901 Fifth Avenue, Suite 4100
Seattle, Washington 98164
Voice: 206-624-1933
Fax: 206-583-2716
oyl@hllaw.com
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Print Biography

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 Parliment, 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, song writers, 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 defamation, privacy and publicity concerns.

Representative Matters: Other Areas

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 Alaskan oil refinery) in contested TAPS tariff proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Alaska Public Utilities Commission and various federal courts.

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; 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.

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 Railroad. He was Special Counsel to the Attorney General of Alaska for the acquisition of the Alaska Railroad from the federal government and to assist in the establishment of an independent public authority to operate it. In 2000, he was hired as Special Counsel to the City of Spokane. 

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. He has also litigated environmental disputes in Washington and Alaska; 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 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.