Allen Brecke

Allen D. Brecke is a native of the Tri-Cities, the son of a University of Michigan Manhattan Project physicist and lab technician raised in Atlanta. Both of his parents received appreciation certificates from Secretary of War Simpson for their “effective service contributing to the end World War II” from the Hanford site. Allen graduated from Kennewick High School in 1969, president of the National Honor Society, captain of the debate team, and voted most likely to succeed. He was educated at Whitman College in Walla Walla and the University of Washington, graduating with a degree in sociology in 1974.
He went to law school at Gonzaga University in Spokane. There, he was accepted on the Gonzaga Law Review and worked his way up to Articles Editor. He also participated in the moot court competition, making it to the final round out of thirty-seven teams, out-scoring one contestant who went on to become Governor of Washington. He graduated from Gonzaga Law School in 1977 and turned down a clerkship interview with the Washington State Supreme Court to join an insurance defense firm in Pasco. His first jury trial as lead counsel was in November of 1977.

He did insurance defense work in the Tri-Cities until 1983, at which time he formed his own firm and started working for the consumer. He maintained a few insurance and municipal clients until 1986.

Allen has been a member of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, now Washington State Association for Justice, since 1984 and has been an Eagle member since that program’s inception in 1986. He has served on that organization’s Continuing Legal Education Committee and is currently a member of the Judicial Relations Committee. He has given presentations at several professional seminars and was co-chair of one attended by over 300 of his colleagues.

Allen was also a member of the Board of Bar Examiners of the Washington State Bar Association in the mid 1980s, and more recently was a funded member of the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee. He is AV Preeminent® Peer Review and Judiciary Rated through the decades-old confidential Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™, which is the highest possible rating.

Allen was instrumental in bringing mandatory arbitration to Benton and Franklin Counties and tried the first personal injury jury trials in both Benton and Franklin County District Court. Over the years Allen has tried over 100 jury trials to verdict (many more settled without trial), completed over 300 arbitrations to award, and completed seven appeals.

His community service activities include holding an elective office as a member of the Kennewick Public Hospital District for seven years, Chairman of the Board of Ethics of the City of Richland, member of the Executive Board and Chairman of Alexis de Tocqueville Society of United Way, president of Columbia Center Rotary Club, board chairman and vice chairman of the Columbia Center Rotary Charity, Champions Member of the Benton-Franklin County Red Cross, and Governor-Appointed member and 2013-14 Chairman of the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board. Allen is active in his church, serving in leadership positions, and by conducting services at the Kennewick Life Care Center and taking Holy Communion to shut-ins for over 20 years. From 2002 through 2004, he represented a group of Hispanic voters in a redistricting matter, successfully argued to the trial court and through appeals to the Washington State Supreme Court, pro bono. Arguments in that case were recently upheld in the United States Supreme Court case Evenwel v. Abbott. In 2013, Allen was selected Tri-Citian of the Year by a local committee of Rotarians and Kiwanians. See editorial, Our Voice: Winning Case Made for Tri-Citian of the Year. Also in 2013, Allen was honored by the Benton-Franklin Chapter of the American Red Cross with its rarely given Heart of Humanity award. In 2014, Allen announced a composite $250,000 gift to the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center to sponsor the Manhattan Project Exhibit in memory of his father (see article: Attorney donates $100,000 for REACH Center exhibit). For his neighbors, Allen served as president of the 55-unit Moorings Association Board for 5 years, and one year as past president, and currently is president of his 50-unit HOA at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California.