Environmental Litigation

We represent an international chemical company in a complex multimillion dollar contract action addressing the remediation costs for groundwater contaminated with dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPL). The case was settled on terms favorable to our client.

Breach of Contract and Contract Reformation

In a complex commercial contract dispute, we obtained an arbitration award reforming a contract by proving that the omission of a key contract term was accomplished through sharp practices during negotiations. The reformation enabled our client to pursue its multimillion dollar financial tort claims against not only the defunct corporation but also its principal shareholder who had assets.

In a case involving a multimillion dollar sale of a shopping center, our client brought an arbitration claim against the developer who sold the shopping center. The claim was for damages in the form of lost business and tenants resulting from the developer’s failure to meet its contractual obligation to construct a second access point for the center. We obtained an award in favor of our client at the conclusion of the arbitration.

In a federal court case in Spokane, Washington, we defended our client, a large credit union, against the claims of a software vendor who demanded a $2 million contract termination fee. The case also involved significant electronic discovery issues. It was settled on very favorable terms for our client in mediation.

Business Torts

We successfully defended a dispute involving claims of misappropriation of business opportunity, breach of fiduciary duty, and insider loans arising out of the ownership and operation of a 210 unit condo complex. A previous controlling member of the limited liability company that owned the property claimed that our client owed him millions of dollars he purportedly loaned to the LLC to cover operating shortfalls. The case was arbitrated, and we obtained an award completely denying the claims against our client.

The firm represented a regional heavy equipment sales business and its two key employees in a multimillion dollar action alleging misappropriation of business opportunity arising from the employees’ departure from the plaintiff business and the start up of their own business. We obtained a defense verdict for our clients after a jury trial.

We represented a national company in a case involving claims of misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and obtained a verdict in our client’s favor after a jury trial. The case was affirmed on appeal before the Oregon Court of Appeals.