FIRM PROFILE

Our clients receive professional service which equals or exceeds that offered by a specialty department of a large law firm. However, our clients don't have to pay for the "spiral staircases" and the duplication of services often found in those firms. While many of the cases we undertake reflect the cutting-edge issues facing modern corporations, most of our clients are ordinary people with routine legal problems, a personal injury case, a small business problem or a law suit to bring or defend. Nevertheless, if you review some of the following examples of our work, you will agree that for a firm our size, we have extraordinary experience.

INSURANCE DEFENSE AND COVERAGE

• We provide insurance defense and both policy and statutory coverage counsel representation for the association established by state law to handle and pay property and casualty claims after an insurer has been found to be insolvent. This has involved hands-on defense and litigation coordination for a wide variety of specialty risks.

• We do insurance defense and coverage litigation for a variety of insurance companies and self insurers. Not only have we done the usual defense of auto and product injuries but also such more unusual litigation as sexual harassment and disability discrimination defense. Recently we represented a London based insurer writing Errors and Omissions coverages for attorneys or accountants engaged in pension administration. After we brought a application fraud declaratory judgement action in Federal court the matter was successfully settled.

  TRANSACTION LAW
  

• We have served as borrower's counsel in almost $500 million of private placements for one of the country's largest privately owned multinational companies, assisting in the negotiation and documentation of both term and revolving loan transactions with insurance and international banking syndicates.

• We assist borrowers as counsel in the refinancing of major commercial real estate investments. In one short recent period we worked on the mortgage refinancing totaling over 25 million dollars.

  LITIGATION FOR HIGH-TECH INDUSTRY CLIENTS
  

• We successfully represented a telecommunication provider in the arbitration defense of a $ 1.7 million overpayment claim brought against it by its billing and collection company. The defense of this claim required a thorough knowledge of the relationships within the telecommunications business. We have gained that knowledge by structuring and drafting contracts for a variety of hi-tech relationships, especially in the telecommunications industry.

• We secured partial injunctive relief for an international telecommunications client when it severed relationship with its sales agent for Japan. The case was successfully settled before trial in mediation before a federal judge.

• In exchange for a promise of guaranteed placement of its advertising at substantially reduced rates, our client advanced start-up funds to a company developing a new Internet portal. Once in operation, the new portal was extremely successful and the start-up company terminated the relationship. We commenced suit for breach of contract. Formulating damage theories for loss of the prospective advantage required a thorough knowledge of Internet operations including understanding how conversion rates could be computed from site visitor, impression and click-through data. After these theories were developed, the matter settled for a large but confidential amount.

  BUSINESS NEGOTIATION
  

• The mortgagor-owner of a large mid-west apartment complex was in default on his $17 million mortgage. We represented him in handling the in-lieu of foreclosure surrender of the project without his personal liability.

  INSURANCE REGULATORY
  

• An off-shore unauthorized insurer's failure to properly qualify to sell insurance in west coast states was widely publicized in the trade journals. After an NAIC alert brought the ire of our state insurance department, we negotiated with the department and arranged a consent cease and desist order with nominal fine and without criminal prosecution.

  CONSTRUCTION LITIGATION
  

• We represented a manufacturer/supplier in Federal court on Miller Act litigation arising out of the construction by the US Navy of the Trident nuclear sub repair facility. The case was successfully settled in mediation and involved "pass through" claims for acceleration and impact as well as product variation from specification. Our expertise in the construction area comes from years of experience in not only representing contractors but also handling surety claims under both specialty and standard surety programs.

  PLAINTIFF PERSONAL INJURY
  

• We represented the plaintiff in a personal injury and reformation of insurance coverage action resulting in a $535,000 policy limits settlement. The insurer had originally claimed that its limits were only $300,000.

• Our client was wrongfully detained by an off-duty Seattle Policeman providing "visible deterrence" for Safeway. The federal court jury awarded $7500 in compensatory damages and $752,500 in punitive damages. This was about three times larger than any prior punitive damage award recorded in Washington for this type of case. The federal judge did grant a remittitur requiring a new trial unless the client accepted lower punitive damages, but the matter was amicably settled.

• After her badly broken leg was treated in Alaska, our client returned to Washington for treatment and therapy. For several months she complained to her local physician of excessive pain, but the physician did not discover that she also had a broken hip. She was referred to us by her family attorney and we handled her claim of professional malpractice to a speedy confidential settlement.

  GOVERNMENTAL LIABILITY/ APPELLATE
  

• Many years ago we successfully argued Halvorson v. Dahl, 89 Wash.2d 673, 574 P.2d 1190 (1978), in which our Supreme Court held that a City's failure to enforce its housing code rendered it liable in tort for the resulting death of a victim of a hotel fire. This case's "landmark" status was assured when the case was listed by the court itself in a later decision as an example of the Court being "at the forefront in adopting new remedies and expanding tort liability". (Halvorson is one of approximately thirty-five case involving all types of subject matter we have argued in various state and federal appellate courts)

• Recently, in another governmental liability trial court case, our client's apartment house was damaged in a flood when the level of the lake in front of it rose during a prolonged rain. We successfully argued in our suit that the rising lake level was determined by reducing the storage capacity and drainage of another lake in the waterway system. That lake was located on park lands and abutted a school. The governmental unit operating the park and the school district each contributed to the settlement based upon our arguments .

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