Jordan Ramis attorney Carolyn Pearson was recently elected to the board of directors of Queen’s Bench, the Multnomah County chapter of Oregon Women Lawyers. An experienced litigator in both state and federal courts, Pearson focuses her practice on employment and labor law. She is experienced in complex, litigation-related matters ranging from employment discrimination and retaliation claims to wage and hour class actions. She also advises employers on compliance with Oregon, Washington and California laws regarding employee leaves and benefits.
Miller Nash Graham & Dunn attorney Cody Elliott has been appointed to the newly created ambassador board of Susan G. Komen Oregon and Southwest Washington. Elliott’s practice focuses on resolving employment, construction and commercial disputes. He has taken and defended numerous depositions, successfully argued multiple dispositive motions, and represented clients at arbitrations, mediations and administrative hearings as well as at trial in state and federal court.
Markowitz Herbold attorney and shareholder Shannon Armstrong has been named to the board of directors of Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest, a nonprofit organization that offers gender-specific programs and research-based curricula to provide girls with confidence and self-esteem. Armstrong represents clients in high-stakes business disputes in state and federal courts. Her cases involve a range of business issues including partnership disputes, fraud, unfair trade practices, contract and construction disputes, breach of fiduciary duty and class actions.
Cosgrave Vergeer Kester attorney Lori Sills has joined the board of directors of Umbrella, a Portland-based fiscal sponsor nonprofit organization that works to encourage active street culture by providing nonprofit status, liability insurance, permitting assistance and bookkeeping to projects like Better Block PDX, CycloFemme PDX, the Disaster Relief Trials, Shift, Skate Like a Girl and the World Naked Bike Ride. Her legal practice includes estate planning, probate and trust administrations, taxation and business transactions.
Lane Powell Shareholder Kenneth R. Haglund Jr. was recently named a “Forty Under 40” honoree by the Portland Business Journal. Haglund is recognized as one of 40 people to watch in Portland for being young, bright and contributing to the local community. More than 500 nominations were received this year. He is a member of Lane Powell’s business practice group, where he focuses his practice on public and private business corporations and financial institutions, with a concentration on securities and regulatory compliance, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and real estate finance.
Sussman Shank has been named one of the 2016 “100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon” by Oregon Business magazine. This marks the firm’s 11th year to make the list. The rankings are based on confidential employee surveys measuring employee satisfaction in five categories, including benefits and compensation, work environment, decision-making and trust, performance management, and career development and learning. The complete rankings will be revealed in the magazine’s March 2016 issue.
The 2016 edition of World Trademark Review 1000 recently named Lane Powell as one of the top trademark law firms in Oregon and Washington. It also named firm shareholders Kenneth R. Davis II, Parna A. Mehrbani, Frances M. Jagla and Paul D. Swanson as top individuals in the practice.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has selected Ryan Bounds, a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Portland, to serve as an appellate lawyer representative to that court for a three-year term, one of 20 appellate lawyer representatives throughout the circuit. The appellate lawyer representatives work with representatives to the 14 federal district courts of the circuit on issues affecting the judiciary and federal court practice. Bounds is a former law clerk to 9th Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain and a graduate of Yale Law School.
Barran Liebman attorney Samuel Hernandez has been appointed to the board of Classroom Law Project, Oregon’s leader in preparing youth to become active, engaged and informed participants in democratic society. Hernandez represents business owners and management in a range of employment law matters. He has been a member of the Oregon Army National Guard since 1999 with the rank of captain.
Damien Hall of Ball Janik has been recognized in the “Forty Under 40” recognition from the Portland Business Journal. Inclusion in the Forty Under 40 class recognizes him for his leadership, intellectual savvy and contributions to the greater Portland community. Hall chairs his firm’s land use and real estate practice groups.
Tonkon Torp attorney David A. Rabbino has been elected to the board of directors for Youth, Rights & Justice, a not-for-profit law firm that provides children and families in Oregon with legal representation and advocacy in the courts, legislature, schools and community. Rabbino is a litigator in his firm’s environmental and natural resources practice group and has more than two decades of experience in environmental and natural resources law.
Vicki M. Smith, a trial lawyer and partner with Bodyfelt Mount, has become an officer on the board of directors for the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel. Smith will act as secretary/treasurer in 2016, president-elect in 2017 and president in 2018. Smith served on the OADC’s board of directors for three years before being elected as its newest officer. She has held additional leadership roles in the organization, including co-chairing the 2015 annual convention and chairing OADC’s new lawyers practice group. Smith’s law practice focuses on general civil litigation and insurance coverage matters.
Laura Salerno Owens, an attorney and shareholder with Markowitz Herbold, has been named to the board of directors of Rose Haven, a nonprofit day shelter and community center serving women and children of all ages. Salerno Owens represents clients in a variety of employment law issues, including noncompetition/nonsolicitation agreements and trade secrets, wage and hour disputes, discrimination charges, sexual harassment allegations and whistleblower claims.
Former Oregon Chief Justice Paul De Muniz is the author of a new novel, The Debt, which is being hailed as a “sophisticated thriller.” His publisher describes the book as “a Perry Mason type novel” on the surface, one that blends the investigation of a mystery with courtroom drama. The novel borrows on the conventions of the genre, but also allows reality to impinge on them. The setting is the Island of Sakhalin in the Russian Far East, a territory still contested between Russia and Japan — a place where the remnants of communism contest with the new corrupt capitalism of post-Soviet Russia. As a successful trial and appellate attorney and judge, De Muniz is familiar not only with the American legal system but also the Russian criminal justice system as result of his work on Russian criminal justice reform from 2002 through 2006. Retired from the Oregon Supreme Court in 2013, De Muniz is now a distinguished jurist in residence at Willamette University College of Law.
Klarquist Sparkman, one of the largest and oldest intellectual property law firms in the Pacific Northwest, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The firm’s history began in 1941 with a solo practitioner, Elmer A. Buckhorn. His first year of part-time solo practice in 1941 brought a total of 10 cases. By 1947, business had increased enough that a second partner, Orme Cheatham, joined the firm, and by the end of the 1950s the firm had five partners. Today, the firm includes a combination of more than 50 attorneys and patent agents, led by a team of 32 partners having a broad range of technical expertise and legal experience in all facets of intellectual property acquisition, licensing and litigation.
Collier Law welcomes Jeff Skrysak as a new associate attorney. His primary areas of practice will be estate planning, probate, trust administration and general business. He clerked at Collier Law for two years before joining the firm as an associate and has over a decade of experience in industries ranging from information technology and international business to product distribution and foreign language services.
After 18 years with Landerholm P.S., and more than 34 years in practice, employment law attorney Linda E. Frischmeyer retired from the practice of law, effective Dec. 31. She plans to spend more time with family and friends and enjoy the benefits of more contemplative/meditative time and athletic endeavors.
James P. Sikora, who formerly practiced with MacColl Busch Sato, has joined Landerholm P.S., where he will provide employment law expertise. Sikora advises businesses on labor and employment law matters. He may be reached at james.sikora@landerholm.com or (360) 816-2465.
The Portland firm of Ransom Blackman announces that effective Jan. 1 the firm will be known as Boise Matthews LLP. Whitney P. Boise and Kendra M. Matthews will continue as partners; John S. Ransom will continue as of counsel position. Founding partner Marc D. Blackman, one of Oregon’s most highly regarded criminal defense attorneys, who died Jan. 1, 2014, of kidney cancer, will never be forgotten.
Justin E. Hobson has joined Lane Powell’s Portland office as an attorney in the firm’s taxation practice group. Hobson previously worked as an international tax manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers’s international tax services team. Hobson focuses his practice on all aspects of business taxation and has particular experience counseling clients on a variety of cross-border tax matters, including global restructuring, cross-border transactions, entity formation, tax treaties, accounting for income taxes, transfer pricing, import and export taxes, customs duties and value-added taxes.
Tonkon Torp has elected Blerina Kotori and Christopher Pallanch to the partnership, effective Jan. 1. Both attorneys started their private practices as associates for the firm. Kotori began at the firm as a summer associate and was the first Tonkon Torp associate to receive Lewis & Clark Law School’s Moe M. Tonkon and Frederick Torp Scholarship. Kotori is a member of the firm’s labor and employment and information privacy and security practice groups. She advises and represents employers in various matters, including discrimination, retaliation, leave laws, wage and hour, sexual harassment, disability and employment benefits. Pallanch joined Tonkon Torp following a two-year clerkship with U.S. District Judge Edward C. Reed Jr. in Nevada. He is a member of the firm’s litigation and financial services practices. He focuses on resolving complex business disputes as well as representing plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state court on matters that include contractual agreements, financing arrangements and business torts.
Mersereau Shannon welcomes Beth Plass to the firm’s litigation practice group. Prior to joining the firm, she served as judicial law clerk for the Hon. Marilyn Litzenberger. Plass received her J.D. from Gonzaga University.
David Myers has joined the business department at Tonkon Torp. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate and finance transactions, tax matters and general corporate counseling. He previously served as assistant general counsel at Aequitas Capital Management, where he gained significant transactional and advisory experience, and as an associate attorney at a Salem firm. Most recently, he received a master of laws in taxation from the University of Washington School of Law.
Michelle A. Blackwell has joined Innovative Law Group as a partner after 10 years with Watkinson Laird Rubenstein. Blackwell, a respected litigation attorney, specializes in business litigation, employer-side employment defense, professional license defense, construction law, administrative proceedings, bankruptcy litigation, and probate and trust litigation.
Experienced litigator Carolyn Pearson has joined Jordan Ramis, where she will focus her practice on employment and labor law. She is experienced in complex, litigation-related matters ranging from employment discrimination and retaliation claims to wage-and-hour class actions. She also advises employers on compliance with Oregon, Washington and California laws regarding employee leaves and benefits. Pearson received her J.D. at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Laura L. Richardson has joined Lane Powell’s litigation practice group. Richardson focuses her practice on complex litigation and has experience in a diverse array of matters, including commercial class actions, commercial contract disputes, First Amendment litigation and media/entertainment litigation. Richardson previously was a litigation associate for Sidley Austin and served as a judicial clerk for the Hon. Jon P. McCalla of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
Stan N. Rotenberg was recently re-elected as president of Buckley Law for 2016, his third consecutive year in the role. The firm has grown dramatically during Rotenberg’s tenure and now employs 24 attorneys. Rotenberg’s legal practice specializes in commercial real estate transactions, as well as general business and finance matters. He represents general corporate, LLC, partnership and joint venture clients in connection with the formation and the sale and purchase of businesses, as well as representing financial institutions in general business and financing matters.
David Audet has moved his office from Hillsboro to Portland. He is sharing space with Kauffman Kilberg in the Congress Center Building. Audet continues to focus his practice on representing persons accused of crimes in state and federal courts.
Kenneth R. Haglund Jr. has been elected to shareholder, effective Jan. 1, in the Portland office of Lane Powell, where he is leader corporate/community banking of the firm’s financial institution industry group. He focuses his practice on public and private business corporations and financial institutions, with a concentration on securities and regulatory compliance, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and real estate finance.
Peter R. Tovey has become a shareholder in the Hills-boro Law Group. His practice focuses on immigration law, estate planning and criminal defense.
Laurie E. Craghead is back in private practice after almost 15 years as an assistant legal counsel for Des-chutes County. As a sole practitioner, her statewide practice includes land use, property tax and other limited government/municipal law. She contracts with attorneys and local governments in addition to having individual clients. Craghead is also on the arbitrators’ list for the circuit court in Deschutes County.
Kirstin L. Abel, trial attorney and of counsel with Bodyfelt Mount, has become a partner at the firm. Abel’s law practice concentrates on medical malpractice, product liability and professional liability matters. Abel serves on the OSB Procedure & Practice Committee and the OSB Products Liability Section executive committee. For eight years before joining the firm in 2013, Abel focused exclusively on defending hospitals and physicians in malpractice lawsuits while working for a Portland medical malpractice boutique.
Laura Salerno Owens and Harry Wilson have become shareholders with Markowitz Herbold. Salerno Owens concentrates her practice in the area of employment litigation. She represents clients in a variety of employment law issues including noncompetition/nonsolicitation agreements and trade secrets, wage and hour disputes, discrimination charges, sexual harassment allegations and whistleblower claims. Salerno Owens also has experience litigating claims under the Family Medical Leave Act, the Oregon Family Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and representing clients before the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Wilson represents clients in high-stakes business litigation in state, federal and international forums. His clients include businesses, individuals, governments and nonprofit organizations. Wilson has briefed more than 50 appeals to the 9th Circuit and Oregon courts of appeals and argued more than a dozen times before the Oregon Court of Appeals. Wilson’s writings have appeared in the Oregonian, the OSB Litigation Journal and the United States District Court Historical Society newsletter.
Cosgrave Vergeer Kester has named associate Shane Swilley as a partner. He has worked for the firm since 2010, handling employment litigation and providing individuals and businesses with human resources advice and counsel. A native of the Pacific Northwest, he attended Lewis & Clark Law School, where he was a student representative to the American Bar Association. He has represented clients and businesses in employment law matters and commercial disputes.
Ian Gates is now a shareholder of Dascenzo Intellectual Property Law. Gates has been with the firm since its founding in 2008 and has been a partner since 2012. His practice focuses on patent and trademark procurement and client counseling for individual inventors, local businesses, start-ups and Fortune 100 companies. Gates began his professional career as an automotive test engineer at Freightliner in Portland, prior to receiving his J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2005.
Heltzel Williams welcomes Andrew D. Campbell to the firm’s litigation team. Campbell began his career as a deputy district attorney in the Marion County district attorney’s office. In 2007, Campbell joined the Oregon Department of Justice and served eight years in a variety of capacities, eventually settling at the trial division, where he litigated business, employment and civil rights cases in state and federal court.
Stoel Rives partner Nicole C. Hancock has been appointed the new office managing partner of the firm’s Boise office, effective Jan. 1. Hancock is responsible for the day-to-day administrative management of the office, which has more than 30 attorneys and staff. Hancock, formerly the chair of the firm’s food and agribusiness industry team, represents corporate clients in a variety of legal issues, including contractual disputes, trade secret defense and enforcement, intellectual property enforcement and litigation, licensing disputes and other corporate matters.
John J. Christianson has been named a shareholder of Gevurtz Menashe. Christianson is an alumnus of Jesuit High School, Georgetown University and the University of Oregon School of Law. He is a member of the Oregon and Washington state bars and has been practicing estate planning and administration law since 2006. He became of counsel with the firm in July 2013, handling wills and revocable trusts, estate and gift taxes, probate administration, asset protection planning, and beneficiary and trustee representation.
Nathan C. Brunette has been elected to partnership at Stoel Rives. Brunette focuses his practice on patent and intellectual property litigation, as well as complex business disputes and patent, trademark, trade dress, licensing, cybersquatting, trade secret, civil antitrust and commercial matters. He has represented clients in state and federal courts, private arbitration and Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy proceedings.
Sarah Stauffer Curtiss has been elected to partnership at Stoel Rives. Stauffer Curtiss helps clients comply with environmental and land use laws, navigate complex permitting processes and develop compliance solutions that enhance business opportunities. Her federal expertise covers a myriad of environmental laws, with a focus on protected species. She has extensive experience advising clients on local code provisions and processes and securing permits from local governments for industrial, commercial, residential and mixed-use developments.
Reilley D. Keating has been elected to partnership at Stoel Rives. Keating focuses her practice on complex civil and health care litigation, commercial business and contract disputes, condemnation and real property actions and consumer protection actions. She has experience representing businesses, public entities and individuals as plaintiffs or defendants in a variety of state and federal courts, on appeal, and in arbitration and mediation.
Eric L. Martin has been elected to partnership at Stoel Rives. Martin focuses his practice on natural resource development, with an emphasis on property issues and transactions in the oil and gas (upstream and midstream) and mining industries throughout the western United States. He helps clients buy, lease and sell natural resources, obtain financing, permit projects on the local, state and federal levels, and resolve associated development issues.
Andrea H. Thompson has been elected to partnership at Stoel Rives. Thompson focuses on representing employers in all areas of employment law, with an emphasis on defending lawsuits and administrative charges and resolving employment-related disputes. She also advises and defends private and public schools, colleges and universities in a variety of civil rights and employment-related matters that are unique to education institutions.
Peter A. Christoff became a partner in the Bend firm Merrill O’Sullivan, effective Jan. 1. Christoff has been practicing law in Bend since 2008, and with the firm as an associate since 2012. His practice focuses on business and real estate transactions, corporate law, estate planning, and trust and probate administration. He currently serves as a member of the Bend Planning Commission and as the chair of the board of directors for the Shepherd’s House, a rescue mission in Bend.
McGaughey Erickson has moved its offices to 1500 S.W. First Ave., Suite 800, Portland, OR 97201. The telephone, email and fax information remains the same. The firm continues to emphasize securities, shareholder and employment litigation.
Dale Liberty Sr. died Aug. 31, 2015. He was 91.
Dale Duane Liberty was born April 27, 1924 in Walla Walla, Wash. He served in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. He attended Oregon State and graduated in education at Lewis & Clark College. He taught drama and English at West Linn High School in the late 1950s before enrolling in Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School. He practiced law for 50 years in Clackamas County. Along the way, he published two crime novels.
In 1994, he married Eleanor Des Brisay. Together, they enjoyed golf, bridge, local Canby Adult Center and Library events, reading and spending time with family.
Survivors include his wife and her family, a son and daughter, and two granddaughters.
Longtime Salem resident Bob Lundy, whose life work was the development of the Office of the Legislative Counsel and the Oregon Revised Statutes, died Oct. 7, 2015, at age 89 in McMinnville.
Robert W. “Bob” Lundy was born July 26, 1926, in Marion, Iowa. He served in the U.S. Army from September 1944 until his honorable discharge in August 1946. He was stationed in Hawaii and Okinawa, Japan, achieving the rank of staff sergeant. He earned a bachelor of arts from University of Iowa in February 1950 and a J.D. from the university’s college of law in June 1951.
Lundy arrived in Salem in July 1951 to join the Statute Revision Council’s effort to rewrite and codify Oregon’s statute laws. After admittance to the Oregon State Bar in 1952, he continued to work on what became Oregon Revised Statutes (1953 edition) until September 1953. He then moved to Denver to assist with codification of Colorado Revised Statutes (1953).
In 1954, Lundy returned to Salem to join the legal staff of the newly created Office of the Legislative Counsel. Until he retired in 1986, he drafted and indexed legislation, codified and indexed statutes, wrote annotations and opinions, and coordinated agency administrative rule reviews. From 1967 until 1972, he served as the legislative counsel and secretary of the Law Improvement Commission.
After his official retirement, he volunteered at the legislative counsel's office until June 2009. His appreciative colleagues remember him as a friend, mentor, teacher and wise counselor.