LEE SMART - Key Persons
Calder joined Lee Smart as an associate attorney in 2023. His practice includes all areas of civil litigation with an emphasis on litigation defense. Prior to joining Lee Smart, Calder gained valuable insight into the judicial process by spending over two years working as a judicial law clerk in the Federal District Court for the District of Montana as well as one year working as a judicial law clerk for Montana's Thirteenth Judicial District Court located in Billings, Montana.
Goitome joined Lee Smart as an Associate in September 2022. His practice includes all areas of civil litigation. He obtained his Master of Laws Degree from the University of Washington in 2020. During law school, he was the recipient of Master of Law Program's Spirit of Excellence award for 2020. Prior to joining Lee Smart, Goitome was a Rule 9 Licensed Legal Intern at King County Bar Association 's Housing Justice Project and then a Law Clerk at a Seattle based plaintiff's law firm. Goitome is passionate about the clients he represents and is always ready to go the extra mile to achieve positive outcomes.
James Mendel is a graduate of Brandeis University and New York Law School and is licensed to practice law in New York and Washington. His civil litigation practice primarily focuses on defending automobile liability and UM/UIM, premise liability, construction injury, and timber trespass matters. A secondary focus is conducting EUOs, PIP arbitrations, HOA litigation, and providing coverage opinions for personal lines policies. As the number of cases that result in jury trials has continued to decrease over the last few decades, James is nearing a rare milestone for trial attorneys, which is the completion of over 100 jury trials to verdict. Colleagues and opposing counsel regularly seek his opinion regarding trial procedure and strategy.
Jeffrey P. Downer is past president of Lee Smart, P.S., Inc. He graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 1982 and was admitted to the Washington State Bar that year. He joined Lee Smart as an intern in 1980 and as a lawyer in 1982. Jeff has a diverse litigation practice that includes professional liability defense, especially for lawyers and real estate brokers, insurance-coverage and bad-faith claims, appellate practice, premises liability, and product liability. Jeff has been "AV" rated by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory since 1994. His peers have named him a Washington Super Lawyer for 17 of the past 18 years. He has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for the past decade. Best Lawyers also named him a 2020 Lawyer of the Year in the practice area of Professional Malpractice Law - Defendants. He has successfully tried and arbitrated countless cases, including personal-injury cases, insurance-coverage matters, and professional-liability actions against lawyers and real estate professionals. He has served on the Washington State Bar Association's committee on pattern jury instructions for legal-malpractice cases. Jeff has been Costco Wholesale Corporation's national coordinating counsel in defense of claims across North America rising from allegations of E. coli O157:H7 infection and other claims of foodborne illness and food contamination. He has spoken at continuing legal education seminars regarding claims of professional liability, foodborne illness, and other aspects of defense litigation.
Jeffrey's experience includes these notable cases:
Piris v. Kitching, 185 Wn.2d 856, 375 P.3d 627 (2016) (legal malpractice).
Kenco Enterprises Northwest, LLC v. Wiese, - 172 Wn. App. 607, 291 P.3d 21 (2013) (legal malpractice).
Jackowski v. Borchelt - 174 Wn.2d 720, 278 P.3d 1100 (2012) (real estate professional liability).
Verbeek Properties, LLC v. GreenCo Environmental, Inc - 159 Wn. App. 246 P.2d 205 (2010) (applicability of arbitration clause).
Levi Bendele is a graduate of the University of Colorado and the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law. However, the best claim-handling education he received was when he moved to Washington and worked as a State Farm claim representative in the late 90s. Since that time he has defended a variety of cases, including automobile liability and UM/UIM, premise liability, construction injury and defect, premises liability, HOA litigation, professional liability, and insurance matters involving EUOs, PIP, coverage, bad faith and IFCA claims. Secondarily, he has worked on a handful of appeals before Division One of the Washington Court of Appeals and two matters before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. Bendele is a former board member of the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers Association (WDTL) and currently chairs the Automobile and Trucking Claims Defense Section.
Steven is President of Lee Smart. He joined the firm in 1987 and has practiced insurance defense litigation for more than 30 years. His litigation practice emphasizes construction site claims including building and design defects, personal injury, death, economic loss, and property damage. He has also defended product liability, toxic tort, and environmental claims, including asbestos personal injury and property damage defense.