Lane Powell PC is a Seattle-based law firm with a particularly strong Alaska connection. The regional firm has more than 200 attorneys focused on serving clients in the Pacific Northwest from six locations, including an office in Anchorage, others in Olympia and Tacoma, Wash., Portland, Ore., and London, England.
“The Anchorage office was started by the Seattle office in 1979 and grew up around the connection between Washington and Alaska,” said Brewster H. Jamieson, Lane Powell’s managing shareholder in Alaska, in a recent interview. “The Alaska market was increasingly important to our clients, and we kept needing to have people working on issues in the state.”
Lane Powell Vice President Chuck Riley said the regional firm became aware of how integrated the economies of Washington and Alaska are and how much back and forth went on in business dealings, especially in Anchorage.
“Many of our clients’ businesses are not tied to just one state,” he said in a recent interview. “They have customers (in Alaska) or operations there, so our Alaska office is really critical to our ability to meet their needs.
Riley said Lane Powel often gets questions about Alaska with legislative and regulatory activity and licensing as well as other issues.
Over the years, the Alaska office has participated in numerous momentous events in the state’s economy, including assisting clients in the formation of Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue and Northrim Bank in Anchorage.
For many of Lane Powell’s Alaska clients, Seattle is a staging area for interests in Alaska and Washington State. The firm’s clients include transportation companies such as Lynden Inc. and Alaska Railroad Corp. as well as oil and gas, mining, fishing and financial services enterprises.
Lane Powell also represents national companies such as Key Bank and Wells Fargo. “We do a lot of their Pacific Northwest work, Jamieson said.
Traditionally a commercial litigation firm, Lane Powell specializes in resolving commercial disputes and minimizing problems for its clients.
“Our firm’s motto is, ‘Know the landscape,’ and we pride ourselves on having a national perspective but with a local feel. We know the challenges inherent in Alaska. We know the issues. We have cross-jurisdictional capability. We know what we’re doing,” Jamieson explained.
Three of the seven lawyers in the Anchorage office grew up and graduated from high school in Alaska and all are longtime Alaskans. “There are no carpetbaggers in this office,” Jamieson said. “We have been legitimately involved in the local community for years.”
For example, Matt Claman, who serves as counsel to the firm, is a former mayor of Anchorage and former president of the Anchorage Assembly. He has a commercial litigation practice.
Matthew Block, an associate, was born and raised in Alaska and focuses on assisting growing numbers of entrepreneurs and software developers who live and work in Alaska, while Mike Baylous, an associate, grew up in Hoonah, Alaska and focuses on litigation.
Jamieson grew up in Homer, Alaska and specializes in maritime, transportation, shipping and professional litigation.
Working essentially as “lawyers for employers,” Lane Powell’s seven lawyers in Anchorage have a diverse skill set that is designed to meet the ever-changing needs of the Alaska business community.
For example, the firm recently hired an immigration lawyer, Margaret Stock, to assist Alaska clients with their growing numbers of highly skilled employees from other countries.
Stock brings with her a national reputation as an immigration attorney and an active practice in immigration law, Jamieson said.
The other lawyers working in the Anchorage office:
Mike Parise, a firm shareholder with a 30-year bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and commerce practice; and
Peter Partnow, counsel to the firm, with a labor and employment practice and expertise in cases involving the Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Alaska office of Lane Powell is well regarded in the legal community, and earned a recommendation in 2010 for general commercial litigation from Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Several of the lawyers, including Jamieson, have been singled out for praise by their peers and clients.
William R. Hupprich, deputy general counsel for Alaska Railroad Corp., said Jamieson over a decade of representation, “produced excellent results for my company.”
Riley said the importance of the Anchorage office of Lane Powell is expected to grow over time. “We’re seeing more and more economic activity back and forth, and our clients like to understand what is going on in Alaska,” he added.
