Thomas Ahearne

Practice Areas

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

Career

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.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Washington (1984)

U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (1984)

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Washington (1991)

U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit (1991)

United States Supreme Court (2006)

Numerous pro hac vice admissions across the country