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Kenneth W. Hart

Kenneth Hart joined Carney Badley Spellman, P.S. in 2010. Mr. Hart’s practice is focused on commercial and business transactions, business startups, real estate transactions and related litigation.

Mr. Hart assists clients with business formations, as well as with negotiating and drafting partnership, shareholder and employment contracts and negotiating and documenting business purchases and sales and secured sales transactions.  For many of his business clients, Mr. Hart serves the role of general counsel to handle such matters as lease negotiations, vendor disputes, employment issues, sales and acquisitions and ownership succession. He strives to stay current with his clients and to be available and responsive when they need help and advice so that they can concentrate on running and growing their businesses.

In addition to business law, Mr. Hart has extensive litigation, trial practice and appellate experience in various courts and jurisdictions, both state and federal, and in a broad range of areas. These include general civil litigation, commercial and real estate law. He has researched and written extensively on the law as it pertains to adverse possession and property boundary line and easement disputes, and is a sought-after CLE speaker on those topics. He is also a trained mediator and experienced arbitrator.

Both by training and inclination, Mr. Hart is a problem solver, and his approach to the practice of law is collaborative. That means helping clients better understand whatever situation they are facing and providing them with the information and guidance they need to make informed decisions. His experience as both a transactional lawyer and a litigator allows him to better provide his clients with insightful strategic planning and the advice they need to meet their day-to-day challenges.

 

Mr. Hart has been named by Super Lawyers magazine and the Super Lawyers Business Edition as one of the top attorneys in Washington State 2013-2023. He has been active in both the state and local bar associations, and over the years has served with distinction in various leadership roles. In 1990, Mr. Hart was honored as the Washington State Bar Association’s Young Lawyer of the Year. He is also a former treasurer of the King County Bar Association. He served for three years on the Washington State Bar Association Disciplinary Board, a dedicated group of practicing lawyers and laypersons appointed to review complaints of lawyer misconduct and determine disciplinary actions when appropriate.

Mr. Hart is the former editor of the Washington Lawyers Practice Manual and a former member of the Editorial Advisory Board for De Novo magazine. He has also served as chairman of the King County Fair Judicial Campaign Practices Committee and as a Trustee of the King County Bar Association’s Employee Retirement Fund.

Mr. Hart has been listed in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine and Seattle Business Magazine as one of King County’s “Top Lawyers” 2010, 2013-2016. They cull their listings from Martindale-Hubbell and Super Lawyers. He has an AVVO rating of 10/10.

  • Judicial Law Clerk, Washington State Court of Appeals, Division One
  • JD, cum laude, University of Puget Sound School of Law (now Seattle University Law School), 1985
  • BA, University of Washington, 1981
  • State of Washington
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Washington
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. Claims Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
  • Washington State Bar Association
  • King County Bar Association, trustee, Employee Retirement Fund
  • American Bar Association