Seattle Jewish Legal Professionals Honored for Upholding Justice and Community Values
Written by Ben Berman, June 17, 2025
The Cardozo Society, the Federation’s affinity group for legal professionals and the Washington State Bar Association’s official minority bar for Jewish attorneys, recently hosted its annual L’Dor V’Dor Award ceremony, this year recognizing a distinguished group of Jewish prosecutors for their remarkable contributions to both the legal field and the Jewish community.
The L’Dor V’Dor Award, meaning “from generation to generation,” annually celebrates a Jewish legal professional who embody the Cardozo Society’s mission. Named after Jewish American U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo, the national society aims to showcase the distinct impact the legal field can have in enriching Jewish life, fostering meaningful engagement and professional growth, and providing service that benefits both the Jewish and broader communities. It offers learning and networking opportunities, including Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses that explore legal topics through a Jewish lens.
Beginning the ceremony, Solly Kane, President & CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, highlighted the close ties between the work of the Cardozo Society’s legal professional and essential tenets from Judaism.
“I recognize that so many of the people in this room are the ones working every day to stand up and speak out against antisemitism, and, at the same time, uphold justice through the work that many of you engage in,” he said. “You are living out the central biblical tenant of justice, justice shall you pursue.”
“This year’s group is especially significant because it honors the fundamental core principle of justice—or tzedek—from the Torah,” said Jenna Goltermann, the Cardozo Society’s co-chair. “Justice, for Jews, is not just a nebulous concept, but a call to action. The prosecutors honored do that every day. They are committed to bringing justice for victims of crime, but also to ensuring that justice is meted out fairly and equitably.”
This year’s L’Dor V’Dor recipients are a testament to the dedication and ethical leadership found within the Jewish legal community:
Dan Clark, Chief Deputy for the Mainstream Criminal Division at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, has been with the office since 1996, serving in various capacities from trial lawyer to supervisor.
Gabrielle Charlton, Chair of the Felony Competency and Forensic Mental Health Unit at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, handles complex cases involving mental illness and legal competency. She also co-chairs the KCPAO Jewish affinity group and serves as Board President of Temple Beth Am.
Amy Freedheim, Chair of the Felony Traffic Unit at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, is a nationally recognized advocate for traffic safety with over 34 years of experience.
David Martin, Chair of the Domestic Violence Unit and Regional DV Firearm Enforcement Unit at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, has over 25 years of experience in domestic violence prosecution and firearms enforcement, and trains nationally and internationally.
Marc Mayo, Advisor to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission and former Seattle City Attorney, brings a career spanning public defense, legal advising, and 25 years as a prosecutor. He is also a longtime Hebrew school teacher, proud of his Sephardic heritage.
Rebecca Vasquez, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney III at the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, has been a prosecutor since 2000 and is recognized statewide for her expertise at the intersection of behavioral health and the criminal justice system.
Jennifer Ritchie, Chair of the Sexually Violent Predator Unit at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, leads her unit and has served for over two decades, also teaching at the University of Washington School of Law.
Dan Clark speaking at the L’Dor V’Dor Award ceremony.
Representing the L’Dor V’Dor award recipients alongside Gabrielle Charlton and Marc Mayo, Dan Clark reflected on the Jewish values drawn from his childhood and how they inform his work as a prosecutor today.
“[Prosecutors] are working towards a rightful outcome, one that is fair to the community and the victim, but we’re also required to ensure that each step of the process is fair and right as well. A guilty conviction built on forced confessions, withheld discovery, or corrupt practices is not right. It’s the difference between merely seeking what is right as an end goal, and doing what is right as a process,” he said.
“Just look at the other honorees here and the work they do every day. We mourn with families lost to traffic fatalities. We give voice to domestic violence victims. We protect our community from violent sexual predators. We craft holistic remedies for those suffering from mental illness, and we advocate for changes in the law.”
The evening also marked the debut of the Anshei Ma’aseh Award, presented to Justices Barbara Madsen and Mary Yu of the Washington State Supreme Court. This new accolade recognized their courageous decision to speak out against a 2024 article published in the King County Bar Association (KCBA) Bulletin titled “From the River to the Sea,” which many in the Jewish community found “deeply hurtful and harmful,” as described by Goltermann.
Goltermann explained that the silence from other groups following the article’s publication exacerbated the hurt felt by American Jews, the vast majority of whom have religious, ethnic, and historical connections to Israel. She emphasized the profound upliftment felt when five members of the Washington State Supreme Court chose to speak out. Their letters, dated February 14, 2024, were meant to uphold the universal virtues of respectful time, place, and tone, qualities deeply cherished by legal professionals, according to Justice Madsen.
“We need to be able to turn to the legal profession, to be above the fray and to remain professional, and to understand that without that professionalism and without the rule of law, we’re all lost. That was really what motivated Justice Yu and I to draft the letter and our colleagues to sign it,” Justice Madsen explained. “We believe firmly that lawyers are, hopefully, not the last bastion of freedom, but we feel sometimes we are, and we need to, as a profession, live up to that responsibility.”
Justices Mary Yu (middle left) and Barbara Madsen (middle right) accepting the Anshei Ma’aseh Award, pictured alongside Cardozo Society Co-Chairs Jenna Goltermann (left) and Aric Bomzstyk (right).
Goltermann emphasized that the collective impact of this year’s L’Dor V’Dor and Anshei Ma’aseh awardees, through their work pursuing justice on behalf of not only the Jewish community but for all of Greater Seattle, exemplifies the relevance and importance of the Cardozo Society’s work.
“We are, first and foremost, a place of community,” she said. “We are a place Jewish practitioners can gather to learn, socialize, and further their ties to Jewish life in Seattle. We strive to live the value of tikkun olam and recognize the immense privilege we have in serving our clients, both Jewish and not.”
Looking to the year ahead, Goltermann hopes to see the Cardozo Society expand opportunities for engagement and connection, such as more ways to gather—whether through CLEs, community events like a Passover Luncheon, or purely social happy hours.
“We are our strongest when we are together, and I think we could all use a little more strength right now,” she added.
Concluding the awardee’s remarks, Clark reflected on the ongoing mission of the Cardozo Society and its members’ efforts to cultivate the next generation of Jewish legal leaders.
“In 2025, it is clear that now, maybe more than ever, we need good people, a collection of mensches in positions of authority who can use their Jewish morals to make thoughtful decisions and influence those around them to do the same,” Clark said. “Righteousness is not a policy or even a mission statement, but a culture, and culture needs to be cultivated carefully and deliberately. We are doing that in our offices to teach the next generation and the one after that that they need to rely on the very Jewish values of compassion, humanity and ethics on every case, every day.”
The Cardozo Society is the official Washington State Bar Association minority bar for Jewish lawyers and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s affinity group for legal professionals. The Cardozo Society is open to Jewish attorneys and law students, free of charge. Named after the distinguished U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo, the society offers learning and networking opportunities for legal professionals. Opportunities include Continuing Legal Education courses that explore legal topics through a Jewish lens.
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