Stoel Rives Elects Fourteen New Partners

Portland, OR — The law firm of Stoel Rives LLP is pleased to announce the election of fourteen new lawyers to the firm's partnership, effective January 1, 2016, with the exception of an effective date of election of October 1, 2015, for Alexandra L. Mertens.

Minneapolis, MN

W. Teague Orgeman – Litigation

Orgeman represents clients including agribusiness, renewable energy and insurance companies in complex commercial and shareholder litigation cases in federal and state courts as well as arbitration proceedings. He has particular experience representing clients in breach of contract actions involving foundational documents and in actions related to the Uniform Commercial Code and business torts, such as fraudulent inducement, deceptive trade practices, trade secrets, business defamation and tortious interference.

Portland, OR

Nathan C. Brunette – Intellectual Property, Patent Litigation Services

Brunette focuses his practice on patent and intellectual property litigation as well as complex business disputes and has litigated 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. In addition, he counsels clients about the protection, enforcement and monetization of technology and intellectual property assets in the context of business opportunities and transactions.

Sarah Stauffer Curtiss – Endangered Species Act, Energy Services, Environmental & Natural Resources, Land Use

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.  On local land use matters, 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 – Litigation, Eminent Domain and Valuation

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 – Environmental & Natural Resources

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. His experience also includes representing clients before local governing bodies, state adjudicatory bodies and Oregon and Washington courts.

Andrea H. Thompson - Employment Law and Labor Relations, Labor and Employment, Litigation

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. Her clients have included health care organizations; manufacturing, technology, and forest products companies; higher education institutions; and nonprofit and public entities.

Sacramento, CA

Michael J. Sherman - Mining, Oil & Gas, and Natural Resources

Sherman assists upstream oil and gas companies and mining companies with acquiring and leasing mineral rights and permitting the extraction of oil, gas and other mineral resources.  His experience includes title, transactional, land use and natural resources matters involving oil and gas exploration and aggregate, industrial mineral and metallic mineral mines throughout California.

Salt Lake City, UT

Joe J. Hawkins – Intellectual Property, Patents

Hawkins’ focuses his practice on patent prosecution, due diligence investigations, competitive assessments for product clearance and pre-litigation patent analysis. His technical focus includes hardware and software, engineering with an emphasis on data storage, security, networking, communications, optics and networking technologies.

R. Chad Pugh – Litigation

Pugh represents clients in consumer financial services, securities, and commercial litigation matters. He also has broad experience representing lenders and loan servicers in mortgage-related litigation arising from consumer protection laws, including the Truth in Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and unfair trade practices statutes.

Seattle, WA

Hunter Ferguson – Litigation, Privacy Incident Response

Ferguson has a broad range of experience with all phases of litigation in state and federal courts and assists clients with product liability matters and in a wide variety of commercial disputes, including copyright, trademark, trade secrets and employment litigation. He also counsels clients on information privacy and cybersecurity issues, including strategies for securing personally identifiable information (PII), data breach incident response, and litigation.

Karin D. Jones – Appellate Law, Employment Law and Labor Relations, Labor and Employment, Litigation

Jones focuses her practice on employment law, providing advice to employers and representing them in litigation before administrative agencies and the state and federal courts. Her practice also extends to health care and natural resources litigation, among other types of general civil litigation, and she draws on her prior experience as a law clerk at the Ninth Circuit to represent clients in appellate litigation.

Stephanie J. Meier – Corporate, Food Liability Law, Intellectual Property

Meier focuses her practice in the area of alcohol beverage law and advises clients, including wineries, breweries, distilleries and retailers, on all aspects of state and federal licensing and permitting, post-licensing regulatory compliance, local and national marketing promotions, state and federal label and packaging compliance, state and federal tax issues, contractsand distribution issues. She also represents clients outside the alcohol beverage industry with general corporate matters and mergers and acquisitions.

Alexandra L. Mertens – Corporate, Energy Services, Mergers and Acquisitions, Project Finance

Mertens is a member of the firm’s Corporate practice group and counsels emerging and established clients on a variety of business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, governance and commercial contract negotiation. She is experienced in energy finance matters and advises developers on issues concerning the acquisition, development, financing and sale of energy projects.

Alex Oh – Patents, Intellectual Property, Patent Litigation Services, China Services

Oh focuses his practice on U.S. and foreign patent strategy, preparation, and prosecution for start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, research institutions and universities in a wide variety of technologies, including biotechnology, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, clean technology, mechanical devices and medical devices. He also provides strategic intellectual property counseling, pre-litigation patent analysis, intellectual property litigation, post-grant proceedings, patent opinions, patent portfolio management, product clearance and freedom-to-operate assessments and IP due diligence and transactions.

About Stoel Rives LLP:  Stoel Rives is a business law firm providing corporate and litigation services to a wide range of clients throughout the United States.  The firm has nearly 400 attorneys operating out of 11 offices in seven states and the District of Columbia.  Stoel Rives is a leader in corporate, energy, environmental, intellectual property, labor and employment, land use and construction, litigation, natural resources, project development and real estate law.  For more information, visit www.stoel.com.