The firm was founded in 1990 as Ater Wynne Hewitt Dodson & Skerritt, LLP by Ron Saxton, Steve Wynne, Jonathan Ater, and others. It was created out of a split of firm Lindsay Hart Neil & Weigler, with Ater Wynne retaining 30 partners shortly after the larger firm's Boise office switched to become an office of Davis Wright Tremaine. At that time the firm was located in the KOIN Tower in downtown Portland where the prior firm had been located since 1985. Saxton later made unsuccessful runs for Governor of Oregon in 2002 and 2006, while Wynne later served as leader of Adidas America and other corporate leadership positions. Wynne left for Adidas in 1995 to become the CEO for the Portland-based affiliate of the German company. Thomas Balmer rejoined the firm in 1997, and served as the firm's managing partner. The firm became Ater Wynne in 1998. Balmer left when he was appointed to the Oregon Supreme Courtin 2001 where he later became chief justice. The firm added six new attorneys in October 2000, followed by five more in November 2001. Ater Wynne then expanded its public finance, business, and energy practices by adding five attorneys in June 2002. A bar complaint was filed in 2005 by the City of Portland and later dismissed by the Oregon State Bar concerning the firm first representing the city in negotiations to buy Portland General Electric but later worked for Texas Pacific Group, who was also looking to buy the utility. In 2008, it announced it would leave the KOIN Tower and move to the Pearl District to the top floor of The Lovejoy, and completed their move at the end of that year. A lawsuit was filed in 2011 related to the collapse of Grifphon Asset Management due to a ponzi scheme, in which Ater Wynne later became a defendant. The firm settled the case in May 2014 for $8 million. Ater Wynne had been Grifphon's law firm for a few years prior to the collapse of the scheme, though the firm's attorneys were unaware of the illegal activities by the company. In September 2019, the firm announced it was purchased by the law firm Buchalter.
Details
Ater Wynne is housed in at the nine-story The Lovejoy. Located in the Pearl District on Lovejoy Street, it occupies the top two floors of the building and includes a deck and fireplace. As of 2014, it has 39 attorneys at its Portland office along with 46 support staff, making it the twelfth largest in Portland. The Seattle office is located in Union Square in downtown. Practice areas for the firm include business, energy, antitrust, insurance coverage, healthcare, appellate work, construction, trusts and estates, bankruptcy, intellectual property rights, labor and employment law, litigation, taxes, natural resources, business law, construction and real estate, and law related to Native Americans, among others.
