About Robert C. Mussehl
ROBERT C. MUSSEHL has over 40 years’ experience as a Seattle Trial Lawyer. A graduate and class president of the American University Law School in Washington, D.C., Mr. Mussehl received the Delta Theta Phi Scholarship Award (Upper 7 1/2% of his class) as well as the Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co. Award for the outstanding student in Torts, which was taught by law school Dean, John Sherman Myers. His practice emphasizes the representation of injured persons. He is known for his negotiation skills that result in win/win settlements.
Mr. Mussehl is also a sport lawyer/agent. Mr. Mussehl has represented NBA players in extensive contract negotiations, including Spencer Haywood, Fred Brown, Slick Watts and Zaid Abdul Aziz (Don Smith). Mr. Mussehl was the major owner and C.E.O. of the Seattle Smashers, a co-ed, professional volleyball team, which played at the Seattle Center Arena, (1976 – 1980). He has served as attorney, business agent and sports agent for Spencer Haywood for over 40 years.
Mr. Mussehl served as the Chair of the American Bar Association, Section of Dispute Resolution (2001-2002), in which he was a co-founder, and has more than 10 years of elected leadership in the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. The Uniform Mediation Act was passed by the ABA House of Delegates during his term as Chair. Mr. Mussehl is dedicated to Alternative Dispute Resolution, which he uses to resolve the vast majority of his cases in his practice.
Although now a plaintiff's personal injury attorney, Mr. Mussehl was formerly a State Farm adjuster and an insurance defense trial attorney. He has represented Travelers and Safeco Insurance Companies in auto and fire loss subrogation cases. He also represented Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance Company for 14 years as a personal injury defense trial attorney in both King and Snohomish Counties.
Mr. Mussehl served as a certified panel member of the American Arbitration Association for over 35 years, and for many years as a mediator for the Settlement Now Program established in King County to reduce court congestion. He has served as a King County Superior Court Judge Pro Tempore. He is also a past Chair of the Young Lawyers Section of the Seattle-King County Bar Association. He served for 12 years as a member of the ABA House of Delegates, the policymaking body of the American Bar Association. Mr. Mussehl served as a Commissioner on the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity from 2004 to 2006, and served as Editor of its Goal IX Newsletter to advocate the role and rights of women and minorities for three years.
Martindale-Hubbell, the National Law Directory, has given Mr. Mussehl a rating of "A-V", the highest rating the publication bestows upon lawyers for legal ability, integrity, professional reliability and diligence. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers In America and has been regularly included in Who’s Who In America since 1982 and Who’s Who In American Law since 1982, and Who’s Who In The World since 2005. In 1991, he founded the Lawyers Helping Hungry Children Campaign, responsible for providing more than 5 million meals to “at-risk” children, for which he was a recipient of the 1997 American Institute for Public Service Jefferson Award.
Mr. Mussehl believes deeply that an injured plaintiff deserves the highest and best compensation as possible under the United States justice system. His law office utilizes alternative dispute resolution practices in order to obtain justice that has proved to be less stressful, quicker to resolution, and much less expensive than the traditional litigation law practice. Mr. Mussehl felt so strongly about the benefits and virtue of utilizing the ADR process that he signed a pledge in 1989 with the ABA to honor and enact ADR principles in all of his cases. He believes that “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied". Mr. Mussehl also represents victims with serious injuries or death from medical negligence as associate counsel for many years with “A-V” rated law firms that emphasize the aforesaid areas of medical negligence practice. Mr. Mussehl served as the sole Arbitrator in the case of Smith et al. vs. USA National Karate Federation in May of 2006, AAA Case No. 30-190-01286-05. He is also the author of two books, Paradise: A Roadway to Heaven 2008, And Paradise: Practical Wisdom to Unite Our Divided World 2015 , as well as numerous legal publications and law review articles in both The Notre Dame Law Review 1972 and The Gonzaga Law Review 1977.