Respected trial lawyer and co-founder of Lee Smart dies at 84

Nelson T. “Tom” Lee, co-founder of the Lee Smart law firm, died December 13, 2004 after a long illness. He was 84.

A native of Pontiac, Illinois, Tom and his family moved to Chelan, Washington and then to Grand Coulee. He completed high school while working on the dam. Tom went on to college, attending the University of Washington while working in the Seattle shipyards. He then attended the University of Washington Law School, where he served on the Board of Editors of the Washington Law Review. He earned his Juris Doctor degree and was admitted to the Washington state bar in 1945.

In the late 1940s, Tom co-founded Elliott & Lee, which succeeded a law firm that began in 1913. It evolved into Elliott, Lee, Carney & Thomas and later Lee, Carney & Smart.

In 1972, John Patrick Cook and others joined the firm, whose name changed to Lee, Smart, Cook, Dunlap & Biehl. By 1982, the firm became Lee Smart, P.S., Inc.