I came to the legal profession by way of political philosophy, which I studied at the University of Virginia. As my thesis, I wrote a would-be a priori defense of anarchism. They graduated me anyway, which was helpful, and I went on to Harvard Law School, where I served as an editor on the Law Review. After earning my J.D., I moved to West Virginia and spent a year clerking for Judge Robert King on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; then to Washington, D.C., where I practiced law with the firm of Covington & Burling. Eventually, I packed up my Subaru, drove west, and landed here in Oregon.
I’ve had the good fortune to learn criminal defense working alongside Wayne Mackeson and Brett Hall. My job, as I see it, is to help individuals accused of crimes to negotiate the justice system. This means research and writing; it means issue-spotting; it means advocacy. It means listening, explaining, and advising. It means getting involved early in the process and seeing it through to the finish. It means leaving no client to face any portion of the criminal process alone.
Our firm works as a team. Each of us – Wayne, Brett, and I – approaches the law in a slightly different way. Combined, however, our perspectives are more complete than they could be alone. It is this strength, together with a wealth of experience and a commitment to every case, that we offer to our clients.
