About Us

We are a team of dedicated professionals committed to outstanding representation of our clients.

We’ve been trailblazers from the beginning.

 

Since 1928, Skellenger Bender has provided the highest quality legal services to individuals, families, businesses and governmental entities. Working alongside such diverse clients has made us more insightful, responsive and innovative attorneys.

We’re proud of our heritage of service to our clients and the community. We take as much pride in our role in the establishment of rural electrification in the Pacific Northwest, and in paving the way for the group practice of medicine in Washington, as we do in the more than one thousand adoptions handled by our family law attorneys, and the hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services we donate each year to social justice causes.

Our breadth of talent and experience, as well as our legacy of providing the highest caliber of legal representation, allow us to offer our clients cogent strategies and effective advocacy in a wide variety of practice areas.

Ready to learn more about who we are and what we do?

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Our History of
Serving Others

At Skellenger Bender we take pride in the hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services we donate each year to social justice causes. Whether it’s serving as trial or appellate counsel or teaming up with like-minded organizations on appeals, Skellenger Bender has a long-standing tradition of involvement in high-profile legal cases that serve an important cause or purpose. Below is a sample of just a few of the landmark cases in which our attorneys have been involved:

1991

  • Represented women’s health care facility in seeking RICO liability against anti-choice organizations who perpetrated firebombing of clinic.

1997

  • Represented reporter improperly fired from her position due to political activities.

1999

  • Obtained reversal of sentence of death on constitutional grounds.

  • Represented amicus curiae ACLU-WA in case involving censure and suspension of municipal court judge for pattern misconduct.

2002

  • Represented amicus curiae ACLU-WA in case challenging constitutionality of public housing authority’s anti-trespassing policy.

  • Represented amicus curiae ACLU-WA in case asserting rights of disabled public housing tenant in unlawful detainer action.

2005

  • Trial counsel in landmark case establishing doctrine of de facto parentage in Washington.

2006

  • Skellenger Bender attorneys teamed with the Northwest Women’s Law Center (now Legal Voice) and Lambda Legal to represent the courageous plaintiffs who brought suit to establish marriage equality for same-sex couples in Washington. The Northwest Women’s Law Center honored the Marriage Equality Team with its 2005 Cynthia Gillespie Award.

2007

  • Represented amicus curiae Northwest Women’s Law Center in case asserting constitutional right to appointed, publicly funded counsel in actions for dissolution of marriage.

2010

  • Represented mother with amicus support from Legal Voice to successfully reverse termination of mother’s parental rights based on the court’s conclusion that mother’s relationships with men who abused her, but not her children, was not sufficient evidence of parental unfitness.

  • Represented amicus curiae Legal Voice in case involving application of de facto parentage doctrine to stepparent/stepchild relationship.

2017

  • Represented amicus curiae ACLU-WA, Incarcerated Mothers’ Advocacy Project, and Incarcerated Parents’ Advocacy Clinic in case involving application of mandatory factors regarding impact of parent’s incarceration on termination of parental rights.

  • Represented amicus curiae National Center for Lesbian Rights, LGBTQ+ Legal Advocates and Defenders, and QLAW Association of Washington in case underscoring doctrine that trial court may not consider a parent’s sexual orientation as a factor in child custody determinations absent an express showing of harm to the child.

2021

  • Represented the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equal Rights Washington in this federal case in which the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington recognized that states can regulate licensed therapists to ensure they do not subject LGBTQ+ minors to the deadly practice of conversion therapy.

Volunteer Efforts

Our attorneys and staff also take pride in our community and volunteer hundreds of hours of their own time each year at the following organizations:

Federal Judicial Merit Selection Committee for the Western District of Washington

Garfield High School Jazz Foundation

Girl Scouts of Western Washington

Green Lake Crew

King County Bar Association Judicial Screening Committee

King County Family Law CASA

King County Volunteer Settlement Conference Program

Loren Miller Bar Association

National Center for Lesbian Rights

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project

QLaw Association

QLaw Foundation

Southern Poverty Law Center

University of Washington Tax Clinic

Washington State Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee

Washington State Bar Association LGBTQ+ Law Section Executive Committee

Washington State Bar Association Real Property Probate and Trust newsletter

Washington Women in Tax

Sponsorships

Our attorneys and staff also take pride in our community and volunteer hundreds of hours of their own time each year at the following organizations:

Legal Foundation of Washington

King County Bar Association

Legal Voice

QLaw Association of Washington

Family Law CASA

Latina/o Bar Association of Washington

Loren Miller Bar Association

Seattle University School of Law’s Moot Court Board and Public Interest Law Foundation

Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Asian Bar Association of Washington

Contact

Skellenger Bender, P.S.

520 Pike Street, Suite 1001
Seattle, WA 98101

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