In 1973, Pete Buck graduated from law school and was fortunate enough to be the first associate to join a group of six young lawyers who had just formed their own firm. In those days it was Hillis, Schell, Phillips, Cairncross, Clark and Martin. In 1976, after three years of practice, he became a junior partner.
In 1979, Pete struck out on his own and formed the Law Office of Peter L Buck. He sought to establish a work atmosphere where all had balance in their lives. “Corporate culture” was not a common term in those days, but that is what was being planned. One month after starting his practice, Pete hired Joel Gordon, a long-haired young man who had just graduated from Hastings. He was a superstar from the start and became a partner in 1982. Buck & Gordon grew from one lawyer and one staff member in 1979 to 27 timekeepers and 23 staff in 2007.
In 2005, to set the stage for succession management, Pete stepped down as managing partner. In 2007, Pete, as part of a strategic planning process, decided that it was now time for a succession of leadership as well as management.
Thus on June 1, 2007, Pete reinvented himself as a solo practitioner. He then assembled a small group of lawyers to handle a couple major cases, which were completed in spectacular fashion. Those lawyers all transitioned to great new opportunities and Pete retired in June, 2011.
Since then Pete went into semi retirement, focusing on his family and doing pro-bono work.
In December 2016, Pete reinvigorated his practice by becoming much more actively involved in pro bono work. This was a conscious response to the attack on American values.
In late January 2017, he embarked on a course to use his legal skills to aid what became known as the American Resistance. He is intensely studying immigration law and believes his administrative, trial and appellate skills will nicely mesh. A major focus was on immigrant rights. An example of creative work was developing a Know Your Rights presentation that could be presented in four simultaneous languages
In 2020 Pete became active in helping various populations get through the disasters in America caused by our lack of a national response to CV-19. He dusted off his group meals skills, developed at Dartmouth in 1966. He has been feeding from 50 – 100 meals, 7 days a week to Olympia homeless encampments since mid-March. He has also been giving weekly food and moral support to migrant farmworkers in the Yakima Valley.
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