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Timothy J. Petumenos

Shareholder
(907) 263-7214
Anchorage
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Practice Areas

• Aviation Law
• Complex Litigation
• Product Liability
• Personal Injury
• Appellate Practice
• Business Torts and Commercial Litigation

Mr. Petumenos focuses on complex civil litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants. He also handles selected criminal defense cases involving business, environmental, tax and public trust issues.

Mr. Petumenos solidified his reputation as one of the state's toughest trial lawyers during his tenure with the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions in the early 1980's. There, he tried high-profile corruption cases and secured a bribery conviction against a powerful state senator. After joining BHBC, he was called back to public service to prosecute the infamous MacKay murder trials.

Now in private practice, he continues to lead some of Alaska's most important and well-known trials. In the state Exxon Valdez oil spill case, Mr. Petumenos was counsel for the Alaska Native Corporations who owned the contaminated beaches. Many of his major cases, including other catastrophic oil spills, criminal tax proceedings, environmental trials and wrongful termination actions have led to important issues of law being established in the Alaska Supreme Court.  In 2008, Mr. Petumenos led the Alaska Personnel Board's investigation of "Troopergate" as independent counsel for the state agency charged with investigating alleged violations of Alaska's Executive Branch Ethics Act.  In 2007 he conducted a lengthy complex fraud trial, obtaining a multi-million dollar verdict.  Also in 2007, in Hagland Aviation v. Harms, 210 P.3d 444 (Alaska 2009), Mr. Petumenos successfully completed a landmark employment case which protected employees' entitlement to unpaid overtime wages against unconstitutional retroactive state legislation.

Mr. Petumenos takes perhaps the greatest pride in the work he has done, without fee, to protect families seeking asylum in the United States to escape difficult and dangerous conditions in their countries of origin.

Education

• Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 1976)
• Tufts University (B.A., cum laude, 1973)

Admitted to Practice

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska
• Alaska

Awards and Honors

• Selected for inclusion in Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers in 2010 in the area of general commercial litigation
• Martindale-Hubbell AV Rated
• Elected to the American Law Institute, 2007
• Selected to Alaska Super Lawyers, 2007, 2009

Other Professional Experience

• Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions. Mr. Petumenos was among the first prosecutors cross-designated as an Assistant United States Attorney, authorizing him to pursue cases in both federal and state court.
• Prosecutor, Fairbanks District Attorney's Office

Representative Matters and Selected Clients

• Independent Counsel, State of Alaska Personnel Board 
• Nabors Industries Ltd.
• Cook Inlet Regional Inc.
• Alaska Interstate Construction, Inc.
• Chugach Alaska Corporation
• Chenega Corporation
• Pharmaceutical companies
• Physicians and surgeons
• Most important, many hard working Alaskans and their families

Publications and Speaking Engagements

• Numerous trial advocacy courses in Alaska and throughout the U.S.; certified instructor with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA)
• CLE seminars on technology in the courtroom, trial advocacy and early case evaluation, Alaska Bar Association
• Adjunct professor, University of Alaska at Anchorage (courses related to legal issues)

Professional and Community Activities

• Alaska Bar Association hearing committees on disciplinary issues
• Bar association convention planning
• Past service on bar practice area committees
• Private pilot, instrument rated, single engine land and sea with more than 1,000 hours flight time.

Languages Spoken

• Fluent Spanish