Henry Goodman Liebman (born September 5, 1951) is an American attorney and businessman from

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. Through his company, American Life, Liebman controls a large section of Seattle's industrial

SoDo Sodo ( am, ሶዶ) or Wolaita Sodo ( am, ወላይታ ሶዶ) or ( Wolaytatto: ''Wolayta Sodo Ambbaa'') is a city in south-central Ethiopia. The administrative center of the Wolaita Zone. It has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation bet ...

area and has been described as the neighborhood's "900 pound gorilla". Henry Liebman's Noodle Soup, a dish at SoDo's Orient Express restaurant, is named in his honor.

Early life and education

Originally from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, Henry Liebman moved to Seattle in 1970 to attend the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, receiving his undergraduate degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

from there in 1973. After a brief stint as a tapestry salesman, he earned a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound (UPS or Puget Sound) is a private university in Tacoma, Washington. The university draws approximately 2,600 students from 44 states and 16 countries. It offers 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 traditional an ...

in 1980.

Career

Early career

According to Liebman, he early worked as a tax specialist for Touche Ross and Company before moving to practice law at, first, Franklin and Watkins and, then, Franco, Asia, Bensussen. As a partner at Liebman-Mimbu and Coe-Nordwall-Liebman, Liebman added immigration and real estate law to his practice. During this time he also founded Northwest International Bank, and served on its board of directors.

American Life

In 1996 Liebman founded American Life, a company that facilitates

EB-5 The United States EB-5 visa, ''employment-based fifth preference category'' or ''EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program'', created in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990, provides a method for eligible immigrant investors to become lawful permanen ...

visas, a U.S. government program which offers

green card A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. ("The term 'lawfully admitted for permanent residence' means the status of having been ...

s to non-U.S. citizens willing to invest $1 million or more into American businesses. Under the American Life business model, its clients would invest money in Seattle real estate and receive 70 percent of the returns their investments generated from rent, with American Life keeping the rest. By the early 2000s, through American Life, Liebman controlled large swaths of real estate in Seattle's

neighborhood, a fact which reportedly made city officials, area businesses, and labor leaders "nervous". In 2007,

Knute Berger Knute "Skip" Berger (born December 5, 1953) is an American journalist, writer and editor based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Berger is a columnist for Crosscut.com, writing under the name "Mossback". He is also Editor-at-Large and a ...

described Liebman as the "900 pound gorilla" of SoDo. By 2011, Liebman's company had brought in $700 million in foreign real estate investments into Seattle. In 2016 American Life was fined $1 million for using unlicensed advisers to direct aspiring EB-5 applicants into Liebman projects; Liebman himself was fined $240,000. As part of the settlement, neither American Life nor Liebman admitted wrongdoing.

Personal life

Liebman is chief executive officer of the Washington State Panda Foundation, which leads efforts to import

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes us ...

s into Washington state for exhibition purposes. The project requires a ten-year panda renting agreement at $1,000,000 per year. A dish called "Henry Liebman's Noodle Soup" is a menu item at the Seattle Chinese restaurant

The Orient Express The Orient Express was a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation in the early 1990s composed of Pat Tanaka and Akio Sato, who was later replaced by Kato. History American Wrestling Association After Badd Company ...

. Named in tribute to Liebman, it was described by the ''

Seattle Weekly The ''Seattle Weekly'' is an alternative biweekly distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as ''The Weekly.'' Its first issue was published on March 31, 1976. The newspaper ...

'' as "the most mysterious dish" on the restaurant's menu. However, Liebman himself has said he hates the soup. In 2013, Liebman caught what was believed to be a 200-year-old

shortraker rockfish The shortraker rockfish (''Sebastes borealis'') is an offshore, demersal species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Sebastinae, the rockfishes, part of the family Scorpaenidae. It is found in the northern Pacific Ocean. Taxonom ...

while fishing in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. The catch was heralded by media as the oldest rockfish ever caught. It was later, however, dated to 64 years of age.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebman, Henry 1951 births Living people Businesspeople from Seattle Lawyers from Seattle Real estate and property developers University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Puget Sound alumni People from Florida American real estate businesspeople