On March 9, 2025, Professor Emeritus David Boerner, a celebrated faculty member who faithfully served the law school and the legal profession with distinction during his long career, sadly passed away. A former prosecutor in addition to his career as a legal educator and scholar, he leaves an extraordinary legacy of significant contributions to the many students he taught and mentored over the years, our law school, legal education, and the practice of law during his career.
What follows is a collection of memories written by his former colleagues and students honoring the many ways in which Professor Boerner touched their lives.
To contribute your own remembrance of Professor Boerner, email 1-3 paragraphs with your name, title, and affiliation to: ProfBoernerMemories@seattleu.edu. This page will be continuously updated as your submissions are received.
Note: Submissions have been edited for clarity and length.
On March 9, 2025, Professor Emeritus David Boerner, a celebrated faculty member who faithfully served the law school and the legal profession with distinction during his long career, sadly passed away. A former prosecutor in addition to his career as a legal educator and scholar, he leaves an extraordinary legacy of significant contributions to the many students he taught and mentored over the years, our law school, legal education, and the practice of law during his career.
What follows is a collection of memories written by his former colleagues and students honoring the many ways in which Professor Boerner touched their lives.
To contribute your own remembrance of Professor Boerner, email 1-3 paragraphs with your name, title, and affiliation to: ProfBoernerMemories@seattleu.edu. This page will be continuously updated as your submissions are received.
Note: Submissions have been edited for clarity and length.
Janet Ainsworth
John D. Eshelman Professor of Law Emerita
In a world in which the word “unique” is often bandied about inappropriately, Dave truly was a unique colleague and friend who lived an incredibly full life. He grew up a Midwest city boy who decided as a child that someday he wanted to live on a farm like the idealized picture of a farm that his mother hung in their living room. Well, life intervened as he grew up, as it does for most of us, and he ended up going to law school, moving to Seattle, and becoming second in command at the King County Prosecutor’s office. One day, when his kids were in high school, he turned to Barb and said, “If we don’t buy a farm now, we probably never will.” So, they sold their Seattle home, bought a small farm and he and Barb raised vegetables and lambs. His days were almost certainly unique among law professors! One cold, wet miserable January day, he had spent the previous night stripped to the waist, his arm plunged up to the shoulder in a ewe that was having trouble delivering twin lambs. Once the ewe had successfully delivered, Dave showered, dressed in a suit, and drove to a Seattle Big Law firm where he was being deposed as a legal ethics expert in a case. Later that morning, he turned up at the law school to teach his administrative law class. Now tell me that isn’t unique!
Dave understood the critical importance of having a diverse group of attorneys in a prosecutor’s office. Back in the 1970’s, he encouraged Prosecutor Chris Bayley to start a special unit dealing with sexual assault and domestic violence cases and argued that women attorneys needed to play key roles in that unit, over the skepticism of some of the older trial lawyers in the office who wondered if women could be tough enough to handle such cases. As usual, Dave stuck by his values and was proven right, as that unit was often cited as a national model.
He was equally vocal in maintaining that a prosecutor’s office could not be effective in a racially diverse community without the experiences and perspectives of a racially diverse attorney staff. One of the stories he told in explaining how he came to that commitment was about a case where a young African American prosecutor was asking Dave to approve a reduction of a felony charge to two misdemeanors. (As Chief Criminal Deputy, Dave implemented a policy whereby all plea bargains had to be approved by the Chief Criminal Deputy so that like cases would be resolved consistently, without variations turning on who the assigned deputy prosecutor happened to be. He argued that racial disparity in sentencing was, in large part, a function of implicit racial bias, and having plea bargaining controlled by objective case-specific factors could mitigate that.) The case involved a young African American man with no prior criminal record who failed to pull over when a police officer turned on his lights and siren, but instead drove nearly a mile, over the speed limit at times and changing lanes twice before finally pulling over. The filing deputy filed it as ‘felony flight,’ but the assigned trial deputy wanted to offer a plea bargain to misdemeanor failing to stop when signaled and reckless driving. Dave turned to the prosecutor and said, “Well, to me it looks like the elements of felony flight are here, so how can you justify a reduction here?” “Dave,” the prosecutor began, “Have you ever seen the blue lights of a cop car behind you?” “Well, sure,” Dave replied. “Well, what goes through your mind when that happens?” “I think, oh, shoot—(story edited by me!), I’m gonna get a ticket!” “You know what goes through my head when that happens?” the young prosecutor replied. “If I don’t do everything exactly right, and maybe even if I do, I could get shot to death. Now, it takes a minute or two to realize that I should pull over, but honestly, that’s my first thought. And I think a lot of young Black men react that way too. So, it took this guy a minute or two to recognize that he needed to pull over right now. Isn’t a couple of misdemeanors a more appropriate consequence under the circumstances than a felony conviction?” Of course, Dave approved the plea bargain, but he told that story often, arguing that a prosector’s office cannot have legitimacy in the community without a staff that understands and respects the lived experiences of that community.
Dave was a dedicated teacher who understood the importance of respecting the lives our students were living, too. For example, if the public schools were closed and the university was not, he invited students with kids to bring them to class rather than miss class for childcare, and to sit with them in the back so that they could beat a hasty retreat if the child got bored or anxious. One day, he posited a hypothetical to his class, asking the class, “What would you do here?” and to his surprise a visiting elementary school boy raised his hand. As Dave told it, how could he not call on him? So he did, and the boy said, “I’d say I was sorry.” Dave turned to the class and said, “You know, that’s a response that we don’t think about as often as we should.” Another class attended by a student’s child resulted in this episode: it was an administrative law class, and even for ad law afficionados, the subject can be a trifle dry at times. And the class was set in a 90-minute block to boot. As Dave was wrapping up the class, he started “And finally, …” at which point the child said, audibly to the whole class, “Oh thank heavens!” to the delight of the students.
I learned so much about teaching from Dave over the years—he always said that teaching is not that different from what we do in jury trials—you need to read the room and see if what you are doing is boring, or confusing, or upsetting—and modulate your teaching to deal with the student response. He also encouraged me to use my practice background and experience in my scholarship and to engage more broadly in professional activities where I could make use of what I could bring to the table. He touched my life and the lives of so many here at Seattle University. Our law school would not be the place it is today had Dave Boerner not been a part of our community. We will miss him terribly but cherish his memory as a blessing.
Robert C. Boruchowitz
Professor from Practice
Director, The Defender Initiative
I worked with Dave when he was at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and I was a public defender. We tried one case against each other and did the appeal from it. He was a gracious and decent prosecutor who cared about justice. Once he left his prosecutor position and joined Seattle U Law’s faculty, he also helped support our office in our budget requests to the King County Council.
When I joined the faculty, Dave welcomed me and had helpful suggestions, including about my Holocaust class. While we differed on some major issues, we shared a commitment to fairness, and he was a strong example of a “progressive prosecutor.” He sought to minimize some of the harsh impact of “tough on crime” publicity. As many of the faculty know, Dave was a major factor in the development of the ARC program. He will be missed.
Dennis Burns ’95
I was a student of his in 1992, and I later became his friend. He was always a very happy man. Simply stated, I will always remember that he invited our class to come to his house on 7/04/92, and yes it did rain but it was still quite a nice day. He will be missed and never replaced.
Margaret Chon
Professor of Law
Donald and Lynda Horowitz Endowed Chair for the Pursuit of Justice
Faculty Co-Director, Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) Program
Dave approached me one day to ask whether we could co-teach a module from my book on the Japanese American incarceration.
I was surprised that he asked me to co-teach with him, because he was a much older retired prosecutor, and our book was critical of the federal prosecutors who had gone after the WWII resisters from the Japanese American community (such as Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Min Yasui).
My co-authors and I had designed the book so that different parts of it could be used in courses such as evidence or professional responsibility, in addition to the obvious subject of race and law or civil rights law. One of our goals was to generate discussions about prosecutorial ethics in these different classrooms. Dave must have taken a look at the book and understood what we were trying to do, so he asked me to teach a unit with him in his Professional Responsibility class.
I thought I already had a deep grasp of the timeline of events that led up to the Supreme Court cases. After all, I was the primary editor of the book and had gone over the numerous historical details in the litigation record multiple times before it was published.
But as Dave and I prepped together, he had an eagle (or perhaps a consummate prosecutor’s) eye for exact dates, times, and events, as well as a thorough understanding of the overall historical and social context for the judicial decisions. In other words, he was a master litigator who knew how to put complex facts together quickly, precisely, and effectively, to communicate to others (in this case, students, rather than jurors). He easily picked up on every little nuance that I had spent hours dissecting and analyzing in order to understand the cases. But he also didn’t treat legal analysis as an abstract exercise. And as Dave and I talked through the record, he demonstrated intellectual curiosity about the overall topic that almost none of my other colleagues at the law school had expressed to me directly (besides Lori Bannai). In other words, Dave was able to bridge easily across differences in backgrounds and politics in ways that are almost unimaginable these days.
The class went well. But in the end, what I will always remember is that he taught me as much as I taught him as we prepared the class together. He was an excellent and impressive lawyer.
Dave and I had our differences — some of which I won’t forget either — but I will always hold his memory in high regard. May he and his wife Barbara rest in peace.
Alexis M. DeLaCruz ’13
Education Attorney, Tulalip Office of Civil Legal Aid
I probably wouldn't be a lawyer today if it were not for the dream that Professor Boerner built at Seattle University School of Law, for it was a dream that envisioned opening doors to legal education to individuals like me. As a Latina, first generation college and now law school graduate, I take stock daily of the many, many lessons I learned that cloudy, drizzly summer I moved to Seattle from Denver to begin my journey to become a disability justice and civil rights lawyer. The ARC program that Professor Boerner dreamed of and built, with the support of many others including the illustrious Paula Lustbader, provided a safe place full of joy and humor and academic rigor for myself and my fellow students, many of whom had stories and histories and backgrounds and experiences just like me. I made some of the best friends I will ever have that summer, friendships that have been a bedrock for my personal and professional growth for over a decade now. But more than all of that, I think about my clients, the hundreds and hundreds of Indigenous people, people with disabilities, and children I have had the honor and privilege of serving over the years. I love being a lawyer and so did Professor Boerner. I cannot count how many times I have thought to myself, "Lawyering is a life serving others, and it's a life worth living." I will forever be grateful to Professor Boerner and the dream he built. Because of him, my dreams came true.
Paul Holland
Associate Dean for Experiential Learning
Associate Professor of Law
A literally towering figure, who was at the same time such a reassuring presence about what the law -and law school—could be.
Joleen Winther Hughes ’99
Founder and Principal, Hughes Media Law Group
You didn’t have to know Professor Boerner well to feel his presence. He carried a kind of quiet authority—someone you knew stood firmly on principle, but always with kindness and humility. I first met Dave in law school, where he was a formidable and respected figure, even though I never took a class from him. Over the years, I got to know him more personally through my dear friend Colleen and her husband Rich, his son. That deeper connection is what gave me the confidence to reach out when I found myself in a difficult ethical situation caused by a former law partner. Dave didn’t hesitate. He offered insight that was steady, clear, and generous. No judgment. No ego. Just calm guidance when I needed it most. It was a small act on his part, but it made a lasting impact on me. Sending love to Rich, Colleen, their family, and everyone feeling the weight of his loss. He will be deeply missed—but the way he showed up in the world will stick with many of us for a long time.
Juliet Jones-Vlasceanu ’96
CEO, Career Key
I was lucky to take Professor Boerner's Ethics and Administrative Law classes. He was funny, humble, and cheerful. He told stories that made an otherwise dry field of law into something relatable and interesting. He was fair, honorable and made me, as a 1L, feel like I could belong someday to the legal community. After graduation, I always sought out his Seattle U Law CLEs with Professor Strait, enjoying their light, tag team style.
I got to use what I learned from him about rulemaking, CFRs, and WACs in my government jobs with the AGO-Washington State Ferries and as the Legal Officer for the Washington State Patrol. Today, I use that administrative law foundation to sort through public sector EdTech requirements in disability accessibility, intellectual property and security. So, thanks to Professor Boerner, I'm not intimidated or bored, I'm just solving another puzzle! Sympathy and blessings to his family for his amazing and purpose-filled life that had a big impact on his students like me. Thank you for sharing him with us.
Alex Kwak ’00
Attorney, K Law Firm, Falls Church, Virginia
I was Professor Boerner's student in the criminal law class in 1997. Criminal law was my very first class at the law school. I did not do so well. I had doubts about my abilities as a law student. Although I was not particularly enthusiastic about the class, I loved the professor. His encouragement and kind words helped me believe that I could learn to become a lawyer. Every time I wear a plaid shirt and khaki pants, I think of Professor Boerner. At the end of the class, he invited the entire class to his farm. My daughter loved the lamb. I thank him for showing us you can be a farmer and a terrific lawyer at the same time.
Jeffrey Minneti
Assistant Dean for Academic Excellence and Bar Success and Associate Professor of Law
I only briefly met Professor Boerner in person when I first arrived at Seattle U Law in 2015. He impressed me with his kindness and his deep and abiding care for the students in the Academic Resource Center (ARC) Program. Since then, I have gotten to know Professor Boerner through the ARC students he taught, who speak in highest praise of his knowledge of criminal law, the academic expectations he held for them, and his kindness and generosity. What a remarkable impact he has had on those he taught and those he worked with! May his legacy endure in the Seattle U Law community!
William Oltman
Professor Emeritus
That's really very sad news. Dave was a towering figure in everything he did. It all just came naturally to him. I was fortunate to have worked with him closely on a number of projects including as expert witnesses in an action by the Washington state attorney general against an estate planning purveyor of revocable trusts. Dave did the PR issues and I did the estate planning. He had such a sharp mind and good sense of humor, as did Barb. They will both be missed.
Sarica Parton ’05
Associate General Counsel, Meta
Professor Boerner, you changed the life of so very many people, including me. Thank you for taking on this career of educating the future generation of lawyers. The impact of your life well lived will be felt for generations.
Ron Slye
Professor of Law
Dave was one of the first people I met on the faculty when I joined in the late 1990s. He was a calming and reassuring presence, both at the law school and in life in general. He had such a strong sense of professionalism and ethics, as others have noted. I am very sorry to hear of his passing, and of Barb as well. Two wonderful people who made the world a better place.
