Yakima Injury Lawyer Sidney Ottem

About

Born and raised in Western Nebraska, Sid worked on family-owned farms while growing up. This experience was formative in many ways including an appreciation for the area’s natural resources and the value of hard work.

Sid attended Brown University in 1984 in Providence, R.I. after his recruitment to play football there and several other schools. He graduated Brown in 1988. He selected the University of Oregon to take advantage of its dual degree in Law along with a Master’s program in Environmental Science. Sid graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1992 and obtained a position working in Yakima County Superior Court for the Honorable Walter Stauffacher and F. James Gavin as a Staff Attorney on the stream adjudication of the Yakima Basin shortly thereafter. Sid would eventually manage that litigation (the largest and longest running case in the history of Washington State) as a judicial officer beginning in 1999 until its near completion in 2008.

Sid joined the United States Department of the Interior as a managing attorney in Albuquerque, NM and Washington D.C. from 2008 until 2015 working on Natural Resource law issues, personal injury claims against the government and numerous other areas. Sid has published numerous articles and lectured at law schools, universities and legal education seminars.

While in Yakima, Sid married a local girl (Kimberly Zerr) and enjoyed raising a son and two daughters. However, because of an injury to his wife and the impact on his family along with Sid’s legacy working on farms and ranches, he decided to return to Yakima to work with injured people. Brumback & Ottem Injury Law presented a great opportunity in light of shared Midwestern values, Scott’s outstanding ethics and the firm’s philosophy of assisting the hardworking people of the Yakima Valley.

Sid is a member of the Washington State Bar, the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, and admitted to practice in United States District Court in the Eastern District of Washington. He is a serious fisherman and spends much of his free time on the Columbia and other water ways in the beautiful Northwest pursuing many species.

Sid is committed to helping injured people and obtaining resources to assist them in restoring their lives. He works in a variety of areas and is interested in all injury cases.