Michael F. Schumacher

Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, P.S., Seattle, USA

I rolled west out of Oklahoma some thirty years ago (son of a Lutheran preacher), educated myself and adventured over a ten-year span, with segments in California, Oregon, Alaska, Michigan, and Europe, and eventually chose Seattle to grow my roots. My work at HCMP has spanned the last twenty-three years. I am now one of the gray heads here, but I bring abundant energy and considerable experience to every task I take on.

After six years in commercial and real estate litigation, I discovered greater satisfaction "doing deals" for clients with whom I have an ongoing relationship. My work includes formation and restructuring of partnerships and LLCs, real estate transactions, mostly related to development, and a huge amount of work in real estate and other kinds of lending. In the lending area, I work for banks and private lenders who operate throughout the west, and have helped them in loan document design, volume loan document production and closings, loan ventures for manufacturing or processing facilities and negotiate software and technology licenses. I also form joint ventures for manufacturing or processing facilities and negotiate software and technology licenses. I have a high volume practice and enjoy being a generalist. I especially value the relationships of trust and reliance that I have developed with clients with whom I have worked with for many years.

I achieve results with the same skills used by any other successful professional - careful analysis of issues, good listening, creative consideration of alternatives, reasoned selection of solutions and strategies, well organized plain English documentation, attention to the psychology underlying a business transaction, skillful persuasion when necessary, and quick response and implementation. I work hard and am adept at systems. Plus, I am lucky. I can be lightning fast when it is needed and I keep my clients informed and involved. Although I operate in the role of a lawyer, I often feel more like a business consultant. I feel honored to work with a very talented and dedicated group of lawyers in our real estate and lending group.

Professional Highlights:

Rising from bed and driving downtown at 2:00 a.m., because I saw a way to avoid a lawsuit that would paralyze a major project for years. A multi-tier partnership had owned about 1,200 acres of developable property in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 10 years, utilizing a convertible loan from certain sub-tier investors to get through a down cycle. As the date for conversion of the debt to equity approached, certain investors who faced dilution filed a motion for a restraining order, jeopardizing the $30 million refinancing planned to close two days later. I went home in the evening, almost resigned to years of paralyzing litigation. But in fitful sleep, I came upon an idea. By 5:00 a.m., my carefully pitched demand and threat of counterclaim had reached the troublemakers in London, with a promise that a proposed resolution would follow. By 10:00 a.m., they received my detailed proposal for escrow and standstill. By the lunch hour, we reached an agreement and the TRO hearing, scheduled for 1:30 p.m., was cancelled. The property subsequently sold for about $150 million. Having litigated cases for a number of years, I knew how things would get out of control if I allowed litigation to start with so many parties involved.

Representing a Fortune 500 public company in negotiating and documenting joint venture and financing terms for a $250 million paper recycling facility in the Midwest, and then doing it again when a second facility was built. The facilities have been hugely profitable. The same client formed a different joint venture this past year to market a new optical scanning technology for sorting recovered paper and fiber.