Dear friends and neighbors, The 2021 legislative session started this week under circumstances unlike any in our state’s history. Our legislative buildings in Olympia were surrounded by security fencing. Hundreds of personnel from the Washington National Guard and State Patrol stood guard. Like most Americans, I’m deeply disturbed by the hateful violence and intimidation we saw in our nation’s capital and threats to our democracy here at home. Despite these challenges, our institutions have been resilient and at the end of a long week, I’m hopeful that our country can heal and find unity in the weeks, months, and years to come.
About Jamie
Jamie Pedersen grew up in Puyallup, graduated from Puyallup High School and worked at McDonald’s to help put himself through Yale College, where he studied Russian and history, and graduated summa cum laude. After spending a year living in Russia and collecting oral histories of Soviet Afghan war veterans, Jamie attended Yale Law School. He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then returned to Seattle – and Capitol Hill – in 1995. He practiced corporate law at Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates) for 17 years. Since May 2012, he has been Vice President and General Counsel at McKinstry, a Seattle-based construction and engineering firm with substantial expertise in green building.
Read Pedersen’s full biography here.
