Cortez Awarded Public Defense Contract

DAYTON – Rachel Cortez may be new to Columbia County and her profession in public defense, but she's determined, she loves her new home, and she's known for nearly 20 years that she wants to dedicate her life to just such a job.

Effective April 1, former public defender Dale Slack will join the Columbia County Prosecutor's office as deputy prosecutor. And although Cortez, who is 29, just arrived in Dayton as Slack's associate in January of last year – she will take Slack's place as the county's second public defense attorney.

"We are glad to have you on board because you're here and already working, which makes it easier on us," Columbia County Commissioner Dwight Robanske told Cortez last Wednesday, when the commissioners agreed to allow Cortez to pick up Slack's old contract with the county for indigent defense. "And we want you to stay. We want good attorneys in Columbia County."

Cortez has handled half of all the misdemeanor, or district court, cases in Columbia County for a little over a year. The job in Slack's law office was her first as an attorney and recent graduate of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan. She worked previously, as an intern, handling misdemeanor cases for a firm in King County.

Now she will also take a half-share of the felony, or superior court, cases. Julie Karl, the local defense attorney who worked for many years in the county prosecutor's office, handles the other half of the county's district and superior court indigent defense cases.

"I really like it here, and I really want to stay," Cortez said. She had a moment of fear when Slack said he was leaving his own firm to join the prosecutor's office. "I've never, in all of my dreams, in everything I've wanted to be, I've never, ever, ever wanted to run my own office. But the opportunity came around... It's a challenge, but I'm good at rolling with the changes and going with the challenges, so I'm confident I can make it happen."

Cortez is not experienced enough to legally take felony cases to trial, although she is just about qualified to handle Class C felonies. Irving Rosenberg, a veteran Walla Walla attorney, has promised to co-chair any felony trials with her, however, until she has enough under her belt to work them on her own. She can do everything involved in a felony case – paperwork, filings, court appearances, and any plea agreements – just not defend them in court on her own yet.

"I feel like I've been well prepared," Cortez said. "And the great thing is that I'm getting wonderful support from all the attorneys around me. They've all told me that I can ask them questions. They're not going to let me drown. They're not going to let me fail. So that is great."

The young attorney has other contracts aside from the one just approved in Columbia County. She handles court-appointed defense in nearly all the district court cases in College Place and has a portion of the district court cases in Walla Walla County.

Cortez, a Spokane native, comes from a long line of Washington State Patrol troopers and employees. Her father was a trooper, and both her parents have supported her fully in her pursuit of a law degree, despite her life-long dream of being a criminal defense attorney.

"I think they've remained hopeful that they'll convert me," she quipped. "But I want to be the rebel. I tell them it's job security. They arrest them, I release them; they arrest them, I release them. I don't understand their problem."

She has known she wanted to be an attorney since she was six and decided as a 7th grader to pursue criminal defense as a career, after watching an inspirational documentary about a female defense lawyer.

"I just always wanted to do public defense," she said. "I really never looked in any other area of law. This is what I've wanted to do. And I don't know what 6 year old knows they want to major in criminal justice, and I don't know what 7th grader knows they're going to be public defender, but that's what I did. And I stuck with that path."

Cortez took over the office at 303 E. Main Street in Dayton – now called the Law Office of Rachel Cortez – at the end of March. Slack's legal assistant, Marilyn Putney, has stayed on to work with Cortez.