Women Lawyers Thriving in Their Own Firms: Alisa Brodkowitz

Some stories stay with you. Let me start with the story of Alisa and Harry.

Now a brilliant aviation attorney with her own practice in Seattle, Alisa Brodkowitz grew up on a sheep farm in northern Vermont, near the Canadian border. Instead of dolls, Alisa had baby sheep in her wood-heated home, overflowing from baskets, covered with blankets, and nursing from eyedroppers and baby bottles. One was Harry, born a blind grey lamb who could not find his mother’s teat to nurse.

Alisa stepped in to nurture Harry, feeding him from a baby bottle and pushing him around in a baby carriage (she says she was always Little Bo Peep in the town parades). Although all the lambs on the farm, including Harry, were killed, and Alisa was never told about Harry’s death, my sense is that Harry touched her deeply and helped to shape her gentle presence and tenacity.

I asked Alisa about the lessons she learned from growing up on a farm. “I learned the importance of hard work and chores,” Alisa said, “but more importantly, I understood the cycle of life and death.” And when she could help, she stepped in and did everything she could, whether that meant mothering Harry or learning to fix a tractor engine (as a kid she loved all things mechanical). Laughing, she adds that she also learned to talk fast and articulately as she competed with her two brothers for air time.

Alisa brings her childhood qualities of gentle presence, tenacity and intelligence to her successful practice. Judge Faith Ireland has also observed this: “I am someone who keeps an eye out for great talent in the law business. As such I have observed Alisa to be fearless, hungry for the courtroom and highly respectful of the talent of opposing counsel. Those attributes lead her to work hard and prepare ferociously.”

Alisa’s story shows us the magical way that synchronicity can lead us on our journey. In her childhood, she had an unorthodox education in a tiny school held in the home of a local doctor. The students studied Latin, Greek and French in the second grade, and learned about biology when the dogs dragged in a deer head they could dissect. Sleep away summer camp in the Adirondacks for two months every year, beginning at a very young age strengthened Alisa’s independence, self-respect and confidence as she mastered sailing, canoeing and horseback riding.

Her high school years were spent at the White Mountain Boarding School, where in the winter months, the kids skied for a portion of each day. French was a favorite subject. Her senior project on impressionism (Van Gogh) in France led her through many adventures in Paris (including a mugging), and she fell deeply in love with the city and its treasures. She returned to France during a gap period in college to work with an artist. Never happy at the University of Vermont, she eventually landed at Concordia University in Montreal where she studied French.

Montreal became Alisa’s “favorite city on earth, more than Paris.” Why? It is “a tossed salad of people who love life, music, art, food, and festivals.” Alisa embodies this love of life. When you are with her, you feel more alive yourself.

When Alisa decided to return to the states from Montreal to go to law school, she enrolled at Seattle University, when it was still in Tacoma, only to be overwhelmed by the contrast with her cherished Montreal. Determined to return to Montreal, she focused on international law. On her way to graduating cum laude, she took a transnational litigation course that so inspired her that she “ran to class, read ahead and did international research.” Her adjunct professor had worked on the TWA Flight 800 case—the plane that crashed off of Long Island in 1996 as it was bound for France.

    Her professor used the crash as an example in teaching the class about international treaties and conflicts of law. Along the way Alisa got her first taste of aviation law and was transfixed. This was a practice area that combined her love for international law, all things mechanical, an intellectual challenge and an opportunity to make the world a safer place. It was then that Alisa decided to become an aviation law attorney.

    So she sought out an opportunity to learn more aviation law.  There are only two places in the world where you can get an LLM in Air and Space Law, Montreal Quebec and Leiden, The Netherlands.  After sending 100 letters to firms and NGOs overseas (that tenacity once again), Alisa was offered an internship at the Hague in her senior year (2000–01) to work on the Hague Conference on Private International Law. For one semester, she attended the Leiden School of Law in the Netherlands where she studied aviation law.  Leiden's aviation law program is taught by preeminent aviation scholars. The experience was invaluable. While studying and working in The Netherlands Alisa wrote a 60 page law review article, and also helped write a book on the Hague Convention—the Practical Handbook on the Operation of the Hague Service Convention, the practitioners' guide on international service of process.

Because her European credits did not transfer equivalently, when Alisa returned to the States, she was asked to do an internship with a local aviation attorney, Bob Hedrick. Her internship introduced her to the King County Aviation Bar Seminar, where she met lawyers from Krutch, Lindell, Bingham, Jones & Petrie, which became her first employer out of law school. For three years, she honed her skills and knowledge while working on plane crash and other personal injury cases.

In 2006, Alisa joined Paul Whelan at Stritmatter, Kessler, Whelan &  Coluccio. Together they worked on the Magana v. Hyundai case, involving a seat-back failure and a paralyzed client. When Alisa moved for production of other seat back failure cases, Hyundai withheld evidence on most (more than 40), resulting in a default judgment for $8 million. (Although Division II reversed the ruling, the Supreme Court recently heard oral argument, in the winter of 2008.) As Alisa talked about her client, she spoke and gestured with sadness and compassion about his loss. From my past experience in representing injured plaintiffs in product’s cases, I understood the depth of her feelings.

Alisa, with husband Matt Geise, gave birth in 2007 to a daughter, Ana Rose. Wanting to practice part-time, she started her own office just three months later. Her husband and her father, both owners of their own businesses, said to her, “It is your time, so do it!”

When Alisa sent a letter to all her clients, offering them a choice between following her or staying with her old law firm, every one chose to follow. Within a few months she went to trial, earning a $400,000.00 verdict in a back injury case. After her daughter's first birthday she extended her work schedule considerably to accommodate her caseload.

Alisa leases a Fremont building with friend and colleague Beth Terrell. Her office sparkles with sleek, custom-designed maple desk and shelves designed by award-winning architect Carolyn Geise.  For the first time in her career she is able to concentrate nearly all of her time on her passion, aviation law. She is clearly not only happy but deeply fulfilled by her work, which is “flourishing.”

Ninety percent of Alisa’s cases now are aviation, her first love. If she can discover why a plane went down or malfunctioned and provide some peace of mind to surviving family members, while making it safer for others to travel, that’s satisfaction. She is currently counsel to the plaintiff in a case against Boeing for toxic fumes released in the cabin on commercial aircraft. According to Alisa, the problem is that the air drawn in to pressurize the airline cabin sometimes becomes contaminated with jet engine oil. An additive to this oil is Tricresyl Phosphate, a known neurotoxin. This air is unfiltered and undetected as it circulates around the cabin throughout a flight, injuring an untold number of travelers and crew members every year.

Alisa is driven by her belief that we must leave the world a better place than we found it, and that it is important to follow our passions and take risks, even through our fear.

Though she has come a long way since her days with Harry, her understanding of matters of life and death, and empowering of those who have suffered loss of life or health have been threads of truth that have prevailed for Alisa and her clients.

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