Mark Lamb is a Principal with Carney Badley Spellman PS, and Chair of the Real Estate Practice Group. He has practiced law for 26 years in both Washington and California. His practice centers on three primary areas: real estate & land use, business litigation & transactions, and First Amendment, campaign finance & election law. Mark was Mayor of Bothell for four terms and served on the Bothell City Council from 2004-2015.
Real Estate and Land UseÂ
Mr. Lamb’s primary real estate and land use clients include residential and commercial builders & developers, property owners, and community interest groups including homeowner associations. He has served as counsel to landowners and purchasers in sales, acquisitions, and financings of commercial and residential projects throughout the United States. Mark has also represented landowners and tenants in government acquisitions of property, including Eminent Domain proceedings. He has successfully litigated numerous complex boundary disputes including adverse possession, trespass, nuisance, easement, and related damage claims. Mark has extensive experience in the formation and management of real estate investment LLCs and limited partnerships, including foreign investment in U.S. commercial and residential projects and as U.S. counsel for the acquisition and sale of international properties. Mr. Lamb’s expertise in land use matters includes negotiating development agreements for and with local governments, entitling properties for development, creating private and municipal wetlands mitigation banking instruments, negotiating pre-annexation agreements, and drafting and negotiating comprehensive plan updates and zoning changes.
Outside General Counsel:Â Business Transactions & Litigation
Mr. Lamb’s business practice centers on serving as outside general counsel and litigation counsel to executives and privately held businesses of all sizes and in various industries. He has also served as strategic counsel to several non-profits, including investment funds, churches and public policy organizations. Mark is a trusted advisor on M&A, corporate governance issues, strategic litigation and internal investigations. He works with CEOs and Boards of Directors on matters involving mergers and acquisitions, high-stakes litigation, corporate finance, government investigations and regulatory compliance, and he handles a variety of issues regarding shareholder disputes, investments, real estate, insurance coverage, and board-executive relations. Mark has defended numerous businesses, executives, trade associations and non-profits in government investigations and civil litigation, including Consumer Protection Act (CPA) cases. Mr. Lamb regulary appears before arbitration panels when disputes arise that cannot be settled at the negotiating table. In addition, he regularly advises companies and non-profits with internal investigations and litigation risk avoidance.
First Amendment, Campaign Finance & Election LawÂ
Mr. Lamb serves as Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure counsel to trade associations, businesses, PACs, legislative caucuses, elected officials and statewide campaigns. He has successfully litigated on First Amendment issues for over twenty years, including campaign finance enforcement actions, religious liberty and freedom of association matters. His cases have been featured on Fox News, Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal and included multiple appearances before the Washington Supreme Court. He successfully challenged a wrongful campaign finance prosecution of an initiative campaign and secured a $250,000 civil rights settlement for his client. Mark has drafted and defended statewide initiatives, and successfully defended numerous elected officials in ethics complaints, government investigations and administrative proceedings.
Mr. Lamb also counsels businesses, trade associations and individuals on local government relations including legislation, public records requests, litigation and public-private partnerships. He is a frequent speaker on First Amendment litigation, land use matters, public-private partnerships and municipal real estate transactions.
Community InvolvementÂ
Mark has spent much of his life in public service, starting in high school when he worked for two months constructing latrines, teaching dental hygiene and participating in reforestation efforts in the mountains of the Dominican Republic along the Haitian border. In college, he served in the United States Department of Justice as a policy intern in the Criminal Division in Washington DC focused on federal support for local police hiring. As Mayor of Bothell, he worked with his colleagues on the City Council and city staff to develop Washington State’s largest downtown revitalization project which spurred over $300 million in private investment. The centerpiece of this effort was the purchase, restoration and repurposing of an 80 year-old school that created McMenamins Anderson School in Bothell: a family-owned hotel, movie theater, restaurants and a pool with free use for Bothell residents. Under his leadership as Mayor, the City of Bothell won three statewide awards for fiscal stewardship, reduced taxes and had its credit rating upgraded twice.
Mark is currently President of the Puget Sound chapter of the Federalist Society. He is also a past Chairman of the Snohomish Health District, a post he was unanimously elected to by a bi-partisan group of local elected officials from across Snohomish County and, from 2014-2023, served on the Advisory Board for the University of Washington Bothell.
