About Russell Winner

Russ Winner graduated from Stanford University in 1970 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1975. He has been practicing law in Alaska since 1978, and he is an experienced civil trial lawyer in both the federal and state courts. Russ is active in the Native Law, Natural Resources/Environmental Law, and Intellectual Property Law Sections of the Alaska Bar Association. He served on the Bar Examiners' Committee of the Alaska Bar Association. Russ has taught numerous seminars and continuing legal education courses in the areas of Alaska Native and Native corporation law, public lands, intellectual property and personal injury law.

Russ is active in the Alaska Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is past chair of the Alaska Action Trust, working with the Alaska legislature on legislation of interest to Alaska's trial attorneys. He is also a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Prior to establishing Winner & Associates in 1986, Russ worked for the Alaska Regional Solicitor's Office in the U.S. Department of the Interior and for the law offices of Graham & James, a San Francisco-based law firm with offices throughout the world.

He was admitted to the Alaska Bar in 1978 and the Washington Bar in 1977. Before coming to Alaska, Russ taught Environmental Law, Federal Courts, Remedies, and Ocean Law at Lewis & Clark Law School, in Portland, Oregon. He remains a member of the Board of Visitors of that school. Russ also taught Constitutional Law at the Justice Center of the University of Alaska Anchorage.

He has written law review articles in the area of environmental law and ocean law. Russ is a member of the Downtown Anchorage Rotary Club, and he serves on its Youth Exchange Committee. Russ's interests include fly fishing, family activities, music, sports, cycling, and reading. He has coached youth hockey and soccer in the Anchorage community.

Proven verdicts and settlements

$2.85 millionVerdict

In January 2016 Dietrich Mael heard the boiler in his family's Chefornak home whistling and went to check it. It exploded, threw him against a wall, sprayed him with scalding water and glycol and knocked him out. The home's owner, the AVCP Regional Housing Authority, had promised in the family's lease-purchase contract to inspect the boiler and had not; the pressure relief valve was rusted through. A Bethel jury put all the fault on the authority and awarded $3,427,000. Alaska's cap cut the noneconomic portion to $1,000,000, and the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed $2,847,000 in 2022.

Alaska Superior Court, Fourth Judicial District at Bethel · 2019Premises LiabilityRead the full story →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

University of Chicago Law School
J.D., 1975
Stanford University
Undergraduate, 1970

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of Alaska
State Bar of Washington

Proven verdicts and settlements from other Anchorage firms

The Law Offices of David Henderson
The Law Offices of David Henderson
$22 Million Federal Judgment for Alaska Woman Whose Heart Infection Was Missed, Refusing the $400,000 Cap
Atkinson, Conway & Gagnon, Inc.
Atkinson, Conway & Gagnon, Inc.
$21.1 Million Settlement for a Woman Who Lost All Four Limbs After a Shingles Misdiagnosis
Banker Law Group, P.C.
Banker Law Group, P.C.
$3 Million Settlement After a State Trooper's U-Turn Caused a Seward Highway Crash
Barber & Associates, LLC
Barber & Associates, LLC
$300,000 · $1.2 Million Scaffolding Fall Verdict, With the Plaintiff Found 75 Percent at Fault
Cashion Gilmore & Lindemuth
Cashion Gilmore & Lindemuth
$2 Million Settlement for Alaska Prisoner Paralyzed by Spinal Infection After Six Days of Ibuprofen

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.