Steven James Peiffle

I highly recommend Steven J. Peiffle, attorney at Bailey, Duskin & Peiffle, P.S. in Arlington, WA. He is well-respected among his colleagues and within the court system. Peiffle is knowledgeable, (important!), confident (important!), personable (important!) and a stand-up kind of professional (impor...tant!) who always acts with integrity (important!). Peiffle came on board after my initial attorney, David Duskin retired. He quickly assessed the situation of a self-dealing family member taking advantage of his mother and took preventative steps. The outcome in this case turned out to be the best I could have expected.

We met and discussed all the changes we wanted to make on our will and trust. Mr Peiffle took notes and sent us a draft about a week later with several mistakes. I called the office as instructed to inform them of the errors and about 1 1/2 weeks later received an e-mail with another "corrected" dr...aft which also had several mistakes. This time I e-mailed him and placed the errors in writing and he was able to produce a correct document. Then he charged me for his time, which was mostly spent correcting his own mistakes.

I asked Steve once what his philosophy of lawyering was. He replied, "Lawyers who act like jerks in the courtroom are jerks outside the courtroom. I am not a jerk." That perspective helped us, his clients, to not act like jerks either. Steve did not impress me as the type of lawyer who is content... to merely be the mouthpiece for whatever his client wanted to be said. In the heat of emotions when we laymen want to do all kinds of ill-advised things, Steve kept us on track and skillfully lead us to a decisive victory in arbitration which recovered tens of thousands of dollars that had been misappropriated from the estate by the executor. "Decisive" isn't adjective enough....."profound butt whooping of epic proportions" was more like it. I hired Steve after reading that he had been named a "Super Lawyer" by Washington Law & Politics magazine in 2008 and 2009. Steve's knowledge of the law, his ability to articulate that in layman's terms to his client in a way that was understandable and his obvious talent for writing well drafted and well argued legal briefs and other court documents clearly sets him apart. What I particularly admired was his sharp legal strategizing. When you think you don't understand why he did what he did and then you see the fruit of his strategies, it all makes sense and you appreciate that you hired such a darn good attorney. I love to regale friends with stories of how our probate arbitration day went. There was calm, cool, deceptively mild looking Steve keeping three hyped up, angry , snorting -like-a-bunch-of-wild- horses clients under control so that our testimonies were devastatingly effective. Not needing any court room drama, he let the full weight of his legal arguments speak volumes. He kept up that calm poker face until all was finished and we had retired to the Majestic Cafe whereupon Steve celebrated with us. Lawyers are not cheap and you get what you pay for. Steve was worth every penny and I would hire him again without hesitation. What I most appreciated was that Steve helped us restore integrity and transparency to the administration of my father's estate which honored my father's wishes and his memory. What could have been a distasteful, ugly final chapter of my Dad's life was made right by a good lawyer.