PORT ANGELES — State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens on Wednesday returned to the courtroom where she was first sworn in to laud the work of lawyers who volunteer their services for free.

Standing in the sunny, wood-paneled historical courtroom of the Clallam County Courthouse, Owens recalled her first pro-bono domestic violence case nearly three decades ago.

She represented a pregnant woman on welfare who was facing threats from her husband.

Now, that woman has a good job and her child is a college graduate, Owens said.

“It’s about families, it’s about citizenship and it’s about communities,” Owens said.

The comments from Owens, a former Clallam County District Court judge in Forks and judge of the Lower Elwha Klallam and Quileute tribes, came during an open house hosted by the Alliance for Equal Justice of Washington and Clallam County Pro Bono Lawyers that attracted about 40 people — mostly lawyers — Wednesday afternoon.

Eighteen similar open houses were held around the state to celebrate equal justice.

“Pro bono” — literally “for the public good” — is the formal term when a lawyer takes a legal case without being paid and without expecting payment.

Owens started her legal career in Clallam County as a staff attorney for Olympic Legal Services in the 1970s and said she saw first-hand the need for more funding in the state for access to justice.

In 2001, the year after she was elected to the Supreme Court, the court funded a $50,000 legal needs study, the results of which “astounded” her, Owens said.