Darby N. DuComb

Darby DuComb brings over 30 years of experience as a municipal lawyer, litigator, and trusted advisor to government agencies, private businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Her emphasis includes real property, land use, transportation law, governance, ethics, infrastructure, public works construction, contracts, small businesses, and organizational development. She joins Inslee, Best, Doezie & Ryder after serving as Legal Affairs Manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation. There she built and led compliance programs for claims, investigations, risk management, and Public Records Act obligations — work that saved the City of Seattle $15 million through improved investigation techniques and earned her a Transportation Equity Stewardship Superstar Award.

Darby's extensive public-sector leadership includes seven years as Chief of Staff and Deputy City Attorney for Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes. In that role she managed a 160-person legal office serving a $5 billion municipal corporation. As part of her work, Darby led the 12-attorney team that negotiated the City's agreements with WSDOT for the landmark SR 99 tunnel project; played a key role in settling the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights consent decree with the Seattle Police Department; and spearheaded a successful state legislative effort to decriminalize poverty by eliminating certain criminal sanctions for the nonpayment of fines.

In private practice, Darby has counseled municipalities, special purpose districts, business owners, and property owners on transportation, land use, real property, affordable housing, contracts, franchises, interlocal agreements, construction disputes, and risk management. She served as lead counsel for the Seaplanes Environmental Coalition in complex, multi-stakeholder negotiations over emerging airplane technology use on public waterways, and Darby secured regulatory approval for the Northlake Bioswale Project, advancing clean stormwater infrastructure in Seattle. Other representative projects include resolving street conflicts for a condominium building, helping Eastlake neighbors expand Terry Petus Park, obtaining an upper-level sign permit for a hotel in a historical landmark district, and obtaining relief for property owners from onerous permit requirements.

Earlier in her career, Darby litigated land use, environmental, and code enforcement cases for the City of Seattle and represented more than 70 people on appeal in the Court of Appeals Division One, including three arguments before the Washington State Supreme Court.

A trained neutral through the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law and the University of Washington School of Law, Darby brings a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach to every matter she handles.  She is an alternative dispute resolution advocate and a third-party neutral.

You will find that Darby listens, plans, sees the big picture, attends to the details, and follows through.