News & Events

On October 18, NBF attorney Chris Nicoll played lead guitar with the Defense Research Institute “house band,” The Defense Never Rests, at the closing banquet for the DRI’s annual meeting in Seattle.

NBF attorneys Christopher Nicoll, Rivers Black, Curt Feig, and Larry Altenbrun were selected as 2024 Seattle Super Lawyers, which is a rating service identifying outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

NBF kicked off 2024 in outstanding fashion by hosting its annual Mardi Gras party at the Whisky Bar in Belltown during MIAS week. The event was well-attended and in all respects fabulous!!

NBF attorneys Chris Nicoll and Noah Jaffe authored an amicus brief for the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers’ Association (“WDTL”) in support of a petition for review to the Washington Supreme Court in the case of Moore v. Fred Meyer Stores, Inc., ___ Wn. App. 2d ___ 532 P.3d 165 (2023). The case concerns premises liability. The brief argued that the Court of Appeals improperly broadened the holding of Johnson v. Liquor & Cannabis Board, 197 Wn.2d 605, 486 P.3d 125 (2021), when it required a jury instruction on the foreseeability of a wet floor in an aisle of a grocery store dedicated to the sale of dry goods in the absence of evidence of a nexus between the wet floor and the nature of the business’s operation. The amicus brief also takes issue with the plaintiff’s argument that the Washington Supreme Court need not accept review because the Washington Pattern Instruction Committee will address the jury instruction issue. Noah Jaffe is the chair of the Amicus Committee of the WDTL, and Chris Nicoll is an appointed member of the Washington Pattern Jury Instruction Committee representing the WDTL.

NBF paralegal Lia Maria Fulgaro recently took and passed both the California and Washington Bar exams. She has been sworn in as an attorney in both California and Washington. Quite an accomplishment!!! Congratulations Lia!!!!!

NBF attorneys Christopher Nicoll, Rivers Black, Curt Feig, Larry Altenbrun and Chris Reilly were selected as 2023 Seattle Super Lawyers, which is a rating service identifying outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

NBF attorney Elizabeth Strunk is now a member of the Oregon Bar. Congratulations!!!

NBF attorney Rod Fonda will be presenting on September 27, 2023 at the Current Issues in Maritime Law Conference organized by the Admiralty Committee of the Federal Bar Association. Rod will be speaking about “General Average,” the mysterious legal principle originally developed around 1750 B.C., a few centuries if not millennia before the first insurance policies appeared. Yet insurance policies did not displace General Average, which still remains a valid legal concept today. In the original application, if a ship got in trouble and needed to lighten its load to survive, the owners of “sacrificed” cargo thrown overboard would be compensated, on an “average” basis, by the cargo and vessel that survived because of that sacrifice. Today General Average is invoked in situations like ship fires or when enormous container ships get stuck in the Suez Canal and a “sacrifice” (paying money to firefighters or salvors) results in the saving of the vessel and remaining cargo.

NBF held a dinner to celebrate the retirement of attorney Nina Mitchell, who headed our longshore practice since 2015. Nina was a tremendous attorney and she left big shoes to fill. More importantly, she was an important leader and mentor in the firm whose warm personality, can-do attitude and professionalism helped make NBF a great place to work. We congratulate Nina on a wonderful career and wish her fair winds and following seas as she navigates retirement.