Published May 2003

Bell & Ingram part
of family’s legal legacy

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

From his office in the Bank of America building, attorney Douglas Bell has a clear view of Everett, the city where, for the past 100 years, members of the Bell family have practiced law.

Snohomish County Business Journal/ KIMBERLY HILDEN “Law and the legal profession were always among topics of discussion at family events,” said Douglas Bell, whose family has been practicing law in Everett for the past century, beginning with grandfather Ralph Bell (in portrait). Today, Douglas and brother Bruce practice law for Bell & Ingram, a firm their father, Lewis, helped found in the 1950s.

His grandfather, Ralph Bell, opened an Everett law practice in 1903 before going on to serve as Snohomish County’s prosecuting attorney and later as a superior court judge. And his father, Lewis, began practicing law shortly after World War II, founding the law firm Bell & Ingram with William Ingram in 1952.

“Law and the legal profession were always among topics of discussion at family events,” said Bell, discussing his early interest in the profession he entered in 1973 as an associate at Bell & Ingram.

“The variety and challenge of the practice interested me. I also saw the satisfaction it brought to those in a legal practice. It didn’t appear to be overly repetitive or boring, nor has it been,” he said, noting that from the get-go he was immersed in issues that piqued his interest, including working for a longtime client of the firm, the Tulalip Tribes.

“I was a history major in undergraduate school, and, of course, there’s an awful lot of that involved in Indian law and understanding it,” Bell said. “And they had a large business interest in real estate, which was one of my interests, so I became associated on a variety of projects and cases.”

Over the years, Bell has had the opportunity to work on a variety of other issues, including banking law and contracts, foreclosures and other real estate transactions, to which he credits the firm’s diverse civil practice, ranging from bankruptcy and employment law to litigation, acquisitions and mergers.

“Whether it be environmental and commercial hazardous waste or the more sophisticated types of business, commercial and estate-planning transactions, (we) have developed quite a practice in that regard,” he said of Bell & Ingram’s 11 lawyers, who include his brother Bruce, who joined the firm in 1981. “... We also have a couple of attorneys who have family law and dissolution-type practices and also personal injury law.”

A majority of Bell & Ingram’s client base is made up of businesses and individuals in Snohomish County and the Puget Sound area in general, but the firm also has a number of out-of-state clients with interests in the region, Bell said. And while technology has made it easier to stay in contact with clients near and far, there is no substitute for meeting face to face.

“I deal with people in New Jersey, the South, the Rocky Mountain states and California. We’re not meeting all the time, but, for instance, next month Bruce and I are visiting a banking client in Texas, putting on a presentation regarding subject matter of the work we do for them,” he said. “I don’t go to Texas every day or every month, but it’s important to know who is on the other side of the telephone.”

Maintaining personal contact is important not only in keeping business, but also in growing business, Bell added.

“People in businesses move from business to business. If you have a relationship with them that they were satisfied with in ‘Business A’ and they go to ‘Business B,’ and an opportunity arises for them to make a recommendation or referral at work, ... then it’s likely you’ll be considered,” he said.

That philosophy of building relationships extends outside the office to include the community, whose members have helped establish the law firm over its five decades in business, Bell said. His own community involvement has included being on the board of Bethany of the Northwest, Sno-Isle Red Cross, Mount Baker Council of Boy Scouts of America, Everett General Hospital Foundation and the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce, among others.

“If you stay in your office in your ivory tower, don’t meet with your clients and don’t become involved in the community that supports you, it will all pass you by,” Bell said.

As Bell & Ingram celebrates some 50 years of service, the future looks “bright” for what started as a “small-town, general civil and trial practice,” he said.

So does the Bell family’s legal legacy, which shows no sign of stopping.

This month, Christopher Bell, Douglas’ son, will receive his law degree from Seattle University. After passing the bar exam, he plans to join his father and uncle at the firm.

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