What’s
Happening?
OPD and WAP did not reach a new contract for FY27. Under the new contracting structure, WAP cannot remain financially viable and is at risk of closing.
Read the explainer →The Washington Appellate Project has spent more than 30 years providing exceptional, client-centered appellate representation. Now it is at risk of closing.
OPD and WAP did not reach a new contract for FY27. Under the new contracting structure, WAP cannot remain financially viable and is at risk of closing.
Read the explainer →WAP is essential to a fairer, more just Washington. Its work has changed our state’s laws, strengthened public defense, and supported defenders across the state.
Read the explainer →This is about what we want for the future of public defense in Washington — strong, client-centered public defense offices that perform at the highest level.
Read the explainer →Join defenders, scholars, community members, and allies in urging OPD to change course and keep WAP open.
Read the letter →The Full Explainer
A quick explainer for Washington public defenders
The Washington Appellate Project is at risk of closing. If that happens, Washington will lose its only nonprofit appellate public defense office, more than two dozen appellate defenders could lose their jobs, and decades of accumulated appellate expertise and institutional knowledge could disappear. WAP currently handles roughly 40% of Washington’s indigent appeals.
WAP has represented indigent people in Washington since 1994. It is a full public defense office—with experienced appellate attorneys, supervision, mentoring, support staff, collaboration, training, and institutional knowledge built over more than 30 years.
Its lawyers were essential to winning some of the most consequential Washington Supreme Court decisions affecting our clients, including State v. Gregory (ending Washington’s death penalty because it was imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner); State v. Monday (holding that racially charged prosecutorial arguments can deny a person a fair trial); and State v. Blake (striking down Washington’s felony drug-possession statute as unconstitutional). Those cases did not just affect WAP’s individual clients. They changed Washington law and affected thousands of people across the state.
OPD and WAP did not reach a new contract for FY27. OPD changed its appellate contracting and compensation structure. OPD says the changes are necessary to manage capacity, accountability, and limited public funds. WAP says it cannot remain financially viable as an institutional nonprofit public defense office under that structure. WDA has warned that the model threatens WAP’s continued existence.
Because this is also a fight about what we want public defense to look like in Washington.
The WAP model is what we should be trying to build and protect: strong, client-centered public defense offices where lawyers are supported by supervision, mentoring, staff, collaboration, training, and shared institutional knowledge—and where the goal is not simply moving cases, but providing the highest-quality representation possible.
Public defense offices across Washington are facing serious funding and capacity pressures. In that environment, we should be fighting to strengthen the institutions that allow defenders to do excellent, independent, client-centered work—not normalizing models that make those institutions harder to sustain.
If we accept the loss of WAP, we are making a statement about what we are willing to accept for the future of public defense.
We lose far more than one contractor. Experienced lawyers and staff disperse. Supervision, collaboration, training capacity, and decades of institutional knowledge go with them. Hundreds of pending cases may need new counsel, and the work would be pushed into an appellate system already struggling with capacity.
Change course. Reach a sustainable agreement that keeps WAP open as a nonprofit public defense office. Protect the kind of public defense institution we should be building across Washington—not dismantling.
Sign-On Letter
To the Washington State Office of Public Defense and OPD Advisory Committee:
We, the undersigned members of Washington’s public defense community, are asking OPD to change course and take the steps necessary to keep the Washington Appellate Project open as a viable nonprofit public defense office.
WAP is not just another contractor. It has represented indigent people in Washington since 1994, is the State’s only nonprofit appellate public defense office, and handles roughly 40 percent of Washington’s indigent appeals. Its lawyers were essential to winning some of the most consequential Washington Supreme Court decisions affecting our clients, including State v. Gregory, State v. Monday, and State v. Blake. Those cases changed Washington law and affected thousands of people across the state.
If WAP closes, Washington will lose far more than a contractor. More than two dozen appellate defenders could lose their jobs, hundreds of clients could face disruption, and decades of supervision, mentoring, collaboration, training, and institutional knowledge could disappear.
This is also about more than WAP. It is about what we want the future of public defense in Washington to look like. We should be building and protecting strong, client-centered public defense offices that support lawyers with supervision, staff, collaboration, and institutional expertise. At a time when public defense offices across the state are facing serious funding pressures, we should not normalize models that make those institutions harder to sustain.
OPD has legitimate responsibilities around funding, workload, and accountability. But those responsibilities do not require allowing WAP to disappear.
We are asking OPD to revise its position, reach a sustainable funding agreement with WAP, and preserve WAP as an institutional public defense office.
An institution like this should not disappear on OPD’s watch.
Change course. Keep WAP open.
Sincerely,
The undersigned members of Washington’s public defense community
Signing is now closed — this letter and its signers were delivered to OPD. See the update above.