Bob Battles

Bob Battles is AWB’s director of government affairs on workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and other workplace issues, including employment law, wage and hour issues, workplace safety and legal affairs. Battles also serves as AWB’s general counsel.

Battles has more than two decades of experience as an attorney specializing in workplace issues and government affairs.

He began his career with a 10-year stint in the office of the Washington State Attorney General. He led a team of 18 attorneys and professional staff as team leader in the Labor and Industries Division. In the AG’s office he supervised more than 400 L&I cases per year in areas such as electrical, contractor, plumbing and factory-assembled structures.

Battles also spent 12 years in private practice at several Puget Sound-area law firms, and was a partner at Eisenhower Carlson PLLC in Tacoma. While in private practice he represented both individual and business clients in regulatory issues and complex litigation including the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act (WISHA) and industrial insurance defense.

He has litigated cases before the Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, the Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings, multiple state superior courts, the Washington State Court of Appeals, the Washington State Supreme Court, the United States District Court and the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Battles was technical editor for the Gonzaga Law Review before graduating in 1992 from the Gonzaga University School of Law.

Battles is a board member and past chair of the Bates Technical College Steam Certification Board. He has also served on the board of the FISH Food Bank of Pierce County. For the past decade, he has been a volunteer coordinator for the Yakima Youth Mission at St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church. He lives with his family near Kent in rural King County.