Scott Easter David McGranaghan, Viaduct

Scott B. Easter

Member

Practice Areas

Biography

Mr. Easter represents clients in a wide range of real estate, general business, and fiduciary litigation. The emphasis in Scott's litigation practice is upon realistic initial assessment of the client's legal position and options, together with realistic attempts to settle while maximum saved litigation costs can be applied to a solution of the underlying problem. If intensive efforts to negotiate and settle disputes (thus minimizing legal costs) fail, he aggressively pursues all available cost-effective litigation strategies to achieve the best possible result for the client.

In addition to general business and real estate litigation, Mr. Easter also handles fiduciary litigation - for example, litigation arising out of estates, trusts, and guardianships. In this increasingly technical and emotion-laden area of the law, he advises clients both as to the strength of their legal position and the likely legal costs involved in prolonging the dispute. Fiduciary litigation presents particular advantages and disadvantages given the fiduciary's enhanced duties to beneficiaries and other related parties.

Mr. Easter also represents clients in the health law area, usually individual physicians or physician groups. His work for physicians and other health care providers in that area include disputes between shareholders and/or partners, disputes with professional and nonprofessional employees, disputes with hospitals or other organizations, licensing issues, and insurance issues.

An increasing percentage of Mr. Easter's practice is devoted to insurance coverage issues, usually on behalf of the individual or business insured. Coverage issues can range from general liability coverage and excess/umbrella coverage, directors and officers coverage, employment practices coverage, life insurance, accident and disability coverage, as well as coverage for intellectual property disputes, including patent and copyright infringement, trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and other related business disputes. Convincing the client's insurance carrier that it has a contractual obligation to pay for counsel to defend the client against liabilities alleged against a client often can be the single most important issue to a client given the expense of litigation and costs of settlement.

Education

Selected Professional Associations and Activities

Mr. Easter has been admitted in the Washington State and federal courts, and is a member of: