MDK Law

Where the practice concentrates

Business law runs through nearly everything MDK Law does. The firm forms corporations and limited liability companies, then handles the paperwork and negotiation that keep those entities running. That means governance documents, operating agreements, and the contracts a company signs with vendors, partners, and customers. Transactional work carries into mergers and acquisitions and into securities matters, where the rules on how a business raises money and reports it shape almost every step.

Formation looks simple from the outside and rarely is. Choosing between a corporation and an LLC affects taxes, liability, and how owners split control, and those choices are hard to unwind later. A firm that does formation alongside tax planning can weigh both at once, which is part of what MDK Law offers by keeping the two practices in the same office.

Deals and disputes

Mergers and acquisitions bring their own sequence. A deal moves through a letter of intent, due diligence into the target's contracts and liabilities, and a purchase agreement that allocates risk between buyer and seller. Securities rules sit underneath much of this whenever ownership interests change hands, and a misstep there can carry regulatory weight long after closing. Work of this kind rewards a firm that has seen the pattern repeat.

When agreements fail, the work moves into business disputes and litigation. The same lawyers who drafted or reviewed a contract understand what the parties meant by it, and that context helps once a claim is filed. Commercial litigation tends to run long, through pleadings, discovery, motions, and often a mediated settlement before any trial date arrives.

Work that crosses borders

A large part of the firm's caseload involves companies and individuals moving between countries. MDK Law handles foreign transactions for US companies and domestic legal matters for foreign nationals. Cross-border deals add layers that a purely domestic matter never touches: currency, differing contract norms, tax treatment in two jurisdictions, and questions about which country's courts would hear a dispute.

The team lists work in ten languages: English, Arabic, Russian, Farsi, French, Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. For a client whose contract or tax filing runs through a first language other than English, that range carries real weight. In my opinion, language depth like this is one of the more concrete signals a firm gives about the clients it expects across the table, and it lines up with Kimball's second master's degree, earned in transnational commercial practice, which centers on exactly this kind of cross-border deal.

The reverse direction matters as much. A foreign national opening a business in Washington deals with entity choice, banking, and tax registration under rules that assume a familiarity a newcomer may not have. Counsel who can explain those steps in a client's own language removes a layer of friction that trips up many first-time filings. The firm's language list matches the communities it works with around Seattle.

Tax planning and tax controversy

Tax appears twice in the firm's makeup, once as planning and once as dispute. On the planning side, MDK Law structures transactions and entities so that the tax result is known before a deal closes, while there is still room to change course. Founder Mark Kimball holds an LL.M. in tax law, a degree earned after the standard law degree, and he lectures internationally on tax, which points to where the firm's depth on the subject sits.

The controversy side covers disputes with the IRS and the Washington Department of Revenue. These matters usually begin with an audit, move to a proposed assessment, and then run through administrative appeals before a court is ever involved. Much of the outcome turns on records assembled early and on how the taxpayer's position is framed at the first stage. Washington's Department of Revenue also reaches business and occupation tax questions that many owners do not expect, which gives state-level tax work a steady place in a business practice.

Property, construction, and trademarks

Real estate and construction sit close to the firm's business clients, since companies buy, lease, and build. Construction matters bring their own documents and deadlines, including lien claims that carry strict filing windows, and disputes there often involve owners, contractors, and subcontractors at once. A firm that already handles a client's contracts is positioned to catch problems in a construction agreement before they harden into a claim.

Trademark work covers both registration and litigation. Registration means clearing a mark, filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office, and answering any objections an examiner raises, a process that can stretch across many months. If another party uses a confusingly similar mark, the matter shifts into enforcement or litigation. Handling both ends means the same firm that secured a mark can defend it.

Estate planning

The firm also prepares wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and probate documents. For the owner of a closely held business, estate planning and business planning overlap, since a succession plan decides what happens to the company when its founder steps back. Keeping that work with the firm that formed the business gives an owner one set of lawyers who already know the structure.

How the team is built

Eleven attorneys carry the firm's name across its practice areas. The site lists Mark D. Kimball, Alex T. Larkin, Nahal Nabavinejad, Dennis Kasimov, Unsa Manzoor, Octavian Pop, Benjamin Phillips, Alex Meyer, Mark Niehoff, Sabrina Sabour, and Ashley Everett. A bench that size lets a firm divide work by subject, so a tax dispute, a construction claim, and a trademark filing can each land with a lawyer who handles that kind of matter often.

Mark D. Kimball founded MDK Law and runs it as managing shareholder. He holds two master of laws degrees, one in tax law and a second in transnational commercial practice, and he is licensed in Washington, New York, and Texas. That three-state admission fits a practice that reaches beyond the Puget Sound region. In 2019 he was appointed to a NAM mediation and arbitration panel, which places him as a neutral who helps other parties settle their disputes.

Why the head count matters

Depth on a team also matters for continuity. If one lawyer is in trial or otherwise tied up, a firm with several attorneys in overlapping fields can keep a matter moving. For a client with a long relationship that runs across formation, contracts, and later disputes, that steadiness is worth as much as any single credential.

The site names the other ten attorneys, and a prospective client can confirm a given lawyer's admissions and focus with the firm directly. As a reviewer, I treat the named, countable team as the useful fact here: eleven people practicing under one roof is a claim anyone can check.

A long record in Bellevue

MDK Law has practiced since 1983, a run of more than four decades from its Bellevue base in the greater Seattle area. A start date that old tells you the firm has kept clients and work coming through several economic cycles, including ones that closed other offices. It is one of the few claims a firm makes that the calendar can verify on its own.

Bellevue sits in a busy commercial corridor east of Seattle, close to the companies that generate the deals and disputes a business firm handles. A practice rooted there works near the source of its caseload. That is ordinary geography, and it still shapes the mix of clients a Bellevue office is likely to see.

The office works across the Puget Sound region from that Bellevue base, and its practice areas hold together around a single pattern: a business and its owners often need the same lawyers for formation, contracts, disputes, tax, property, and eventually a plan for the estate. MDK Law has kept that combination of services in one office since 1983.