Representative Matters

Business Commercial
• • Mediated to settlement real estate sales agreement case
  • Arbitrated matter involving purchase of a used car
  • Settled at mediation dispute over payments under a Software Licensing Agreement
  • Four week-bench trial involving corporate fraud and breach of fiduciary duty; entered verdict awarding several million dollars
  • Expeditors International of Washington v. Expeditors of Japan, 139 Wn. App 1070 (2007) (unpublished); described by Court of Appeals as addressing a complex corporate transaction
  • Part of a triparte arbitration panel involving attorney malpractice allegations, where the underlying issue was an intellectual property dispute. 
Employment Law
• • Mediated employment cases involving disability, gender discrimination, failure to accommodate religious practices, retaliation, bonus pay and wrongful termination
  • Hirata v. Evergreen State Limited Partnership No. 5, 124 Wn. App 632 (2004); sex discrimination and harassment; one of first cases addressing “offset” payments for federal income tax consequences of award, pursuant to Blaney v. International Association of Machinists
  • Bally v. Ocean Transportation Services, 136 Wn. App 1052 (2007) (unpublished); complicated wage and hour issues
Estate Probate Trusts
• • Arbitration regarding dispute between co-trustees of trust
  • Settled dispute involving termination of guardianship
Family Law
• • Arbitrated and mediated cases involving parenting, financial issues, relocation, domestic violence allegations, disability, family-owned business
  • Arbitrated issue regarding parenting coordinator and has established substantial expertise regarding use of parenting coordinators 
  • Arbitrated case involving valuation of a start-up
  • Arbitrated several case involving private school education
  • Conducted numerous settlement conferences regarding parental rights.
  • In re Marriage of Bernard, 165 Wn. 2d 895 (2007); enforceability of prenuptial agreement
  • In re Marriage of Gunn-Bohm v. Bohm, 158  Wn. App 1026 (2010) (unpublished); unusually complex pension valuation issues
  • In re Marriage of Vandal (unpublished, 199 Wn. App 1034 (2017)) (unpublished); complex characterization issue of small, personal services corporation
  • Substantial experience with domestic violence issues; has tried many cases in the civil and criminal arenas
  • Both a contributor to and the primary substantive editor of the first three editions of the Domestic Violence Manual for Judges
  • Handled contested adoptions, both at trial and as a settlement conference judge 
Insurance
• • Ledcor Industries v. Mutual of Enumclaw, 150 Wn. App 1(2009); insurance coverage issues
  • Mutual of Enuclaw v. Archer, 122 wn. App 1073 (unpublished, 2004)
  • Post-Confirmation Committee of In re Pierce County Housing Authority v. Pierce County, 188 Wn. App 1039 (unpublished, 2015) 
Personal Injury Torts
• • Handled summary judgments for Asbestos litigation
  • Auto torts, including bicycle accidents
  • Various issues under the Jones Act
  • Served as chair Current chair of Washington Pattern Jury Instruction Chapters on Damages and Owners and Occupiers of Land
Public Interest
• • Jane and John Does and Seattle Pacific University v. King County, 192 Wn. App 10 (2015); public disclosure case regarding access to video of the Seattle Pacific shooting
  • Branson v. Port of Seattle, 152 Wn. 2d 862 (2004); authority of Port of Seattle to impose a gross receipt tax on car rental companies
  • In re Ballot Title Appeal of City of Seattle Initiatives 107-110, 183 Wn. App 379 (2014)
  • Litigated case addressing disparate impact outside the context of Title VII and Title IX, challenging the legislative amendments switching the “per se” standard for driving while intoxicated from blood to breath
Real Estate and Landlord Tenant
• • Landowner liability (trial and summary judgments of a number of cases and as former chair and current member of WPI Subcommittee authoring instructions in this area)
  • A variety of adverse possession and boundary dispute issues, including Shaw v. Merritt, 124 Wn. App 1040 (unpublished, 2004); summary judgment whether easement by necessity, implication or public use had been established
  • Housing discrimination; whether the inclusion of holders of Section 8 housing vouchers as members of a protected class by the Seattle Municipal code exceeded police powers under WA Const. Article I, Section 11