Fred Tausend joined Preston Gates & Ellis LLP as a partner in 1990. At that time he was the senior partner in Schweppe, Krug and Tausend, having practiced with that law firm since 1958. His practice is now divided about equally between litigation/appellate practice and alternative dispute resolution including both mediation and arbitration. In both his litigation and his ADR practices, Fred concentrates on complex commercial and business litigation, intellectual property, constitutional issues, and one-of-a-kind cases. For example, he was lead trial counsel for Seattle's Pike Place Public Market in the successfully concluded litigation to restore full control of the market to the Public Authority chartered by the City of Seattle to own, manage and preserve the market in the public interest. As a member of the Division of Antitrust and Consumer Protection in the State Attorney General's Of rice in the 1960s, he brought the first enforcement cases under the state antitrust law.
In 1983, he served as special independent counsel for the State of Alaska in an investigation of charges of political corruption. His conduct of the investigation, modeled along the lines of the federal special independent counsel law, was independent of both the governor's office and the state legislature. A portion of his law practice has also consisted of counseling attorneys and law firms on matters affecting disciplinary proceedings, professional conduct and law firm dissolution.
In 1980, Fred took a partial leave of absence from practice to become dean of the University of Puget Sound Law School (now Seattle University Law School), a position he held for six years. Before becoming dean, he served as adjunct professor of law teaching courses in antitrust, trademark and copyright, and professional responsibility (legal ethics). In 1991-1992 and in 1995, he was appointed Shefelman Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Washington Law School, where he taught civil procedure and professional responsibility on a part-time basis. While continuing to teach as an adjunct professor, Tausend maintains a full-time trial, appellate and ADR practice.
Fred has increased his ADR practice substantially in the past two years having served as member and chair of several three member arbitration panels in complex commercial cases in various fields, including telecommunications, antitrust, pharmaceutical and other product licensing of patented products, and business dissolution. During this period he has also served as sole arbitrator in a number a commercial cases. Fred now mediates from ten to twenty business, lawyer conduct, and intellectual property cases annually.
In addition, Fred has participated in and chaired numerous seminars sponsored by bar associations and other professional groups on such subjects as alternative dispute resolution, antitrust law, complex litigation, civil procedure, implementation of federal and state Rule 11, constitutional law, trademark, copyright, federal motion practice, settlement techniques and various aspects of trial practice.
Fred served on the Washington State Attorney General's Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force and chaired the Washington State Bar Association's Task Force on Professionalism. He was named Lawyer of the Year for 1991 by the Seattle-King County Bar Association. Fred is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
- Compensation
- Mediation: $285 per hour
- Arbitration: $285 to $320 per hour depending on length and complexity
