Special Assistant Attorney General wins open government award

OLYMPIA…Attorney General Rob McKenna is proud to announce the Washington Coalition for Open Government has awarded its Key Award to Greg Overstreet, special assistant attorney general for government accountability for the Attorney General’s Office.

The Washington Coalition for Open Government represents individuals and organizations intent on preserving and protecting Washington’s open government laws and practices.  In the spirit of that mission, the Key Award recognizes Overstreet for his efforts to ensure government remains open to the public.  Overstreet was honored at the National Freedom of Information Coalition’s conference last Friday at the Waterfront Marriott in Seattle.

Promoting government accountability by encouraging open access to government remains an ongoing priority of the Office of the Attorney General.   As part of this priority, Overstreet drafted the Public Disclosure Act model rules in early 2006.  The model rules were eventually adopted and published in the Washington Administrative Code.  The model rules help agencies and requestors successfully apply our state’s open public records law by providing practical solutions to recurring public records issues.

“Greg is one of the state’s foremost public records experts and we are very proud of the work that he has done for the attorney general’s office,” McKenna said. “By acting as a liaison between governments and requestors, he helps make government more transparent and accountable.”

Overstreet joined the AG’s Office in January 2005. Prior to that, he was an attorney in the Olympia office of the Seattle-based law firm of Perkins Coie where he practiced public records act and regulatory litigation. In private practice, Overstreet represented mostly business-community trade associations but also represented the Senate and House of Representatives on specific matters. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Washington State Bar Association’s 21-chapter Public Records Act Deskbook published in September 2006.

Overstreet graduated from the University of Puget Sound School of Law. While at UPS, he served as an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. He earned an undergraduate degree in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Washington. Overstreet is currently a Thurston County District Court judge pro tem (part-time).

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                                Janelle Guthrie, Communications Director, (360) 586-0725