Norm Maleng served as the King County (Seattle, WA) Prosecutor from 1978 until his death in 2007. He was a very effective and, in many ways, a tough prosecutor, being particularly protective of those he viewed as vulnerable, creating special prosecutorial units to deal with child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence. He chaired the Criminal Justice Section in 2003-04 and served on its Criminal Justice Standards Committee in the early 1990’s. In 2006, Norm Maleng was given the Section’s Minister of Justice Award recognizing his embodiment of the principles enunciated in the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice, Prosecution Function, particularly: “The duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.”
This award was renamed the Curtin-Maleng Minister of Justice Award in 2021 to honor the late Kevin Curtin, who was Senior Appellate Counsel/Grand Jury Director for the Middlesex District Attorney. Curtin was vice-chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section Council and co-chaired the Section's Committee on Appellate and Habeas Practice.