OUR PRINCIPLES

Quality

While we are headquartered in the Puget Sound region of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, we have clients worldwide. Many of them are at the forefront in their industries and all set high standards for themselves. Our goal is always to provide legal services of the highest possible quality to all of the firm's clients.

We operate as a true partnership that creates a strong team-spirit, encourages cooperation and stimulates the exchange of knowledge. We make sure that the client always has the most qualified lawyer for a specific case whilst maintaining the personal relationship between the client and the partner.

We assume joint responsibility for firm development and adapting it to the challenges of the future. We all participate in broadening and deepening the know-how of the firm and keeping abreast of the latest changes in law and practice. By sharing both the responsibility and the rewards, we are in a position to give every client the full benefit of the firm's collective professional experience and expertise.

The Services You Need -- When You Need Them

All lawyers in the firm have a depth of experience in many areas of the law. However, we best serve our clients by also recognizing the need for specialist practice groups that allow for the development of the expertise of individual lawyers, sometimes in very narrow fields as a result of a client's particular needs. As a result, our firm offers a broad range of expertise as well as an integrated team of specialists.

Although the expertise of several lawyers may be required, we recognize that providing legal advice is a very personal matter. Each client therefore has a contact partner who ensures that the client's particular needs are satisfied and that the commercial context is considered when advice is given.

Our clients must be able to trust us not to have any conflicting priorities and to devote our full attention to their interests. Discretion, both publicly and privately, is expected of us.

A Long Tradition

The Seattle law firm that became Mikkelborg, Broz, Wells & Fryer, PLLC, was founded in 1961 by Richard F. Broz and Jeremiah M. Long, former Assistant U.S. Attorneys. The young firm was expanded by Jacob A. Mikkelborg, another former Assistant U.S. Attorney; Robert O. Wells, Jr., a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington; and Douglas M. Fryer, from the United Stated Department of Justice. All had extensive backgrounds with state and federal agencies in addition to their immediate past government employment.

The firm's early practice, which included several high profile cases of the mid-1960s, reflected the partners' varied experience as government lawyers. These cases included the nationwide antitrust cases against the manufacturers of electrical equipment; and the City of Anchorage case against Lloyds Underwriters for damage - sustained during the 1964 Good Friday earthquake - to the Port of Anchorage. The firm served as special counsel to the Washington State Bar Association for many years.

Today, we have retained much of our experience in working with governmental bodies, particularly local governments, but have significantly expanded the firm's breadth and scope of representation.

Our firm reflects general civil and trial practice. We possess trial and appellate representation in all courts within the states of Washington, California, Oregon and Alaska, the United States District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, the Northern and Southern Districts of California, the District of Maryland and the District of Massachusetts, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, the Fourth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals, the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Supreme Court. In addition, we practice local and international arbitration and ADR of commercial disputes, including matters as diverse as Superfund cost-recovery allocation, insurance coverage litigation, contract interpretation, sales transactions, and resolution of intellectual property rights.

Managing partner Douglas M. Fryer notes that as the firm completed its first 40 years, its practice has expanded into such diverse areas as employment, environmental and bankruptcy matters, reflecting the changing requirements of the firm's clients. As examples, Fryer cites the firm's recent representation of the prevailing side before the United States Supreme Court in the Wards Cove Packaging Company case (a landmark decision in employment law) and its participation in developing areas of the law such as employment discrimination and alternative disputes resolutions.

THE PRACTICE

We are a full-service firm, covering all areas of the law in our respective practice groups.

Litigation

General Civil and Trial Practice: Trial and appellate representation in all courts within the states of Washington and Alaska, the United States District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Local and international arbitration and ADR of commercial disputes, including matters as diverse as Superfund cost-recovery allocation, insurance coverage litigation, contract interpretation, sales transactions, and resolution of intellectual property rights.

The firm has handled multi-party litigation in both state and federal court and has implemented computerized document retention and database procedures. Although not exclusive, we have undertaken representation of international oil transactions; export-import transactions; transportation related litigation and transactions including acquisitions, mergers, and leasing; multi-district litigation; RICO; securities fraud; accountings and fiduciary disputes; lender liability prosecution and defense; complex maritime foreclosure and maritime lien enforcement.

Antitrust: Our litigation practice includes antitrust defense of predatory pricing/price fixing and monopolistic practice allegations. The Mikkelborg Firm has successfully defended, through both trial and appeal, clients in the fishing and shipping industries.

Construction: Corporate and contracting work for construction, manufacturing and transportation related businesses, oil companies and international trading companies, products liability, contracting, bidding disputes, construction defense, toxic tort, asbestosis, hearing loss, chemical exposure; mechanics liens and priorities; surety including little Miller Act claims and disputes.

Intellectual Property: Copyright and trademark litigation; legal representation relating to information technology, telecommunications, media and data protection, and licensing agreements; evaluation and preparation of electronic purchase and sale agreements and outsourcing of information technology functions to third-party providers.

Debtor/Creditor: Bankruptcy - Chapter 7, 11, 13, including representations of secured and unsecured creditors, trustees, creditors' committees, receivership, bankruptcy litigation, workouts, receivership and debtor/creditor litigation, foreclosure.

Trade secret protection, including injunctive and civil enforcement proceedings; non-competition and restrictive covenants, negotiation and enforcement of common law and contractual intellectual property rights, including trademark and trade name, and copyright enforcement.

Employment: Employment agreements and employer/employee contract negotiation; federal and state law compliance and general labor advice; wrongful discharge; wage and hour claims; discrimination; Title VII; personnel manual compliance.

Personal Injury: Personal injury accidents, wrongful death, medical malpractice, FELA, crossing accidents, condemnation and bad sight distance litigation.

Business

Transactions: The firm has handled almost every type of business transaction in its 40+ years of client representation; contract negotiation, formation and interpretation, including common law and UCC sales transactions, environmental liability and real estate acquisitions, business purchase and sale agreements, financing agreements, security instruments and related corporate matters; contract enforcement including litigation, arbitration, collection of judgments and creditor remedies.

Real Estate: Real estate purchase and sale agreements; financing; judicial and non-judicial foreclosures; landlord-tenant; unlawful detainer and eviction proceedings; development issues; due diligence work; commercial and residential leasing; condemnation of properties for District of Columbia Metro expansion; transactional, boundary disputes, etc.; real estate acquisitions and sales; negotiation and preparation of leases (commercial, office, agricultural, retail, industrial and residential); entity formation and structuring of real estate investments; financing; condemnation; land use regulation and permitting before local government entities, state agencies, and appeals boards.

Corporate: Formation and maintenance of businesses, including S corp, C corp, LLCs, LLPs and partnerships; advise and counsel on corporate governance, rights and duties of officers and directors, shareholders' rights, and third-party liabilities; drafting and evaluation of incorporation documents, bylaws, operating agreements, buy-sell agreements, options and shareholder agreements; business acquisitions and mergers; incorporation and other organizational work; advice on corporate maintenance; tax and regulatory matters; developing legal strategies for start-up business; mergers and acquisitions; structured settlement funding.

Agricultural Law: International agricultural consulting contracts; representation on agribusiness issues for clients including growers, packers, commission merchants, cold storage facilities and shippers of stone fruit, grapes and other commodities; work with other farming, dairy and ranching operations on legal matters that have included organizational, contracting, tax, regulatory, water, irrigation, real estate, and financing issues.

Health Law: Representation of physicians, including physician/hospital employment negotiations, Medicare/Medicaid regulatory compliance, casualty and operating agreement; representation of municipalities, joint powers authorities and other payors on health plan, licensure and regulatory issues, medical board accusations, managed care arrangements, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, defending against malpractice and sexual harassment actions, HIPAA matters, fraud and abuse claims; representation of providers and health care facilities (e.g., hospitals, hospices, surgery centers), managed care organizations (e.g., HMOs, IPAs, PPOs, MSOs), non-profit entities (e.g., health consortia, medical societies, medical care foundations) and medical staffs; representation has routinely required interaction with state and federal agencies.

Environmental

State and federal environmental laws and regulations including criminal liability; audits; disclosure requirements; reporting and due diligence; property transactions to allocate environmental liability; Brownfields and impaired property redevelopment; environmental impairment insurance; environmental issues in the landlord-tenant context; underground storage tanks, asbestos and lead-based paint claims; storm water and groundwater contamination and remediation; cost recovery and contribution claims including private recovery of remedial action costs pursuant to CERCLA and MTCA; environmental permitting; lender liability for contaminated properties; defense of principally responsible parties on EPA superfund sites; oil pollution and oil spills; toxic waste, soil, surface water and groundwater; defense of MTCA clean up at Port of Olympia; wetlands permitting and compliance; removal and remediation in place of vessel wrecks on Washington Department of Natural Resources' property.

Enforcement of appropriations; responding to Notices of Violations regarding SMA regulatory violations for clients; appealing denials of substantial development permits; working with DOE during course of permit appeals to negotiate agreements for two different docks in San Juan County; working with shipyards and boat repair facilities to achieve and comply with Best Management Practices defending private MTCA actions for clean up; representing and advising clients regarding marine environmental exposures including insurance requirements, how to respond to a release event; representing vessel owners in actions for trespass, wreck removal, environmental degradation, violation of solid waste statutes; negotiating with client's insurers to effect settlement and wreck removal; prosecution of actions to remove and/or dispose of derelict vessels; wetlands and other regulatory issues; enforcement of appropriations, easements, permits and other water rights.

Admiralty and Maritime

Collision and salvage; charter parties and freight contracts; cargo claims and other P&I matters; shipbuilding; ship financing and preferred mortgages; marine insurance; Jones Act and seaman claims; maritime contracts and product liability; maritime foreclosure and attachments; in rem and in personam enforcement actions.

Fisheries: American Fisheries Act and Magnuson Act compliance, including civil and criminal enforcement proceedings; fishery rights, limited entry permits and Individual Fishing Quota enforcement; NMFS/RAM/ ADFG enforcement proceedings; individual and vessel permits; regulatory enforcement actions; purchase and sale transactions; civil litigation and enforcement of contract fishery rights.

Personal Injuries: Catastrophic personal injury under Jones Act, including in rem and in personam liability claims and limitation of liability actions; shore-based wrongful death representation and claims settlement; soft-tissue injury assessment, representation and claims settlement.

Tax & Estate Planning

Federal and State Taxes: Counsel municipalities on proper enforcement of business and occupation tax after Municipal Tax Fairness Act; property tax assessment and collection advice and litigation; bankruptcy and collections of assessments, sales, personal property and use taxes.

Estate Planning: Complex wealth transfer, including valuation discounting, family business succession and estate tax planning advice; wills, trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and qualified personal residence trusts.

Probate: Representation of Personal Representatives in judicial and non-judicial probate proceedings, including appointment, estate inventory assessments and assessment of claims.

Dispute Resolution

The firm represents lawyers, law firms and clients in disputes over the amount of fees charged, the entitlement to fees at all, and ethical issues involving fee agreements and fees. Attorneys in the firm has a growing involvement as expert witnesses in cases involving entitlement to fees or ethical issues challenging the entitlement to fees. We also testify as experts on legal malpractice cases involving personal injury practice. We also serve as arbitrators in cases of personal injury or fee conflicts between lawyers and clients, and between lawyers.

Immigration

We have 35+ years experience specializing in business related immigration concerns, including private and corporate investment in the United States and the transfer of executive and managerial personnel.

Areas of specialization include employment-based and family-based immigration law, petitions for non-immigrant visas and immigrant visas, and applications for lawful permanent residence and naturalization. Employment petitions include H-1B (professional worker), L-1A/L-1B (intra-company transferee), and TN (Canadian/Mexican NAFTA) visas, among others. The firm's attorneys also handle labor certification applications for various occupations (for example, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, software engineering, information technology, architecture, geology, horticulture, and culinary arts), as well as immigrant visa petitions for outstanding researchers, individuals of extraordinary ability, and managers/executives. Family-based immigration law legal services include applications for permanent residence (adjustment of status), waivers, fiance petitions, removal of conditional status (Form I-751), consular processing abroad, and naturalization.

Personal Injuries

Personal injury accidents, wrongful death, medical malpractice, FELA, crossing accidents, condemnation and bad sight distance litigation.

Catastrophic personal injury under Jones Act, including in rem and in personam liability claims and limitation of liability actions; shore-based wrongful death representation and claims settlement; soft-tissue injury assessment, representation and claims settlement.

Divorce & Family Law

Dissolution proceedings; guardianships and guardian ad litems; legal separations; relocation matters; child custody disputes and support enforcement proceedings; domestic relations arbitration and mediation; prenuptial and post-nuptial agreements; post-dissolutions; adoptions, co-habitation agreements.