About Us

Strand & Associates was formed in April of 2007 by Michael Strand.  Michael and his wife, Tammy, staff the firm’s offices in Helena.  Michael graduated from Cornell University and the University of Washington School of Law.  He has been practicing law for 17 years.  Tammy attended Montana State University and has 14 years of experience as a legal secretary and paralegal.  She also has 8 years of experience as a bookkeeper and is a certified professional medical coder.

The “associates” in “Strand & Associates” refers to associations the firm has made with two law firms on the East Coast.  One is located in Washington, D.C., and provides assistance with matters involving federal agencies like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  The other is located in New York City and provides assistance with matters involving Wall Street.  These arrangements allow Strand & Associates to offer the personal attention the firm’s clients have come to expect while providing for emergency back-up and reducing Michael’s travel time.

Michael’s legal career began at the law firm of Matteucci, Falcon & Lester, where he spent three years.  As is often the case with newly-minted attorneys, Michael worked on a wide variety of matters during this period, from commercial and real estate transactions to bankruptcy and family disputes such as dissolution of marriage and child custody.

The final year-and-a-half of his time with this firm, however, was dominated by a single matter in the area of mergers and acquisitions.  Michael and another attorney in the firm represented a group of six small telephone companies that had gathered together to purchase all of U S WEST’s (today known as Qwest) telephone network assets in 60 Montana communities.  The total bid, pending due diligence, was $150,000,000.

Because U S WEST was a regulated utility, the most challenging and time-consuming aspect of the transaction was gaining approval of the Montana Public Service Commission.  However, following numerous briefs, a vast number of data requests between the parties and literally dozens of hearings across the state, the purchase was approved by the Commission and the sale successfully closed.

A few months later, a group of the small telephone companies requested a meeting with Michael and offered him the position of CEO & General Counsel for a new trade association they wanted to create.  Michael took the position, moved to the state capital, and spent the next 12 years (until the Spring of 2007) building the organization and representing the interests of rural telephone companies and their various subsidiaries.

Michael’s primary responsibilities were:  1) to represent the interests of the telephone companies in regulatory and legal proceedings before a wide variety of state and federal administrative agencies and courts, and 2) to lobby the state legislature and the U.S. Congress with regard to legislation that affected them.  Of course, he had literally dozens of additional responsibilities such as publishing an industry newsletter, organizing and hosting an annual Technology Symposium, speaking at public engagements across the state and around the country and advising members on prospective business ventures.

During his first few years in this position, Michael’s work was largely limited to working on legal and policy issues.  He began to feel that his effectiveness in these areas would be enhanced if he gained greater experience with the existing and emerging technologies that were rapidly changing not only commerce but society as a whole.  To gain this experience, Michael developed a business plan for a competitive telephone company, raised the capital from investors to get the project off the ground, and became the resulting company’s initial CEO.  He served in this capacity for three years while continuing to serve as the CEO and General Counsel of the trade association.

The venture proved successful, and Michael followed it by becoming the start-up CEO of another company – one that built and operated a chain of data centers.  This venture was also a success.  After another four years of doing two CEO jobs simultaneously, Michael turned the management of the data center company over to one of his subordinates.

Today, Michael has realized his life-long dream of being his own boss.  His wealth of experience allows him to offer sophisticated legal, lobbying and business advice to clients across the country.  He has also trained to become a mediator and offers alternative dispute resolution services to individuals and companies that wish to resolve conflicts outside of the traditional court system.