WA: de facto public defender - commitment for the underdog

From the Columbian:

Firm Defense

Vancouver lawyer Jeff Barrar says he does criminal defense because he's "an Irish kid from Boston who doesn't trust the cops." His smile suggests he's kidding. It's hard to tell. What's clear is Barrar, the owner of Vancouver Defenders, seems as savvy about free-market capitalism as he is about the rights of the criminally accused...

His firm, an anomaly in a community of solo practitioners, has grown in six years to 17 attorneys, including himself, and he'd like to expand. He has $1.4 million worth of government contracts to represent nearly all of the low-income people charged with misdemeanors in Clark County District Court and 20 percent of the people who are charged with felony crimes in Clark County Superior Court.

In short, Barrar, 52, is building an unofficial public defender's office in a county unwilling to pay for one...