Lieberman, Philippe E.

Yale Lewis is an experienced litigator, mediator and arbitrator who has also drafted legislation and testified before legislative bodies at all levels of government; incorporated numerous private and public entities; and drafted and negotiated hundreds of contracts.

Intellectual Property, Sports and Entertainment

Mr. Lewis has represented Jimi Hendrix's father, Buddy Holly's widow, Kurt Cobain's widow and daughter, Gene Vincent's daughter, George Clinton of Funkadelic and Parliament, Anita Baker, LeAnn Rimes' producer Johnny Mulhair, syndicated radio personality "Delilah," glass artist Chihuly, the Jonas Salk Trust, DC3 Entertainment, and online games publisher WildTangent, Inc. He is a past chair of the Intellectual and Industrial Property Section of the Washington State Bar Association and represented the Association in legislative hearings that led to the passage of publicity rights legislation in 1998. He serves as a discovery master, mediates intellectual property disputes, and speaks at seminars on intellectual property and sports law. His clients include copyright, trademark and patent owners, software developers and owners, Internet companies, songwriters, performers, producers, media personalities, illustrators, photographers, advertisers, journalists, publishers, visual artists, art owners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, agents, coaches and athletes, and celebrities and private persons with life story rights, defamation, privacy and publicity concerns.

Public Authorities, Municipal Law and
Public/Private Ventures

Mr. Lewis conceptualized, helped create and was the initial legal counsel for various public development authorities (PDAs) that have made substantial contributions to the City of Seattle. In that capacity he negotiated and drafted contracts and ruling requests covering a wide array of complex and multi-faceted legal, financial, tax and social issues. He also drafted the enabling state legislation for public authorities, the implementing Seattle ordinance and the organic documents for each of the initial public development authorities in Seattle: Seattle Indian Services Commission; the Pike Place Market PDA; Historic Seattle PDA; Seattle Chinatown International District PDA; the Seattle Public Health Hospital PDA; and the Westlake PDA. As legal counsel to United Indians of All Tribes (UIATF), Mr. Lewis negotiated and drafted a series of complex agreements with the City of Seattle and various other federal and private parties that led to a 99-year lease between UIATF and the City of Seattle, and construction of the Daybreak Star Center.

In 2000, Mr. Lewis was appointed Special Counsel to the Spokane City Council to advise the Mayor and council on a distressed and controversial public/private venture in Spokane, Washington, and to represent the City in litigation with, inter alia, the developer of that project.

Environmental Issues and Litigation

Yale Lewis has significant experience in addressing environmental issues and litigation.

As counsel to Seattle's many public development authorities (PDAs) through the mid-1980s, Mr. Lewis was intimately involved in advising the various PDA councils and representing the PDAs in resolving frequent environmental issues that were inevitable aspects of various development projects. The same was true throughout the 1980s during which Mr. Lewis was general counsel to Tacoma Boatbuilding Company which was situated on Marine View Drive, Commencement Bay, Tacoma, Washington area.

In addition to those general representations, Mr. Lewis obtained on behalf of the late William Dwyer and other Bainbridge Island residents an injunction against the State of Washington and a clam harvesting license that stopped environmentally unsound clam harvesting operations in Rich Passage just north of Bainbridge Island, Washington. Mr. Lewis also conducted a successful environmental appeal on behalf of the Methow Valley Citizens Association of a U.S. Forest Service decision that would have opened up the Methow Valley for a destination ski resort.

Currently, Mr. Lewis is outside general counsel to JACO Environmental, Inc. (JACO), a Washington corporation that is the nation's leading company for the environmentally sound decommissioning and disposal of energy inefficient refrigerators, freezers and air conditioning units. Mr. Lewis has a good understanding of legal and technical aspects of handling and disposing of hazardous wastes, and issues and challenges of carbon caps and trading.

Petroleum, Railroads and Shipbuilding

Mr. Lewis represented the Inupiat Eskimos of the Arctic Slope of Alaska in judicial and congressional proceedings to obtain compensation for trespasses against their aboriginal title rights. One of those cases resulted in a landmark decision on the fiduciary duties of the Secretary of the Interior to protect the unextinguished aboriginal rights of Native Americans. He later represented the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and Petro Star, Inc. (an Alaska oil refinery) in contested TAPS tariff proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Alaska Public Utilities Commission and various federal courts, and assisted in the negotiating and drafting of construction contracts and oil exploration and development agreements.

In the 1980s, Mr. Lewis was a Special Deputy Attorney General of Montana and lead counsel in a series of coordinated actions to preserve and reorganize the western lines of the Milwaukee Road Railroad. Subsequently, he was Special Counsel to the Attorney General of Alaska for the acquisition of the Alaska Railroad from the federal government and assisted in the establishment of an independent public authority to operate it.

For almost a decade, Mr. Lewis was outside general counsel for a large, financially troubled ship-building company with substantial domestic and foreign contracts, complex legal affairs and continuous litigation.

Representative Matters: Other Areas

Mr. Lewis represented the former chief operating officer of a federal savings and loan association in federal court proceedings initiated by FSLIC and a shareholder class; and has provided opinions on and litigated antitrust issues in several industries. Other areas of extensive experience include defamation, employment termination, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and general contract law. He is the author of the Antitrust Law and Business Opportunity Fraud Act chapters of the Washington Civil Practice Deskbook.