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| Why Schwabe?
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Schwabe's client base
is broad and deep, ranging from Fortune 500 giants
like Ford, DuPont, Bayer and Siemens to local companies
that make the Northwest unique, such as Oregon Steel
Mills, Columbia Forest Products, Portland Brewing, Good
Samaritan Hospital, the Portland Trail Blazers, and
the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon.
We've served as counsel for more than 100 mergers and acquisitions in the last five years. |
We've added or developed
top professionals in specialty practice areas in the past decade
critical to growing and emerging businesses in today's economy --
including tax, environmental, product liability, immigration, patent,
and intellectual property.
Schwabe has one of the largest and most experienced groups of tax
law specialists of any firm in the Northwest. The majority
of Schwabe's tax lawyers have LL.M. degrees in Taxation in addition
to their law degrees.
Schwabe's environmental group
is regionally respected for its knowledge in air, water, and land
regulatory issues, as well as for its good working relationships with
local, state, and federal agencies. In 2000 the environmental group
added Martha Pagel, former director of the Oregon Water Resources
Department, to be able to provide the services of the top water expert
in the state to clients who are faced with increasingly complex problems.
One of Schwabe's leading environmental partners, Jay Waldron, was
recently elected as President of the Port of Portland, a testimony
to the high respect held for Schwabe lawyers and to the firm's commitment
to civic leadership.
For over three decades, the firm's real
estate group has represented developers, owners,
and lenders in some of the most prestigious real estate
transactions in the Pacific Northwest. One glance
at downtown Portland's skyline gives a good sampling of
Schwabe's real estate successes, including such well-known
landmarks as the KOIN Center, Pacwest Center, Riverplace
Development, and Pioneer Place.
Our product liability
group has developed a national reputation for
defending manufacturers in bet-the-company litigation.
We are honored to be designated as regional counsel for
industry leaders such as DuPont, Ford Motor Co., Bayer,
and Wyeth (formerly, American Home Products).
Schwabe saw the importance of developing a mature patent
law practice within its multiservice offerings to assist startups
and emerging businesses as well as its established technology and
manufacturing clients. In September 2002, Schwabe welcomed Al AuYeung
and his team of patent law specialists from the former Columbia IP
Law Group. This addition places our firm among the elite group of
multiservice, regional law firms that offer clients the full range
of intellectual property services, including patents, copyrights,
trademarks and trade secrets. The combination expands Schwabe’s
existing intellectual property, which also includes the long-established
practice and expertise of Robert Harrington.
We are committed to community
involvement. Since the days of its founders, the
Schwabe firm is known for walking the walk in its community
involvement and leadership. The firm's attorneys currently
serve in volunteer leadership positions in over 100 nonprofit
organizations and industry associations. Schwabe has been
a longtime supporter of public television and radio. Perhaps
most significantly, in 1991, Schwabe became the founder
and provided the funding for a low-income legal clinic
that serves the Hispanic population in east Multnomah
County. Every year since, attorneys from the firm have
volunteered their time at the legal clinic on a weekly
basis.
We understand that responsiveness and good communication
is important to all of our firm's clients. Schwabe
is committed to promptly responding to all e-mails and
phone calls. This practice is important enough to the
firm that it adopted written client
service standards requiring that all attorneys and
staff respond to client communications in a timely fashion.
Schwabe is also committed to investing in technology to
help us achieve excellence in client service. We possess
extranet capabilities through our website by which we
can share documents, schedules, and other information
with clients via a secure internet connection. Schwabe
is one of the few law firms in the Northwest that has
invested in a two-way videoconferencing system. We find
that videoconferencing improves the effectiveness of many
long-distance client meetings and links attorneys from
our branch offices in meetings when necessary. We are
pleased to make this technology available as part of our
client service to you. Attorneys and staff are encouraged
to be accessible 24/7. To this end the firm makes Blackberries
(remote e-mail and calendar devices) available to all
attorneys. Schwabe also offers remote web access to our
e-mail and document management systems so that attorneys
can work on client projects from any location at any time.
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