Perkins Coie
Encyclopedia
Perkins Coie is an international law firm based in Seattle, Washington
. It has been listed on the Fortune Magazine
"100 Best Places to Work in America" for the past nine years. It is noted for its intellectual property
, Labor and Employment, and Products Liability practice groups, and for its political law group, which Chambers
regularly ranks first in the United States. The firm is counsel of record for the Democratic National Committee
, and other political clients include nearly all Democratic members of the United States Congress
, as well as several Presidential campaigns, including those of John Kerry
and Barack Obama
. Its corporate clients include international high-technology and telecommunications companies.
With its main office located in Seattle, Perkins Coie is the oldest and largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest
. Notable living alumni of the firm include, among others, current White House Counsel
Robert Bauer
, current Attorney General
of Washington State Rob McKenna
, and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Margaret McKeown
and Ronald M. Gould
.
In 2009, President Obama appointed Robert Bauer
, the Chair of the firm's Political Law Group, to become his White House Counsel
.
, Amazon.com
, Starbucks
, Costco
, Craigslist
, Google
, Facebook
, Intel, Washington Mutual
, AT&T
, REI
, Intellectual Ventures
, UPS
, Barack Obama
, Expedia
, Safeco
, T-Mobile
, Dale Chihuly
, and Nintendo
.
Perkins Coie also serves as counsel of record for the Democratic Party
and its candidates; its political law
group was for many years headed by top campaign lawyer Bob Bauer
, and is now chaired by Marc Elias
. Perkins Coie represented John Kerry's
presidential campaign
and the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama
, and continues to represent President Obama. The firm represented Christine Gregoire
in the prolonged litigation surrounding her 2004 Washington gubernatorial election, and a team of Perkins lawyers headed by Marc Elias
successfully represented Al Franken
in his legal battle over the 2008 Senatorial election
in Minnesota
. The firm also represents the Democratic Leadership Council
, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
.
In 2006, Perkins Coie made headlines when, led by partner Harry Schneider
, it represented Salim Ahmed Hamdan
, the alleged driver and bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden
. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Bush Administration's
Military Commissions
were held unconstitutional.
Perkins has recently made national headlines once more for its work in the Doe v. Reed
case concerning petition signatures in state ballot initiative campaigns, which was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28, 2010.
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. It has been listed on the Fortune Magazine
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
"100 Best Places to Work in America" for the past nine years. It is noted for its intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, Labor and Employment, and Products Liability practice groups, and for its political law group, which Chambers
Chambers
Chambers may refer to:Places*In Canada:**Chambers Township, Ontario*In the United States:**Chambers County, Alabama**Chambers, Arizona, an unincorporated community in Apache County**Chambers, Nebraska**Chambers Township, Holt County, Nebraska...
regularly ranks first in the United States. The firm is counsel of record for the Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
, and other political clients include nearly all Democratic members of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, as well as several Presidential campaigns, including those of John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
and Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. Its corporate clients include international high-technology and telecommunications companies.
With its main office located in Seattle, Perkins Coie is the oldest and largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. Notable living alumni of the firm include, among others, current White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
Robert Bauer
Robert Bauer
Robert F. Bauer is an American attorney who previously served as White House Counsel under President of the United States Barack Obama.-Education:...
, current Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
of Washington State Rob McKenna
Rob McKenna
Robert Marion "Rob" McKenna is the Republican Attorney General of Washington and was elected in November 2004 for a term beginning in January 2005. He won re-election in November 2008 with over 59 percent statewide...
, and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Margaret McKeown
M. Margaret McKeown
Mary Margaret McKeown, usually styled as M. Margaret McKeown is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and is based in San Diego, California. McKeown, a native of Casper, Wyoming, has served on the Ninth Circuit since her confirmation in 1998...
and Ronald M. Gould
Ronald M. Gould
Ronald Murray Gould is an American federal appeals judge who has served on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals since 1999.-Education and legal training:...
.
In 2009, President Obama appointed Robert Bauer
Robert Bauer
Robert F. Bauer is an American attorney who previously served as White House Counsel under President of the United States Barack Obama.-Education:...
, the Chair of the firm's Political Law Group, to become his White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
.
Notable mandates and representations
The firm was founded in 1912 and has represented Boeing Company since the founding of the aerospace giant in 1916. Other prominent clients include MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
, Costco
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world...
, Craigslist
Craigslist
Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements, with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums....
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Intel, Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual, Inc. , abbreviated to WaMu, was a savings bank holding company and the former owner of Washington Mutual Bank, which was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008....
, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, REI
Rei
-People:*Rei, the Biblical term for those who retained their allegiance to King David when Adonijah rebelled, as mentioned in 1 Kings 1:8*Rei Hiroe*Rei Igarashi*Rei Kawakubo*Rei Kikukawa*Rei Mikamoto*Rei Munakata*Rei Okamoto*Rei Omishi...
, Intellectual Ventures
Intellectual Ventures
Intellectual Ventures is a private company notable for being one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model has a focus on developing a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to companies. Publicly, it states that a major goal is to assist small inventors...
, UPS
United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Expedia
Expedia
Expedia is an Internet-based travel website based in the US with localised sites for 21 countries...
, Safeco
Safeco
Safeco Insurance, a member of Liberty Mutual Group, is a national U.S. insurance company. It holds naming rights to the Seattle Mariners' baseball stadium, Safeco Field.- History :...
, T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
, Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.-Biography:Chihuly graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington. He enrolled at the College of the Puget Sound in 1959...
, and Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
.
Perkins Coie also serves as counsel of record for the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and its candidates; its political law
Political law
Political Law is an established legal practice area generally covering the intersection of politics and law. Political law includes laws at the federal and state level involving campaign finance rules , the practice of lobbying and lobbying disclosure, gifts to officeholders and government...
group was for many years headed by top campaign lawyer Bob Bauer
Robert Bauer
Robert F. Bauer is an American attorney who previously served as White House Counsel under President of the United States Barack Obama.-Education:...
, and is now chaired by Marc Elias
Marc Elias
Marc Elias is the lead attorney for the 2008 Al Franken for Senate campaign in Minnesota. Elias is a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie whose clients include the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and numerous U.S. Senators, Representatives, and Governors and their campaigns.In 2004, Elias...
. Perkins Coie represented John Kerry's
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
presidential campaign
John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004
The Presidential Campaign of John Kerry, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and the nominee of the Democratic Party challenged Republican incumbent President George W. Bush in the U.S. presidential election on November 2, 2004. Ultimately, Kerry conceded defeat in the race in a telephone call to Bush...
and the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, and continues to represent President Obama. The firm represented Christine Gregoire
Christine Gregoire
Christine O'Grady "Chris" Gregoire is the 22nd and current Governor of the state of Washington, and a member of the Democratic Party. Gregoire defeated Republican candidate Dino Rossi in 2004, and again in 2008. She is the second female governor of Washington...
in the prolonged litigation surrounding her 2004 Washington gubernatorial election, and a team of Perkins lawyers headed by Marc Elias
Marc Elias
Marc Elias is the lead attorney for the 2008 Al Franken for Senate campaign in Minnesota. Elias is a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie whose clients include the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and numerous U.S. Senators, Representatives, and Governors and their campaigns.In 2004, Elias...
successfully represented Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
in his legal battle over the 2008 Senatorial election
United States Senate election in Minnesota, 2008
The 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota took place on November 4, 2008. After a legal battle lasting over eight months, Al Franken from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party defeated Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate...
in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. The firm also represents the Democratic Leadership Council
Democratic Leadership Council
The Democratic Leadership Council was a non-profit 501 corporation that, upon its formation, argued the United States Democratic Party should shift away from the leftward turn it took in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States Senate. It is the only organization solely dedicated to electing Democrats to the United States Senate. The DSCC's current chair is Sen. Patty Murray, who succeeded Sen. Robert Menendez following...
and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. They play a critical role in recruiting candidates, raising funds, and organizing races in districts that are expected to yield...
.
In 2006, Perkins Coie made headlines when, led by partner Harry Schneider
Harry Schneider
Harry Schneider is an American lawyer and partner at the firm of Perkins Coie, in Seattle, Washington.Schneider is notable for volunteering to work on behalf of Guantanamo captive Salim Ahmed Hamdan...
, it represented Salim Ahmed Hamdan
Salim Ahmed Hamdan
Salim Ahmed Hamdan is a Yemeni man, captured during the invasion of Afghanistan, and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. He admits to being Osama bin Laden's personal driver claiming he needed the $200 monthly salary that came with the job....
, the alleged driver and bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Bush Administration's
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
Military Commissions
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
were held unconstitutional.
Perkins has recently made national headlines once more for its work in the Doe v. Reed
Doe v. Reed
Doe v. Reed, 561 U.S. ___ , is a United States Supreme Court case which holds that the disclosure of signatures on a referendum does not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.-Background:...
case concerning petition signatures in state ballot initiative campaigns, which was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28, 2010.
Offices
- Anchorage (1977)
- BeijingBeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
(2001) - BellevueBellevue, WashingtonBellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
(1983) - Boise
- ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
(2002) - Dallas (2010)
- Denver (1987)
- Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
- Madison (2008)
- New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(2011) - Palo Alto (2010)
- PhoenixPhoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
(2004) - PortlandPortland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
- San Francisco (1998)
- San Diego (2010)
- Seattle (1912)
- ShanghaiShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
(2006) - Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
(1979)