I provide legal ethics and risk management advice to lawyers, law firms, law students, and in-house legal departments. I also represent Oregon and Washington lawyers in attorney discipline matters and character and fitness proceedings, including on appeal. With a deep background in complex business and financial services disputes, I guide my clients toward successful resolutions from the inception of a case through appeal.I appreciate the obstacles that lawyers and law firms face in the practice and the business of law, and I work collaboratively with clients to minimize the risk of liability, including issues involving conflicts of interest, sanctions, privilege, client confidentiality, engagement, and withdrawal procedures, multi-jurisdictional practice, lawyer-client relationships, fee disputes, and practice planning and management. I help lawyers and law firms address the boundaries involving attorney advertising and marketing, including issues particular to social media, client solicitation, business relationships with non-lawyers, and fee sharing. I advise law firms and lawyers on ethical and fiduciary issues related to lateral hiring, law firm dissolution, and expulsion matters, and I serve as outside ethics counsel to law firms. I am a frequent CLE speaker on legal ethics, risk management, and discipline defense issues, and I also serve as Assistant General Counsel to the firm.

Bar Admissions

• Oregon State Courts
• Washington State Courts

Education

• Lewis & Clark Law School, Juris Doctor degree, cum laude (2012)
• Middlebury College, Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude (2006)

Significant Accomplishments

• Provided outside general counsel services and risk management advice to lawyers, law firms, and in-house legal departments on the topics of conflicts, engagement and withdrawal procedures, privilege, client solicitation, client confidentiality, lawyer-client relationships, social media, and more.
• Defended sanctions motions, disqualification motions, fee disputes, and complex privilege disputes.
• Represented lawyers and students before bar associations on disciplinary matters, licensing, admissions, reciprocity, character and fitness reviews, and unauthorized practice of law issues.
• Defended complex business disputes and consumer financial services litigation in state and federal court at both the trial and appellate court levels, including successfully arguing dispositive motions and appeals.

• ABA Relaxes Rule 4.2 When a Lawyer Hits 'Reply All': Will Oregon and Washington Follow Suit?
• New ABA Opinion on the 'No-Contact Rule': The Text Might Not Set You Free
• Employers Can No Longer Require Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Claims
• Three Ways the Pandemic is Impacting Litigation Costs
• ABA Formal Opinion Approves Lawyers' Passive Investment in Law Firms with Nonlawyer Owners
• ABA Formal Opinion OKs Lawyers Who Sit in One Jurisdiction But Are Licensed in Another

Seminar

• Ethics Hour: Legal Confidentiality
• Ethics Hour: Ethical Communications
• Ethics Hour: Do I Have a Conflict?