Brothers at law

Brian and Garth Dano share building, sports enthusiasm

By Matthew Weaver

Herald senior staff writer

MOSES LAKE - When Harrison Dano looked out his office window after Mount St. Helens erupted, all he saw was volcanic ash.

Son Garth Dano said the town was not very physically attractive at the time, particularly after the volcano erupted.

"It was really an eyesore," Garth remembered.

"This was just a mess back here," brother Brian Dano said of the view of Neppel Landing from their building, located on Broadway Avenue. "This was where they dumped all the ash, between this building and the lake. An old abandoned railroad station sat right there, the old railroad depot, and all this ash just sat there. It was just god-awful."

The mess was unappealing and prompted Harrison to do something. After all, he was a proponent of utilizing the lake as an asset for the community and expanding the park system, as well as improvements to the quality of the downtown appearance.

"He got so sick of looking at ash down there, he formed a group called the Moses Lake Downtown Development Corporation," Brian said. "That's the group that did (the) park. It was all volunteer-done, Job Corps and local business people built that park in just a very short period of time … With a handful of guys, built in a couple days, they showed up with their own trailers and everything and built the park. I don't think they even had a permit."

Much of the work currently happening on Third Avenue today is similar to work proposed by the corporation in the early 1980s, Brian said.

"The city council at that time didn't have the intestinal fortitude to proceed," Brian said. "They had a bunch of downtown people that didn't want to pay any assessment, so they fought it, fought it and fought it, and the city council lost their guts and walked away from it. What you're seeing on Third Avenue was proposed by this same downtown development group in the early 1980s. Twenty years later, it's happening finally."

'He never encouraged either one of us to practice law, ever'

Born in Havre, Mont., Harrison came to Moses Lake in 1977 from Ellensburg, where he had built a career as an attorney.

"He had a lot of clients in the Basin opening up, and he thought he wanted to be a farmer, too," Garth recalled, adding with a slight chuckle, "Brian and I farmed for him when we were younger, out by George."

"He got a lot of clients when we were in Ellensburg because he was the attorney for the Kittitas Reclamation District," Brian explained. "So he was quite well known for understanding water law, reclamation law. One of his first clients was Paul Lauzier, who came over with a bunch of fellas to form the Black Sands Irrigation District, which is a big deal here now, all that ground that's irrigated in the non-canal system south of the freeway as you head back toward Ellensburg."

After helping to form the irrigation district, Harrison kept getting more clients who were farmers with water issues, Brian recalled, so he eventually set up a branch office in Moses Lake in 1977.

Younger brother Garth joined his father and then-partner Evan Sperline, now a Grant County Superior Court judge, in 1980. Older sibling Brian joined his father and brother in Moses Lake as the Ellensburg firm split in 1984.

Garth went on his own in 1996, moving next door, and re-entered the building in an office-share arrangement in 2002.

Mother Dorothy still resides in Moses Lake. Brother Keith resides in Hoquiam, and sister Meredith lives in College Station, Texas.

Neither of the Dano brothers originally planned to follow in their father's footsteps as an attorney - nor were they encouraged by their father to do so.

"I had no intention of being a lawyer. I was going to be a coach," Brian said. "I went off to play football initially when I got out of high school, and I figured that was what I would do. It just didn't work out - by the time I got to be a senior at Washington State University, I decided I better do something else."

So Brian decided to attend law school in a decision he said was made on the spur of the moment.

"Pretty similar story," Garth said with a smile. "I was going to just teach high school history, and coach basketball and baseball."

As graduation time neared, Garth decided to try law school, even though his father was always trying to dissuade him from a career as an attorney and pursue his love of athletics.

"I don't know if he really meant that and actually wanted us to become lawyers or not, but that's what he would say," Garth said.

"Yeah, he never encouraged either one of us to practice law, ever," Brian agreed.

"But I think once we became lawyers, he was real proud of the fact that we were," Garth added.

'As a lawyer, one of your obligations is to give back to the community'

Harrison Dano always instilled in his children a tremendous work ethic.

"As a matter of fact, he worked too much," Brian said. "I never saw the guy. He literally worked night and day and weekends."

But Harrison also instilled in his sons a sense of community involvement.

"The thing he impressed upon us, and one of the reasons he was working so much, was he also took the time to be involved in the chamber of commerce, the rotary club," Brian explained. "All the community things that were going on in Ellensburg, he participated in, because he always told us, 'As a lawyer, one of your obligations is to give back to the community. You're a service provider, and part of being a service provider is to provide voluntary service to the community you live in and be a leader, because people look up to the legal professional, look up to lawyers and expect lawyers to be community leaders.' He lived that and I know that was a big influence on me, because as soon as I started practicing, I immediately was a member of the Rotary club in Ellensburg, the chamber, this group and that group."

Currently, Brian is a board member of the Grant County Economic Development Council in charge of membership development, and sits on the City of Moses Lake Parks and Recreation Commission.

He is also on the statewide Practice of Law Board, which meets in Seattle.

Garth does not currently sit on any boards, but has been heavily involved as a proponent in the expansion of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. He also supports the economic development council golf tournament and the Washington State University golf tournament.

He is also heavily involved with the Washington Trial Lawyers Association.

"I think the thing that we do a lot of is the contributions we're constantly being asked to (give) to various things around here," Garth said. "I totally support the EDC and many groups and people in the community."

'It's not a 40-hour job, at all'

Brian noted he doesn't litigate and he doesn't have contentious clients.

"Different from Garth's practice, by and large, the people that come to see me come to see me volitionally, because they want to," Brian said. "Not because they have to. I don't have clients who have an ax to grind with somebody … I don't have to deal with lawyers … very seldom, which is a very good thing."

It makes Brian's practice comfortable for him, and he looks forward to coming into work each day.

"And the day seems to go by and I go, 'Wow, it's time to leave,'" he said. "If it weren't that I had a family, I'd probably stay here three or four hours into the night. I really don't mind the work I do and I look forward to doing it. It's very comfortable for me."

"He's Mycroft to me, He's my smarter older brother," Garth said of Brian, referring to Sherlock Holmes' older brother.

Garth's awards include the Washington State Bar Association Courageous Award, which he received in 2000 for representation of Barry Loukaitis in a murder trial following Loukaitis' 1996 shooting at Frontier Middle School, and the National Crime Victim Law Institute's 2006 Victim's Rights Partnership Award, which his firm received for their efforts to uphold victims' rights by defending the family of 13-year-old murder victim Craig Sorger.

"I don't know. For some crazy reason I guess my psychologist would only understand, I've always felt this need to kind of help people that are in bad places or in trouble, and so I like doing criminal defense work and I've really enjoyed trying civil cases as well," Garth explained. "I think that's what I probably do best."

Such work can be hard on a person, Garth added, noting that not many cases are tried any more as more things get settled by mediation or arbitration.

"I'd like to try more, but it's very difficult, too," he said. "I don't know that I have the same feeling Brian does about coming to work. A lot of times I really enjoy what I'm doing, but it's hard. It's very contentious and we spend a lot of time at it. On a typical week, it's not a 40-hour job, at all. Depending upon what we're doing, you're spending 60 to 80 hours a week around here, a lot of personal sacrifice and time."

Both brothers admit to difficulty balancing family time at first, but it's gotten better as they've gotten older, Garth said.

Brian recently got out of several organizations he had been involved with because he has one son left at home who plays football.

"I told the other groups I've just recently gotten out of, 'My god, I'm going to watch this kid get through school, help him out and do all the stuff I probably didn't do with my older kids,'" Brian said. "And I'm going to take the time to do it, so I've got to cut back my community involvement for the next couple years, because I'm not going to miss this one last opportunity to be the kind of parent I probably should have been in the past, in terms of my involvement."

But the business of being a lawyer, community involvement and family time doesn't leave either brother very much time.

"One thing about this business is, if you don't schedule yourself about a year to a year and a half in advance, then you don't have time to do anything else," Brian said. "My wife likes to do things more on the spur of the moment, but if I don't block off the weeks, a week here and a week there, at the beginning of the year, then it's not going to happen. Because when it comes time to do it, you don't have the time."

Garth echoed his brother's sentiments about making time.

"I've been very poor about that," he said. "Letting my schedule, or the trial schedule, hearing schedule and court date schedule run my life, really. And so I'm looking at that a lot more seriously now."

Brian doesn't have any plans to expand the size of his firm, Dano & Harper LLC, in which he partners with Julie Harper, while Garth said he and partners Bill Gilbert and George Ahrend at Dano Gilbert and Ahrend PLLC, have thought about adding other lawyers.

"It's always problematic," Garth said. "In today's world, you just don't add partners like you used to."

When the brothers' father was younger, he would count on hiring people out of law school, Garth explained.

"Today's younger lawyers, the reality is they want to work for a while, get paid well and then, when they've learned enough to be competent on their own after two or three years, they typically want to leave," he said. "They figure they can make more money, so the loyalty factor's not really there like it used to be. So we're pretty reluctant, reticent about maybe hiring somebody."

But the firm has considered it, Garth said, and recently also considered opening an office in Spokane, from where a number of cases hail.

"So it's a possibility we're exploring right now," Garth said.

'We have a good relationship with each other'

The siblings have separate practices operating out of the same building, at 100 E. Broadway Ave. Brian's practice, Dano & Harper LLC, is limited to estate planning, administration, real estate and business work. Garth's firm, Dano Gilbert and Ahrend PLLC, is primarily civil and criminal litigation, personal injury work, business litigation, employment law and criminal defense.

Brian quit litigating in 1980, while Garth continued litigation practice alongside his father, who continued to practice until his death in 2002.

Over the years, Brian acquired half of the building, while Garth recently acquired the second half from their mother, so the brothers are now co-owners.

The brothers have never tried a case together, but both tried cases alongside their father.

Nor have the brothers ever been on opposing sides in a court case.

"And we wouldn't," Brian said with a laugh. "We wouldn't even take a case for a mutual client that was on opposite sides. If I had a good client, for example, that was a farmer out here and this farmer hit somebody with a truck and the injured party came to Garth, he wouldn't even bring a suit against my client. We just wouldn't do that."

"We have a good relationship with each other," Garth agreed. "Like every sibling, from perspective, you have things you go through, don't necessarily agree about everything, but I have a lot of respect for Brian. I've always kind of looked up to him as my older brother, and I respect what he does. I think we have great relationship."

"I would agree," Brian responded. "We're both kind of sports nuts, both great Cougar fans, so we chase the Cougars together, moan, groan and think about next year all the time. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, and we sit next to each other actually over at football games."

They see each other every day, Brian said, and have been working out together at a local athletic club each day at noon.

"It's just like part of our day, almost as much as anything else we do, or moreso than lots of things we do," Brian said. "We always make it a point to get to the athletic club at noon. We've been doing that for years and for years, we've played handball together."

As Brian's shoulder has gone "totally kaput" and Garth's elbow has begun to give him trouble, handball seems to be going by the wayside.

"Age has caught up with both of us, I hate to say that," Brian said, adding in jest, "Particularly in Garth's case. But handball's always been our strong bond. I taught him how to play. There was a lot of yelling and screaming going on."

"There sure was," Garth remembered with a laugh.

"He couldn't play worth a damn and I enjoyed beating him, and then as I got older and slower, he started beating the crap out of me," Brian said. "So we never got to play at the same level for very long."

'We do a lot of refereeing from the stands'

Brian and wife Cynthia have three children aged 31, 29 and 15 and two stepchildren, ages 22 and 18. Garth's son died in 1984 and he has a 28-year-old daughter, an adopted son who is 27, a 21-year-old, two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old.

The brothers and their respective families spend a lot of time together, they say.

Whenever he can, Brian said he most enjoys traveling with his wife and children on road trips to various parts of the United States.

"Second biggest hobby is probably watching the Cougars," he chuckled.

Garth said his interests are similar.

In addition to handball and golf, he considers attending games a big part of his life.

"With all the kids I'm trailing around after, trying to just stay current, go to their events and what's going on," he said. "And I like traveling, too, like Brian said, although I haven't had much time to do that. I'm going to make time, going to make that a priority."

A self-proclaimed history and geography nut, Garth joked he'd like to just go out and pan for gold.

But the brothers have made time to indulge their "secret" passion for sports.

Garth stopped coaching baseball at Big Bend Community College last year for personal reasons, but said he loved the pastime.

"That's something we always maintain a secret passion for," Garth said. "We do a lot of coaching from the stands."

"We do a lot of refereeing from the stands," Brian added.

"We make a lot of comments about referees in the stands," Garth agreed. "I think we're both real passionate about it, and kind of crazy, over the top, overly so, about athletics. I've had the opportunity to do some coaching, I know Brian has had some too. I like that … and that's something I would probably be interested in pursuing more. As I get my kids to finish out through high school and all that, I may go back and do some more coaching. I really enjoy that."

As Garth finished speaking and the interview wrapped up, his brother turned to him.

"I'm changing my tune, Garth," Brian said.

He explained that he had attended a presentation to Moses Lake High School parents about being the parent of a high school athlete.

"As I sat there and listened to that guy, I realized I had done everything wrong," Brian said as his brother grinned. "Every reaction I had was the opposite of what you're supposed to be as a parent. So I'm changing my tune, I'm not going to be doing any yelling from the stands."

"Good for you," Garth replied.

"Yeah, that'd be a surprise," Brian continued. "The people that know me know that I'm pretty hot up there. I'm not going to do any yelling, I'm going to release my son to football."

"I want to see this," Garth said with a laugh. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"I'm going to be pretty laid back," Brian declared. "I'm going to be pretty contrary to the way I've been all these years now. I'm not going to be yelling at the referees at Cougar games anymore, criticizing, yelling at the coaches or anything. It's going to be all mild and mellow, enjoy the moment."

"I'm going to remember this," Garth promised as his brother chuckled.