a year, not their attorney. The fact that we connect these two areas – law and medicine – creates a critical link for patients who don’t know how to access legal help. It’s a natural connection that results in healthier people.”
Scott Crain, Founding Partner of MLP
“Patients go to see their doctor once a year, not their attorney. The fact that we connect these two areas – law and medicine – creates a critical link for patients who don’t know how to access legal help. It’s a natural connection that results in healthier people.”
Scott Crain, Founding Partner of MLP
Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic
“I have learned a whole set of pragmatic advocacy skills through MLP. I now know how to write an effective letter to a landlord and how to speak to people who are in a position of decision-making in organizations and state agencies. It’s really important because providers spend a lot of time doing paperwork and coordinating care, and that limits the amount of face-to-face time we spend with patients. There is no single program I can think of that better imbues the skills and the mindset and the tangible resources of advocacy than MLP.”
Dr. Ben Danielson, Founding Partner of MLP
“I have learned a whole set of pragmatic advocacy skills through MLP. I now know how to write an effective letter to a landlord and how to speak to people who are in a position of decision-making in organizations and state agencies. It’s really important because providers spend a lot of time doing paperwork and coordinating care, and that limits the amount of face-to-face time we spend with patients. There is no single program I can think of that better imbues the skills and the mindset and the tangible resources of advocacy than MLP.”
Dr. Ben Danielson, Founding Partner of MLP
Seattle Children’s
“From the beginning of developing an MLP in the northwest we have been strategic about the need to build a solid and successful infrastructure with critical partnerships that could enable us to build on and expand services. This vision has served us well. We have successfully branched out to serve adults as well as children, and continue to magnify our reach throughout the state.”
Carol Jenkins, Founding Partner of MLP
“From the beginning of developing an MLP in the northwest we have been strategic about the need to build a solid and successful infrastructure with critical partnerships that could enable us to build on and expand services. This vision has served us well. We have successfully branched out to serve adults as well as children, and continue to magnify our reach throughout the state.”
Carol Jenkins, Founding Partner of MLP
“Our mission is to promote better health outcomes by addressing the legal and social needs of patients and families.”
Pro Bono
The Washington Medical-Legal Partnership’s goal is to extend its reach to patients and families who may otherwise have no access to the legal system.
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