Firm Information

        Drew H. Peterson graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in 1972.  From his earliest days of law practice he has focused on providing quality legal services to individual clients of often limited means.  He began his career in a small legal services office in a suburban / rural Minnesota county.  He came to Alaska in 1976 with Alaska Legal Services Corp, where his final position was as Rural Litigation Coordinator, with supervisory responsibilities for rural offices all over the State of Alaska.  

        In private practice in Anchorage since 1980, Drew has continued to focus his practice on providing legal services for  working-class clients, particularly through the practice areas of personal injury law, family law, Indian law and related issues involving the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and representing small, family owned businesses.  

        Since 1987, Drew has also been active as one of Alaska's best known mediators.  Mediation is a structured settlement facilitation technique, utilized in an effort to resolve legal and other disputes outside of the courtroom, thereby resulting in substantial savings for clients in costs, time, and damaged relations.  Drew is well known to many of his legal colleagues through a regular column on alternate dispute resolution which he has written for The Bar Rag, the bi-monthly newspaper of the Alaska Bar Association, since 1988.  For more information about Drew's Mediation practice, go to: Drew Peterson Mediation Practice.   

        In further emphasis of Drew's commitment to encourage quality legal services for the under-represented, Drew taught at and was eventually the Director of Legal Studies at Charter College in Anchorage, from 1994 through 1998.  As such, he was responsible for the education of Paralegal Assistants, under a paralegal program approved by the American Bar Association (ABA).  The increased use of paralegals has been encouraged by the ABA as one of the primary methods of making legal services more affordable for individuals of limited means. 

       In addition to his personal injury practice, and his mediation practice, Drew  maintains a limited family law practice, handling uncontested family matters, some "unbundled legal services", "collaborative divorce", and representing family law clients who are engaged in mediation.  In this area he offers Free Telephone Consultations (maximum one half hour) to determine whether or not the family law in question is of the sort he handles.  if not, he will make appropriate referrals to other counsel. 

     Finally, since 1993, Drew has been the owner and principal trainer for Wingspan Training and Consulting, a training firm emphasizing the techniques of win-win negotiations and collaborative problem solving.  Wingspan Training and Consulting has presented numerous workshops to business, governmental agency and private groups, encouraging the use of such techniques to resolve disputes in a more humane and less expensive method than is found in the traditional adversarial legal world.  For more information about Wingspan Training and Consulting, go to:  Wingspan.

        In his personal injury practice, Drew has associated with some of the state and the nation's finest litigators, expert witnesses and other individuals to assist him in providing quality legal services for the little guy.