PDC leadership is comprised of 5 commissioners and the executive director. Members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate. No more than three members shall have an identification with the same political party. Commissioners are not full-time state employees. The Commission meets, usually in Olympia, on the fourth Thursday of each month, except during November and December, when a combined meeting is scheduled for the first or second week of December.
J Robert Leach - Chair
Commission term: June 2023-December 2027
Retired Snohomish County-based appeals court judge J. Robert Leach worked as an attorney in Washington state for more than 30 years before being appointed to the state Court of Appeals in Snohomish County by Governor Christine Gregoire.
While on the appeals court, he served on the Appellate Judge Education Committee, the Court of Appeals Executive Committee, the Judicial Information System Committee and the Court of Appeals Rules Committee. He retired in 2021 and is now a resident of Port Ludlow.
Leach graduated from the University of Washington in 1973 and the UW School of Law in 1976.
Douglass North - Member
Commission term: Dec. 2023 - Dec. 2026
North served as a King County Superior Court Judge from 2000 until his retirement in 2022. He continues to serve as a Pro Tempore judge in King County Superior Court.
He graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in 1974 and graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 1977. North started his career as a law clerk for Judge Keith Callow at the Washington State Court of Appeals.
North has been a member of the King County Superior Court’s Local Rules Committee, the Washington State Bar Association’s Rules Committee and the King County Bar’s Judiciary and Courts Committee.
Jim Oswald - Member
Commission term: April 2024 - December 2028
Jim Oswald graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1977 and spent much of his career as an attorney in private practice. He was appointed to the PDC effective April 1, 2024. Now retired, he lives in Union.
Nancy L. Isserlis - Member
Commission term: January 2020-December 2024
Commissioner Isserlis is a lawyer with Winston & Cashatt, where she focuses on insolvency, restructuring and commercial practice. She rejoined the firm in 2016 after serving four years as Spokane City Attorney. Isserlis has been in practice in Spokane since 1981. She served as the Regional Directing Attorney for Columbia Legal Services for five years and, more recently, as a board member for Pioneer Human Services and the Endowment for Equal Justice. She is a past member of the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors and past chair of the Spokane City Ethics Committee. Isserlis is well versed in campaign finance law and disclosure, having chaired or managed dozens of campaigns.
Peter Frey Lavallee - Executive Director
As Executive Director since June 2017, Peter has overseen a period of rapid growth and reform at the Public Disclosure Commission. He worked closely with the Legislature and Governor’s office to secure new resources and tools for the agency, modernizing its operations and fostering its mission to promote confidence in the political process. Prior to joining the PDC, Peter served as Communications Director and co-chair of the Operations Committee for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. Previously, Peter worked as a Wall Street investment banker, including as a Vice President in the Mergers & Acquisition group at Merrill Lynch, where he advised clients on transactions totaling several billion dollars. An attorney, Lavallee served as general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed technology company and worked in private practice, including providing legal advice to political campaigns. In the 1990s, as Administrator of the Clinton Legal Expense Trust, Peter oversaw the nonpartisan legal defense fund for the U.S. President. He received his MBA from the Yale School of Management, his JD from Tulane Law School and his BA from Columbia University.
