Meet the 2024 candidates for Washington State Supreme Court Position #2: Sal Mungia (2024)

Edi­tor’s Note: This is the first install­ment in a series look­ing at the 2024 can­di­dates for Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court, Posi­tion #2. Four can­di­dates have stepped for­ward to seek the non­par­ti­san office this year, one of nine seats on the state’s high­est court, which are cho­sen by vot­ers for six-year terms. Only two of the four will advance past the August 6th Top Two elec­tion to the Novem­ber gen­er­al election.

This year, Wash­ing­ton vot­ers have the rare respon­si­bil­i­ty of fill­ing an open seat on the state Supreme Court, owing to the retire­ment of long­time Jus­tice Susan Owens, a wide­ly respect­ed jurist. An unusu­al­ly large field of four can­di­dates has emerged to com­pete for the seat Owens has held for decades, which means the results of this sum­mer’s August Top Two elec­tion will be make or break for half of the hopefuls.

Today, we’re launch­ing a spe­cial Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate series that will help Wash­ing­to­ni­ans get to know these Posi­tion #2 can­di­dates. This install­ment pro­vides an intro­duc­tion to Sal Mungia, an expe­ri­enced tri­al and appel­late lawyer.

In an inter­view with the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute on April 29th, Mungia said he believes his per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence demon­stratehis deep com­mit­ment to jus­tice, improv­ing access to legal aid, and fight­ing for sys­temic reform.

Mungia’s jour­ney to becom­ing a lawyer was shaped by his expe­ri­ences wit­ness­ing his par­ents, immi­grants from Mex­i­co and Japan, face mis­treat­ment and discrimination.

As a sec­ond grad­er, hewas inspired by the por­tray­al of lawyers defend­ing oth­ers on the show “Per­ry Mason,” inspir­ing his com­mit­mentto becom­ing a lawyer so that he could be a voice and an advo­cate for those who could­n’t speak for them­selves. This com­mit­ment has remained stead­fast through­out his career and is reflect­ed in his com­mit­ment to doing pro bono work and as a coop­er­at­ing attor­ney with the ACLU. Notably, he has rep­re­sent­ed incar­cer­at­ed indi­vid­u­als in law­suits address­ing issues such as over­crowd­ing and lack of health­care, as well as detainees fight­ing for their First Amend­ment rights.

While serv­ing on the Gates Advi­so­ry Board at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Law School, Mungia advo­cat­ed for fund­ing civ­il legal aid and the impor­tance of pro bonowork.

Herecalled being spo­ken to by two lawyers who had hap­pened to be sit­ting by him one day: “One of them said, ‘Sal, you don’t know me, and there’s no rea­son for you to know me, you won’t remem­ber. But I remem­ber that you came into the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Law School when I was in law school and you start­ed talk­ing about how we, as a pro­fes­sion, have to give back, how we have to pro­vide fund­ing for civ­il legal aid and how we have to do pro bono work… I remem­ber turn­ing to my friend and say­ing, ‘that’s the kind of lawyer I want to be.’’ I mean, when he told me that sto­ry I thought, wow. It real­ly brings tears to my eyes, to have that kind of impact.”

In 1986, Mungia joined the law firm of Gor­don Thomas Hon­ey­well in Taco­ma, where he has since dis­tin­guished him­self as a tri­al and appel­late attor­ney, rep­re­sent­ing indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es in civ­il law­suits in state and fed­er­alcourt.

His years of prac­tice have earned him recog­ni­tion for his excep­tion­al tri­al skills, legal knowl­edge, and high eth­i­cal standards.

He has been named a Best Lawyer in mul­ti­ple fields of prac­tice by Best Lawyers in Amer­i­ca, received the Mar­tin­dale-Hubbell AV Pre­em­i­nent Rat­ing, and is a mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Board of Tri­al Advo­cates and the Lit­i­ga­tion Coun­sel of America.

Mungia has also served as pres­i­dent of the Wash­ing­ton State Bar Asso­ci­a­tion, the Taco­ma-Pierce Coun­ty Bar Asso­ci­a­tion, and the West­ern States Bar Con­fer­ence; chaired the Wash­ing­ton Access to Jus­tice Board and the Equal Jus­tice Coali­tion, demon­strat­ing his com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty to those who have been denied legal ser­vices; and has shown excep­tion­al com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ty involvement.

His efforts have gone beyond sim­ply improv­ing the jus­tice sys­tem and his pro bono legal work; he is an active and engaged mem­ber of his com­mu­ni­ty, with a par­tic­u­lar pas­sion for improv­ing access to edu­ca­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ties for children.

To date, he says his cam­paign for the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court has received a very pos­i­tive recep­tion, gar­ner­ing numer­ous cred­i­ble endorsem*nts.

Endorse­ments have come from com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers, elect­ed offi­cials, and promi­nent legal fig­ures, includ­ing Wash­ing­ton Supreme Court Chief Jus­tice Steve González and Wash­ing­ton Supreme Court Jus­tice MaryYu.

“We got an ear­ly start to get­ting our struc­ture set up, so that in Jan­u­ary of this year we could hit the ground run­ning,” Mungia said. “By Jan­u­ary, I had about six of the nine jus­tices endors­ing me. And this was huge, these were the peo­ple doing the job now and say­ing: ‘Sal is the per­son we would like to see on the courtmost.’”

Eight of the nine sit­ting jus­tices are now sup­port­ing his campaign.

Mungia approach­es his com­mit­ment to his cam­paign as he has with the rest of his work: with the intent of increas­ing access to the legal sys­tem and cre­at­ing spaces for mar­gin­al­ized voic­es to be heard and advo­cat­edfor.

“[Improv­ing access to jus­tice] is why I became a lawyer,” Mungia said.

“When I was Pres­i­dent of the Wash­ing­ton State Bar Asso­ci­a­tion I went around and told lawyers and law stu­dents that that is the essence of what we are as a legal pro­fes­sion: mak­ing sure that oth­ers have access to the sys­tem who can’t afford lawyers. The Microsofts, the Boe­ings, the Cost­cos, they will always have lawyers, they will have lawyers lined up to rep­re­sent them because they pay them a lot of mon­ey. But the reg­u­lar, work­ing class per­son does not. Unless we step up to the plate, they’re not going to have access to the jus­tice system.”

When asked about the lega­cy he hopes to have as a Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court Jus­tice, Mungia returned to the best com­pli­ment that he had received as a lawyer: “My dream, my goal, my hope, is that both lawyers and judges one day look back and think of me and say: ‘that’s the kind of per­son I want to be.’ That’s why I’m doingthis.”

Mungia’s sup­port­ers say he is a per­son with a deep ded­i­ca­tion to jus­tice and improv­ing access, legal exper­tise, humil­i­ty, and a pas­sion for mak­ing a pos­i­tive impact on his com­mu­ni­ty. They believe his qual­i­fi­ca­tions and tem­pera­ment make him the best can­di­date to take over the seat cur­rent­ly held by Owens when she retires ear­ly nextyear.