Dennis George (1938-2017)

We mourn the passing of our friend and colleague T. Dennis George on July 27, 2017.  Dennis was a partner at Helsell Fetterman before he, with good friends and Helsell Fetterman colleagues Lyman Hull, Benjamin Porter and Laurie Kohli, founded George Hull Porter & Kohli, which he served as managing partner.  Thereafter he was General Counsel of Dendreon Corp.  He was later Of Counsel to the firm of McNaul Ebel Nawrot Helgren & Vance, and completed his career as a respected mediator and arbitrator.

Reflecting the high regard in which Dennis was held by his peers, he served as outside counsel to the Washington State Bar Association in a lawsuit brought against the WSBA and its then Executive Director, Dennis Harwick.  He also served as President of the Federal Bar Association of the Western District of Washington; during his term he initiated the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force, which extensively studied ADR practices and needs in the Western District and made sweeping recommendations to the District’s judges.

He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Northern Michigan University in 1996 and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from that same institution in 2005.

Dennis taught business law and contract negotiations to many international students at the University of Washington Professional & Continuing Education Program over the years and was a mentor to many young lawyers, imparting to them what was most important about the practice of law – discipline, integrity and decency in dealings with clients, parties and the courts.

A sense of Dennis’s personality can be gleaned by reading his obituary, written by him prior to his death, and published in the Seattle Times August 2, 2017: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=t-dennis-george&pid=186265607