A chance visit to the Inland Northwest in the early 1970s led Jonathan Lee to move to Spokane and to transfer his law studies to Gonzaga University. Lee, now 67 years old, never left.

He’s worked in probate, family, and general law here since 1976, now operating Lee Law Office PS, at 1124 W. Riverside, in the North Coast Plaza building downtown. Throughout his 38-year tenure, he’s handled landlord-tenant disputes, business real estate litigation, probate cases, and family law cases that include adoptions and divorces. 

“I’ve handled a number of probate litigation cases, one of which went to the state Supreme Court for argument,” Lee says. “It was a dispute over the language and interpretation of the terms of the will, and there was a huge monetary swing one way or the other depending on the outcome of the case.”

Lee represented a family member in that dispute with other relatives, and he won the Supreme Court case in 1983. The challenge arose from the interpretation of certain words in a family will, concerning whether the deceased parents who had a farm intended for his client to receive a greater benefit than other family members.

“The takeaway for me is you have to believe in yourself, and you have to believe in your case,” Lee says. “It was huge for me as a young lawyer.”

Several of his other cases have gone to the Washington state Court of Appeals. 

While family law often involves emotional conflict between relatives, Lee says he focuses on helping people take a step back.

“I view family law as a spectrum, from adoptions on one end to death and probate on the other,” he says. “You’re dealing with family issues all the way through. Yeah, you have a lot of emotions. A lot of times, I try to help them get through the bitterness and say, ‘You need to mitigate it to everyone’s satisfaction.’”

He adds, “I’m a real advocate for mediation, bringing people together and trying to find some common ground absent any personal emotions.”

At times during the past dozen years, Lee’s career also has involved serving as a judge pro tem and court commissioner in Spokane County Superior Court, and as a trial arbitrator and mediator for that court. Lee says he hasn’t served in the judge pro tem role for about two years now, but he’s still on the list of people who can be called to serve as a commissioner. A pro tem or commissioner in the court receives minor stipends. 

Lee says a commissioner is a pro-tem position to consider and sign court orders regarding legal issues that include family-law cases, probate, and landlord-tenant disputes. He says examples include a court order regarding the will of a deceased person and whether it can be admitted to probate, and the appointing of a personal representative to handle the estate. For landlord-tenant cases, a commissioner may be called to consider a writ showing why a tenant shouldn’t be ordered to vacate.

Pro-tem judges can hear full cases involving such issues as family law, divorces, landlord-tenant disputes, and personal injury, providing that the lawyers of opposing parties agree and the court authorizes the action.

“Then you have the same powers as whatever a sitting judge would have,” he says.

In other roles, he has served as chairman of the Washington State Bar Association’s rules and professional conduct board. He also has served as a WSBA special district counsel investigating bar complaints against lawyers, and as a fee arbitrator for the bar association when a dispute arises over attorney fees. 

Currently, Lee serves on the WSBA family law executive committee to address legislative bills and changes that affect family law in the state.

Lee moved to Spokane in 1973 after he had finished a year of studies at DePaul University College of Law, in Chicago. He and his wife, Susan, were here to see an ill relative when Lee decided to investigate a transfer to Gonzaga.

“My wife was from Pullman, and we knew we wanted to move West,” he says. A South Hill resident, he and Susan have been married for 43 years. They have three grown children and five grandchildren.

In his first job here while at Gonzaga, Lee worked as a law clerk for the law firm of Elkins & Michaelsen, but he says the partnership dissolved by the time he graduated in 1975. 

“I worked for Mr. (Howard) Michaelsen for a couple of years after,” Lee says. 

In the late 1970s, Lee decided to start his own law practice to focus on family law, probate and estate law, and general law, which remain his main focuses today. He shared space with another attorney who is still practicing today, Steven Crumb, and they rented an old house on Mallon Avenue for their offices.

Crumb’s business grew quickly to become a three-lawyer firm, so Crumb soon moved his office downtown.

“Then David Michaud came in to share space with me, and later we established Lee & Michaud around 1984,” Lee recalls. “Several years later, we hired Kenneth Isserlis.”

Lee says the three attorneys soon formed the practice of Lee, Michaud & Isserlis PS and grew to have a total of four lawyers and seven support employees. The practice also moved to office space near the present Oxford Suites hotel on North River Drive, where it stayed for around eight years.

After some time, Michaud became disabled and had to leave the firm, and another attorney soon after left to work at another law office, Lee says.

“Ken & I formed Lee & Isserlis, so Ken and I operated together in some form or fashion for almost 20 years,” Lee says. “He retired about 1 1/2 years ago, so I have come full circle. I’ve gone from being lone ranger to a four-lawyer firm to being a lone ranger again.”

He has been at the office on Riverside Avenue for about seven years now, where just he and his assistant of nearly 19 years, Jan Eimers, work today. 

After working nearly four decades in the law profession, Lee says one major change he’s noticed in the past 10 years is a significant increase in the number of family law cases involving parties representing themselves. Such cases include divorces as well as custody and child-support issues.

The judicial system is trying to simplify forms in these types of procedures to make it easier for people who are representing themselves in court, but the changes also have brought some challenges, he says.

“It cuts two ways,” he says. “It cuts down the amount of cases that a lawyer would have, and the flip side is if people do it wrong, then it becomes a more costly endeavor for lawyers to unwind if they get the case afterward and try to make it right.”

He adds, “I’ve seen the increase in the last 10 or 15 years, and it’s changing even more now. There is a move to make the forms easier to read, in layman terms, but sometimes that won’t fit.”

He says an example is that statutes refer to divorce as dissolution of marriage, so if court documents refer to a petition for divorce rather than dissolution of marriage, the phrase doesn’t match the wording in state law.

In addition working closely on legal issues for so many years, Lee is quick to describe how he has applied his skills and energy outside of a courtroom.

“I do a number of things besides just the practice of law,” he says. “My biggest joy is I do is a men’s Bible study. I’m in the 30th year.”

Lee also holds past and current leadership roles with USA Volleyball, a national youth sport organization he became active in because all three of his children played. He currently is serving on the USA Volleyball national board of directors. His term will end in June.

“I used to be the commissioner for this area, the Evergreen Region, and I did that for 16 years,” he says.

He also has helped draft policy for the sports organization’s due-process procedures to deal with issues such as players fighting, and other misconduct among competitors, coaches, and spectators.

“It’s for the safety of kids,” Lee says. “It was kind of the forefront of safe sports, a new idea the Olympics are pushing. It now ripples out to all junior sports.”

Of his law practice here, Lee says he doesn’t plan to retire any time soon because he enjoys his work.

 “I always know the light at the end of the tunnel is getting larger, but I haven’t decided. I like what I do. I’m having fun, so why not keep going?”