Thomas Ahearne

Litigation

Appellate

Insurance Coverage

School Districts

Election and Political Law, Public Policy & Lobbying

Privacy, Cybersecurity & Data Protection

Public Finance & Municipal Government

Construction

Public Records & Open Government

Tom Ahearne has over 30 years of trial court and appellate experience. His cases commonly focus on (1) high profile constitutional, statutory, & election related litigation, (2) coverage claims against insurance companies, and (3) representing victims of cyber attacks, cyber fraud, and cyber crime.

Constitutional Law, Statutory Rights, & Elections: Examples include (a) constitutional compliance suits (e.g., the multi-billion dollar McCleary school funding litigation), (b) election disputes (e.g., the series of state & federal lawsuits over the Rossi/Gregoire Governor’s race decided by 133 votes out of over 2.8 million), (c) ballot title, certification, & legal challenges (e.g., Initiatives 1234, 1776, 1000, 933, 895, 892, 885, 884, 864, 860, 773, 732 & Referendum 88), (d) Public Records Act suits (e.g., those regarding the Marysville High School & Seattle Pacific University shootings), and (e) suits over the validity of statutes & initiatives (e.g., defending Washington’s Top-Two primary system in the U.S. Supreme Court & invalidating various Tim Eyman ballot measures). Frequent speaker at national conferences on these topics.

Insurance Coverage: Representing policyholders & claimants in a wide array of state & federal court lawsuits since the 1980s; frequent speaker on insurance coverage at legal education seminars & industry association conferences; Best Lawyers® 2011 Seattle Insurance Law “Lawyer of the Year”.

Cybercrime: Representing clients victimized by cyber intrusion, cyber fraud, and cyber crime with response, recovery, & legal compliance; advising on protection, prevention, & legal liability mitigation planning for clients wishing to take affirmative steps to curtail the danger of such losses.