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Aaron M. Neilson I Attorney / Neilson, Swanson, Dietrich, Smith, PLLC

AARON M. NEILSON

Aaron advises individuals, startups, tech and telecommunications companies, banks, contractors, and businesses on a wide-variety of matters. With several years in private practice in Seattle and Missoula, and as the former Vice President and General Counsel of a leading technology / communications service provider operating in 16+ states in the greater Pacific Northwest, Aaron has the requisite knowledge and experience to help you and to help your business grow, minimize risk, improve operational efficiencies, comply with regulations, and resolve disputes.​

 

Aaron is a fifth-generation Missoulian who enjoys the outdoors, playing and watching sports, attending concerts, drinking beer, reading, and spending time with his wife, two kids, and dog.​

 

Aaron is active in the communities he serves.  He is the supervising attorney at Blackstone LaunchPad at the University of Montana, where he supervises law students at UM who meet with entrepreneurial individuals and students. He also advises some of the region’s largest nonprofit organizations.​ Aaron graduated with high honors from the University of Montana with a B.A. in Political Science and Communications.  After working in finance in Seattle Aaron attended, and graduated with honors from, the University of Montana School of Law.​

 

PRACTICE AREAS:

-Business/Corporate

-Technology & Communications

-Estate Planning & Probates

-Employment Law

-Real Estate Law

-Construction Law

-Condominium & Homeowner Assoc.'s

-Finance and Creditor's Rights

-Litigation & Dispute Resolution

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

I have worked with a lot of attorneys as the President and CEO of different Seattle-based technology startups.  Aaron Neilson serves as Glympse’s external general counsel, handling all Glympse’s legal matters—from contract preparation, review, and negotiation to policy drafting, to employment advice, and much more.  He is prompt, thorough, and detail oriented, and he has a solid understanding of our industry and overall technology and business matters.  He does all this remotely for Glympse, providing us significant cost savings when you compare his rates to other attorneys in the Seattle area.  I highly recommend that other business owners and executives work with Aaron, as he’s done a great job for Glympse.

- Chris Ruff, CEO, Glympse

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Aaron Neilson previously served as Blackfoot’s Vice President and General Counsel.  In that role Aaron provided Blackfoot’s family of companies with top-quality legal and business services—helping Blackfoot strengthen its position as the premier provider of voice, data, IT, and cloud services in 16 states in the greater northwest, including Montana and Idaho.  In addition to helping launch C2M beta (Blackfoot’s open innovation lab serving Montana’s startup community), Aaron helped grow Blackfoot to nearly 200 employees and $60,000,000+ of annual revenue.  Aaron now serves as Blackfoot’s General Counsel externally as a partner at the Neilson, Swanson, Dietrich, Smith law firm in Missoula, Montana.  Blackfoot is fortunate to have an experienced, business-minded, prompt, and detail-oriented attorney like Aaron to help it continue to grow and better serve the residents, businesses, public institutions, and enterprises in the greater northwest.

-Jason Williams, CEO, Blackfoot Communications

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My partners and I recently worked with Aaron Neilson and his firm to revise our companies' partnership agreements. During this process, Aaron also revised our employee handbook and employment contracts so that all of these documents seamlessly work with our revised partnership and operating agreements. His legal and corporate advice to me and my partners on our business and employment matters was invaluable and will help my partners and I succeed as our practice evolves and matures. We collaborated extensively with Aaron during this process. Based on our experience, I strongly recommend Aaron Neilson to any company looking for similar professional and legal advice.

-Kevin Kolendich, MD, Member of Montana Gastroenterology & Montana Endoscopy Center

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Aaron Neilson provides his legal expertise to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.  He helps us with a broad array of legal and business matters—from real estate and land use, to contract review and negotiation, to employment matters, and much more.  Aaron is detail-oriented, timely, fair, and a valuable resource to our organization.  I highly recommend Aaron and encourage other businesses and nonprofit organizations to work with him for legal assistance and business advice. 

-R. Kyle Weaver, CEO, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

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Aaron is a true professional and very knowledgeable in our industry of technology and communications.  He is very responsive to our needs which can be time sensitive.  Aaron represents us well and I appreciate his thoughtful, thorough approach.  I have complete confidence in Aaron and would highly recommend him

-Rob Johnstone, CEO, Range

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Our family retained Mr. Aaron Neilson in 2015 to help with a very complicated and sensitive family lawsuit.  The suit involved very tense family issues when the family elders had to sue their son and daughter in law in order to clean up a poorly run corporation.  This suit was then joined later by another third party group of several individuals with financial interests pertaining to it.  All in all,  the lawsuit spanned 4 years, involved a receiver, 5 attorneys and 2 accountants and a forensic accountant. This complicated and tangled web was successfully navigated by Mr. Neilson, who was not just professional, but kind, respectful, intellectual.  His office/client communication was excellent.   With a professional grace he was able to navigate the various strategies we needed to ensure a positive outcome for my very elderly parents while treating them with the utmost respect and dealing with their limitations.  Well organized, he was able to be ready for all of the moves and meetings and was a real asset in handling all of the various personalities involved from all sides.

 

We have also retained Mr. Neilson for other matters since the resolution to our lawsuit for items such as  Trademark Registration and collection matters.  These too were met with the same level of commitment and professionalism as we witnessed previously.   We, our family and our business, will have a relationship with Mr. Neilson for years to come.  He is a person and professional you can count on.

-L.H.

*Note: Past results afford no guarantee of future results and every case is different and must be judged on its merits.

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