Faculty Advisers
The Highline Legal Studies Department has three full-time faculty members. Highline also brings in a variety of practicing attorneys and paralegals to teach select courses part time.
Departmental faculty offices are located in the Higher Education Building, Building 29.
Full Time Faculty
Che Dawson
Ché Dawson began teaching in the Legal Studies Department at Highline College in the Fall of 2003. He has taught a variety of the required legal courses including Introduction to Law, Civil Procedures, Legal Research and Writing, and Ethics. Che’ has also been the faculty member responsible for students performing their required internship credits.
Che’ began teaching courses cross listed with the Diversity and Globalism Department in the Spring of 2005. The first course he developed was Immigration Law and The Rights of Non-citizens, a subject consistent with Che’s area of legal practice. Che’ has also developed courses in Sports Law and Constitutional Law. Che’ also teaches Criminal Law and Procedure, Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice. Che’ was awarded tenure in the spring of 2008.
Che’ came to Highline after practicing law in a variety of areas of civil law and immigration with Karr Tuttle Campbell, a downtown Seattle Law firm. Che’ maintains a Senior Attorney role with Ogden Murphy Wallace.
Che is also the Highline College Men’s Basketball Coach . He and his wife Kelly live in West Seattle.
Bruce Lamb
Bruce Lamb is a lawyer and teacher, who likes to assist nonprofit organizations. He teaches legal research and writing, nonprofit law, civil procedure, medical law and ethics, civil rights law and other courses. For more than twenty years he was a partner in a civil litigation firm and tried cases in state and federal court. As a volunteer attorney for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, he represents immigrants and refugees in immigration court. He has served as staff and on the boards of directors of International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia and other nonprofit organizations, and has served as a nonprofit consultant on a wide variety of projects. He has a J.D. from the University of Oregon and an MPA from the University of Washington. He is licensed to practice in Oregon and Washington.
Kevin Rainge
Experienced Senior Legal Counsel with a demonstrated history of working in the IT, insurance and health care industries. Skilled in Privacy, Artificial Intelligence, Employment Law, Legal Compliance, Contracts, Governmental Affairs, and Commercial Litigation. Kevin has over ten years experience at Highline College teaching Introduction to Law, Business, Law, Employment Law, and other legal studies courses.
Part Time Faculty
Sylvia Hall
Sylvia Hall has over 15 years of civil litigation experience. She has represented insurance companies and individuals in a wide array of trial and appellate court matters, including the defense of claims involving personal injury, premises liability, product liability and construction defects. Sylvia has experience in both state and federal trial courts in Washington State. She has successfully tried cases to defense verdicts and has successfully defended cases in the Courts of Appeal.
Ellen Reed
Ellen Reed has spent most of her career providing legal aid to low-income people in King County as a paralegal and program coordinator with the Neighborhood Legal Clinics, the Housing Justice Project, and the Washington State Bar Association. She was appointed to the original Limited License Legal Technician Board and later was the Limited License Legal Technician Program Lead at the Washington State Bar Association. As Ellen worked on innovative regulatory solutions to the access to justice crisis, she began studying the ways technology could help connect people to legal services. Ellen and a lawyer/programmer named Jacob Wicks created an organization called inForm Legal Tech that focuses on promoting innovation in access to justice through technology. She is currently working on creating new court and public safety technology with Tyler Technologies and completing a master’s in the Human-Centered Design and Engineering program at the University of Washington’s School of Engineering. Ellen is a member of the Access to Justice Board’s Technology Committee, volunteers with the Court Recovery Task Force, and is the chair of the Access to Justice Conference Technology Committee. She is also working with community organizations and a partner at the University of Washington to create interactive visualization tools for people navigating the domestic violence protection order process.
JD Smith
J.D. Smith of Mercer Island, Washington is a veteran trial lawyer who has 27 years of experience. working with paralegals. J.D. has tried over 60 civil jury trials to verdict and completed over 100 arbitrations. J.D. is a former member of the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates and a former President of the Washington State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. J.D. has also taught legal courses at the University of Washington School of Law.