Stewart M. Landefeld

Stewart Landefeld, partner and Chair of the firm's Business practice, has 30 years of experience counseling companies and boards in the areas of corporate governance, securities compliance, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, private equity investments and venture capital. Stewart has provided corporate governance and other general corporate counsel to dozens of leading companies, including Microsoft Corporation, Costco Wholesale Corporation, T-Mobile, PetSmart Inc., Orbitz (Audit Committee), Aircastle (Independent Directors), F5 Networks, Intermec Inc., Outerwall Inc., Cardiac Science Corporation, The Seattle Mariners, The Tacoma Rainiers (Baseball Club of Tacoma, LLC) and The Seattle SuperSonics among others. Clients benefit from the valuable insight he gained after serving for nearly a year as interim Chief Legal Officer, interim Chief Compliance Officer and then Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Washington Mutual Inc. in the months prior to and after FDIC seizure of Washington Mutual Bank.



A frequently sought-after speaker and author regarding a variety of corporate governance and other public company issues, Stewart is both the Editor-in-Chief and co-author of The Public Company Handbook: A Corporate Governance and Disclosure Guide for Directors and Executives (Third Edition), published by Bowne. He was recently honored as the recipient of the Burton Foundation's 2009 Distinguished Law Firm Award for co-authoring the article, "Cost Effective Improvements in Governance: Enhancing Communications Among Board Committees," published by the Corporate Governance Advisor. Stewart has also played a significant role in director training programs and had been both the founding organizer and faculty member for the Seattle University Directors Training Academy.



Stewart has been recognized every year since 2005 as one of “America’s Leading Business Lawyers” by Chambers USA. He has also been recognized repeatedly as one of "Washington's Super Lawyers" by Washington Law & Politics and is frequently listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Lawdragon 500's "Leading Lawyers in America," and Who's Who Legal USA – Corporate Governance.