Michael E. "Mike" Kipling

Sheryl Willert is a Member in the Seattle office of Williams Kastner, where she chairs the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group and leads its Diversity Committee. She previously served as the firm’s Managing Director from 1996–2001 and again from 2006–2013, and she continues to serve on the firm’s board of directors. Sheryl’s legal practice focuses on counseling, investigations, and dispute resolution across a broad spectrum of employment law matter...

Pete Becker develops and implements global trademark, copyright, trade secret, and domain name protection, policing, and licensing strategies for clients. He has decades of experience building, maintaining, monetizing, and right-sizing clients’ soft IP portfolios. Pete has cleared global branding runways for large (US$500M+) new product launches by identifying, evaluating, and eliminating trademark obstacles in over 150 jurisdictions. While serving as in-house counsel, he managed one of...

Bryan Smith, a partner with the firm's Business practice, has experience in many aspects of federal income tax, including mergers and acquisitions, international and cross-border transactions, executive compensation, public and private offerings, joint ventures, real estate investment trusts (REITs), real estate and leasing transactions, and federal tax controversies.

Sean McCann is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate Law. Sean, who practices law in Seattle, Washington, has been recognized since 2024. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Sean is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

John Iani, a partner with the firm's Environment, Energy & Resources practice, focuses his practice on helping clients in developing and structuring business and commercial endeavors, particularly in the areas of project development, energy, natural resources and fisheries. He also represents clients in environmental and regulatory issues before Congress, federal and state agencies, administrative bodies and the courts. John served as the Regional Administrator for Region 10 of the Enviro...

Margie Aoki collaborates with clients to develop strategies to protect their intellectual property, working closely with inventors to craft robust utility and design patent applications that highlight the client’s innovations. During examination, Margie encourages open communication with patent examiners to find the most efficient path towards allowance. Margie’s experience extends to freedom-to-operate and validity opinions, design-around strategies, and due diligence for portfol...

Bradley Thoreson is a Shareholder in Buchalter’s Seattle office and a member of the Firm’s Litigation Practice Group. Brad’s complex commercial litigation practice focuses on commercial real estate for some of the largest owners and developers in the United States.

Jason Froggatt practices employee benefits law, advising clients on employee retirement plans, plan qualification and plan fiduciary duties. He works extensively on equity-based compensation, including establishing stock option and employee stock ownership plans. Jason regularly counsels group health plans and their plan sponsors with respect to ERISA, COBRA and HIPAA compliance, and represents employee plans and plan sponsors with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service.

Professional Experience Rich’s practice focuses on businesses and individuals in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service and the Washington State Department of Revenue. Prior to joining Helsell Fetterman, Rich was a partner at LeSourd & Patten. In addition to his practice, Rich teaches a course in federal tax procedure in the Masters of Science in Taxation (MSTax) program at the University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business. Typical cases include: Representing ta...

For nearly forty years, Randy Squires has tried lawsuits in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. His experience base is broad: a five year apprenticeship with a pioneer construction litigation boutique (where, among other things, he built the firm’s construction labor practice); twenty years with Davis Wright Tremaine, a large regional, now national firm, the last ten as chair of the firm’s Litigation Group; and nearly ten years as a founding member, including two years as CEO, of...