Attorney Bio: Stew Estes

Summary of Experience

Stew spent 33 years at Keating, Bucklin & McCormack, Inc., P.S. in downtown Seattle. He joined the firm in 1992 after working for the Office of the Attorney General and Spokane Legal Services. He was the managing shareholder for 12 years before retiring from the firm. Representative cases

Since 1987, he has defended and counseled state and local government officials and agencies, and private companies and individuals. His practice focuses primarily on the defense of damage trials involving Civil Rights Act violations, police misconduct, sexual assault, and employment discrimination. He also handles issues such as training, risk management, and government-specific matters such as Public Disclosure, and coroner's inquests. He is a frequent lecturer at CLE seminars and police training events, and has served on several WSBA committees.

Appellate Work

List of Cases

Stew has an active appellate practice. He was the Chair of the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers (WDTL) Amicus Committee for 20 years, from 1998 to 2017, and has argued dozens of appellate cases.

Stew is a member of the Washington Appellate Lawyers Association (WALA). He is a co-author, along with Bryan Harnetieaux of the Amicus Practice Chapter of the Washington Appellate Practice Deskbook (4th ed 2016).

Licenses & Admissions

Washington Bar Ass’n (1985)

  • Court Rules & Procedures Committee, 1997 - 2000

  • Civil Rights Committee, 1995 - 1997

  • Legal Aid Committee, 1989 - 1992

Arizona Bar Ass’n (2018)

Oregon Bar Ass’n (2019)

US Supreme Court (1994)

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1985)

U.S. District Courts (Arizona, Washington) (2028, 1985)

Professional Activities

Washington Defense Trial Lawyers

  • Chair, Amicus Committee, 1997- 2017

  • Board of Trustees, 2002-2003

  • Member, 1992 - Present

Defense Research Institute (1998)

Washington Appellate Lawyers Ass’n (1992)

WA Super Lawyers (1999-present)

Seattle's Top Lawyers, Seattle Magazine, July 2010 (Civil Rights)

Trainings & Presentations

Separate page for list of over two dozen presentations to City Attorneys, police chiefs, command staff, and officers, prosecutors, the NCAA, and city, state and county officials.

Law Review Articles & Publications

Stewart Estes, The Short Happy Life of Litigation Between Tortfeasors: Contribution, Indemnification and Subrogation After Washington's Tort Reform Acts, 21 Seattle Univ. Law Rev.101 (1997).

“As one commentator astutely notes, ‘[C]ontribution still has vitality, but only when joint and several liability exists -- now an infrequent occurrence.’ Stewart A. Estes, supra at 70.“

Kottler v State, 136 Wn.2d 437, 445-48, 963 P.2d 834 (1998).

This article has been quoted with aproval by several other cases and treatises:

  • 2 Comparative Negligence Manual Ch. 68 (3d ed 2025);

  • 6 Wash. Prac., Wash. Pattern Jury Instr. Civ. WPI 41.04, Comments (6th ed. 2022) (“For discussions of various issues arising under RCW 4.22.070, see generally Estes, Contribution, Indemnification, and Subrogation”);

  •  Caroline Aubry Golshan, The Modification of Washington's Nondelegable Duty Doctrine in a Post-Afoa II State, 43 Seattle U.L. Rev. 321 (2019);

  • Afoa v. Port of Seattle, 191 Wn.2d 110, 120, 421 P.3d 903, 908 (2018)

  •  Carol Sue Janes, Washington Health Law Manual — Third Edition (2011), Chapter 8, Section 8.5.5, at 8-42;

  •  Rossella Esther Cerchia, Uno per tutti, tutti per uno. Itinerari della responsabilità solidale nel diritto comparato ("One for all, all for one. Routes of joint liability in comparative law") (Giuffrè Ed, Milano, 2009), at 280;

  •  Victor J Torres, Tegman v. Accident & Medical Investigations, Inc.: The Re-Modification of Modified Joint and Several Liability by Judicial Fiat, 29 Seattle U. L. Rev. 729, 741 n. 86 (2005-2006);

  •  Geurin v. Winston Industries, 316 F.3d 879, 883 (9th Cir. 2002));

  • 3 Bruner & O'Connor, Construction Law §§ 10:118, and, 10:128 (2002);

  •  H Dagan, JJ White, Governments, Citizens, and Injurious Industries, 75 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 354, 384 n. 116 (2000).

Public Policy and the Deconstruction of Stare Decisis: The Supreme Court Rethinks Qualified Immunity in Savage v. State, The Defense Press, Vol. 4, No. 5, Spring/Summer 1996

Court Decides Legal Issues Raised by Partially Uncollectible Settlement, WSTLA Trial News, December 1995, Vol. 31, No. 4.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? The Dust Settles on the Tort Reform Act of 1986, Washington Bar News, April 1995.

The Helmet Defense: Making the Case for Personal Responsibility, Stewart A. Estes and Andrew G. Cooley, The Defense Press, Vol. 4, No. 3, Spring 1995.

Compelled and Voluntary Disclosure of Information by Public Agencies: Scylla & Charybdis Revisited, October 1994.

Guimont v. Clarke: The Washington Supreme Court Revises the Presbytery Takings Analysis, The Defense Press, Vol. 3, No. 9, Summer 1993.

Powers v. Skagit County: The Court of Appeals Construes Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, The Defense Press, Vol. 3, No. 8, Winter 1993

Recent Developments in Government Liability Law,  The Defense Press, Vol. 3, No. 7, Fall 1992.

Learn Something Through Pro Bono, S.A. Estes and M. Elliott, Washington Bar News, October 1991.

The Government Lawyer and Pro Bono, Washington Bar News, November 1990.

Washington Real Property Forfeiture: An Examination of the 1989 Amendments to RCW 69.50.505. A handbook for government attorneys and law enforcement officers, July 1989 (updated 1992-1998).