February - Claire H. Taylor March - Magdalena Bragun April - Darcel Lobo May - Makiko Coffland June - Ihaab Syed
July - Samantha Hunt August - Mary Reiten September - Christine McFadden
We are excited to spotlight Christine McFadden, an associate at Davis Wright Tremaine, in our King County Washington Women Lawyers September newsletter.
Christine is a part of the firm’s commercial litigation practice group in Seattle. Her practice includes representing clients in responding to government investigations as well as clients internally investigating and taking enforcement actions against cybercrimes, tech support fraud, and other digital threats to their platforms. Christine also enjoys participating in the Attorneys of Color, Asian Pacific American, and Women Attorneys Affinity Groups.
Christine earned her J.D. at the University of Washington School of Law. During law school, Christine gained experience at both the federal and state levels of government as a law clerk for the Federal Trade Commission and the Washington State Office of the Attorney General (Civil Rights Division). Prior to law school, she worked for six years in the technology sector as a program manager at Palantir Technologies. Christine earned her B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University.
When not practicing law, Christine enjoys running, swimming, baking desserts, going to concerts, and rewatching Lord of the Rings. She and her husband have a giant Maine Coon kitty named Lilikoi (“passion fruit” in Hawaiian).
Could you share a bit about your journey from studying at Stanford University to working at Palantir Technologies, and eventually transitioning into law? What inspired you to pursue a career in law after your experience in the technology sector?
After I graduated from Stanford, I accepted a job offer at Palantir Technologies as part of their in-house legal team specifically focusing on private equity. I eventually transitioned to the role of program manager, working with numerous internal teams to build processes and track metrics. As the company grew, my role grew as well, and I project managed the expansion of all international infrastructure at the company (e.g., laying the internal foundation to get boots on the ground in other countries, such as creating entities). I was always interested in the new regulations we’d encounter in each country we expanded our business to and have always enjoyed writing—these interests inspired me to go back to school to pursue a career in law.
You are involved in several affinity groups at your firm, including Attorneys of Color, Asian Pacific American, and Women Attorneys. How have these groups impacted your professional growth and experience? Why do you think it is important for law firms to have such affinity groups?
The affinity groups I’m part of at Davis Wright Tremaine have significantly impacted my experience as a new attorney. As a woman of color and part of two underrepresented groups in this field, I knew it was important to make connections and learn from those that had come before me. Fortunately, I was able to do this almost immediately at DWT through attending a DEI retreat in Chicago during my first week at the firm, which made me feel a lot more comfortable starting out as a new associate. These groups have also introduced me to multiple mentors—both associates and partners—which I’m incredibly grateful for.
What are some of your long-term career goals or aspirations within the legal field? Are there any particular areas of law or types of cases you are passionate about exploring further in your career?
I’m really enjoying my practice so far, which in part involves representing clients internally investigating and taking enforcement actions against cybercrimes. I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of several large lawsuits suing international fraud rings and would love to continue to be a part of impactful litigation against scammers to help protect both companies and consumers. Cybercrimes and impersonation schemes are only becoming more prevalent; helping detect and combat anonymous, bad actors is important to me.
How has mentorship played a role in your career development, and what advice would you give to those seeking mentorship in the legal field? Can you share any networking tips for young lawyers looking to make meaningful connections in the industry?
Mentorship has been key in my career development. I’m currently expecting my fist child and several of my mentors at DWT (including through DWT’s Women Attorneys group) are also moms; I’ve benefitted from their invaluable advice and support as I navigate this new chapter of my professional career and personal life. And to any young lawyers looking to make meaningful connections, my advice would be find anything you have in common with potential attorney mentors. Did you both have the same major in undergrad? Great. Did you both study abroad in Japan? Perfect. In addition to identifying more overlapping interests, it can also help make those first few conversations less awkward!
We are excited to spotlight Mary Reiten, a Shareholder at Peryea Silver Taylor, in our King County Washington Women Lawyers August newsletter.
Mary B. Reiten is a dedicated and compassionate attorney with over 20 years of experience, specializing in helping condominium associations and their members navigate complex disputes. Licensed in Washington, California, and Alaska (inactive), Mary takes pride in tailoring her legal services to the unique needs of each client, whether that means heading to court or finding solutions through mediation. Her extensive trial experience and mediation certification from the King County Dispute Resolution Center allow her to effectively resolve conflicts both inside and outside the courtroom.
Mary’s expertise spans a wide range of issues, from board powers and assessments to maintenance, construction, covenant enforcement, and interpersonal disputes. She also excels in real estate law, business litigation, and consumer law, successfully handling cases involving breach of purchase and sale agreements, auto fraud, timber trespass, easements, commission disputes, guarantees, commercial lease disputes, and partnership disputes.
Mary earned her J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) in 1998, where she was honored as a Public Interest Scholar. She also holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her career includes significant tenures at Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC (2013 to 2018) and Tousley Brain Stephens (2002 to 2013).
Beyond her professional achievements, Mary is deeply committed to her community. She is an active member of the Washington State Community Association Institute, Washington Women Lawyers and the Public Justice Foundation. Mary also finds great fulfillment in volunteering as a mediator at the King County Dispute Resolution Center, where she helps people find common ground and resolve their differences.
Mary’s dedication to her clients goes beyond just legal advice—she genuinely cares about finding the best possible outcomes for them. Her compassionate approach and vast experience make her a trusted advocate for those she serves.
What inspired you to pursue a career in law, and what led you to specialize in representing condominium associations and their members?
My ex-husband and I owned a series of restaurants in Oakland, California. Our first restaurant ended up in litigation as the shareholders fought amongst themselves about the best way to run/expand the restaurant. Several thousand dollars in legal fees later I decided to go to law school.
After getting divorced during law school, I didn’t know what area of law I wanted to practice in, but I knew I wanted to litigate. So, I clerked for three years in superior court – one year in Alaska State Superior Court in Sitka, Alaska, and two years in San Francisco Superior Court in California. While at San Francisco Superior I met attorneys from Lieff, Cabraser, Heiman & Bernstein, who practiced plaintiff’s side class action law. I joined that law firm because I was impressed by the high quality of their work product. After a year I decided to move out of the Bay Area, and came to work at Tousley Brain Stephens, PLLC, here in Seattle, where I practiced plaintiff’s side class action litigation and later focused on real estate litigation. It is at Tousley where I started working with homeowners and community associations. I have worked with homeowners and community associations since 2005, with a five-year detour at Terrell Marshall Law Group, where I once again practiced plaintiff’s class action law. I have been at Peryea Silver Taylor, PS for four years and became a shareholder on July 1, 2024. We represent mainly associations, though occasionally we will take a homeowner client. I handle the litigation in the office. Homeowner association litigation is highly diverse. I have deal with governing document interpretation, parliamentary procedure, Fair Housing Act issues, assessment disputes, vendor breach of contract claims, construction defects, insurance coverage disputes, easements, adverse possession, timber trespass, landlord tenant issues, and other issues related to associations. There is a dearth of attorneys out there who represent homeowners as most attorneys would rather represent the associations, so there is opportunity out there for someone who wants it.
You have held numerous leadership roles, including Co-Chair of the Judicial Evaluation Committee for Washington Women Lawyers. How has your involvement in professional associations influenced your career, and what advice would you give to women lawyers looking to take on leadership roles?
I have always enjoyed being involved in the legal community. Right now, I volunteer as a mediator in small claims court; I chair the ADR committee for the Washington Community Associations Institute; and am co-chair of KCWWL’s JEC. I love volunteering because it brings me into contact with amazing individuals and programs. The only advice I have is to be curious and open to possibilities. Accept the invitations. Go to the events. Make the connections. You will find the programs that inspire you.
What key pieces of advice would you give to women entering the legal profession today, especially those interested in following a similar path to yours?
I have always been adventurous. I moved to Alaska in my first year of practice thinking I would practice there. For personal reasons that did not work out, so I moved back to Oakland, California. When a job possibility opened up in Seattle I jumped on it. Every time I was presented with an opportunity I took it. So, be open to possibilities.
Also, learn how to write. Writing is the most important skill an attorney can have.
Over your 20+ years of practice, what have been some of the most significant changes in the legal landscape, particularly for women lawyers? How have you navigated these changes?
I think women have made strides during my career. Compared to the beginning of my career, I see more women partners and more women owning their own law firms. Three of the four law firms I have worked for have had a majority of female attorneys and two were majority women owned. There are also far more women on the bench.
When millennial attorneys started to appear in the workplace some of the older generation were at a bit of a loss as to how to deal with them. The millennials would question what we considered to be normal workplace behavior, such as why we worked such long hours and on weekends and/or put our work ahead of our families. And some millennials found it very hard to take criticism of their work. We had to adjust our expectations and learn new ways of communicating. I think this has been a net positive for the legal industry and the attorneys who work in it.
Technology has been the biggest change over the course of my career. When I was externing for the California Attorney General in law school we did not have access to either Westlaw or Lexis for research – we did it the old-fashioned way with books. The database program we used to review documents was positively stone age. I also used law books a great deal in addition to the legal databases when clerking for both Alaska Superior and San Franscisco Superior. I don’t use books at all anymore as most are now available digitally.
I did not own a cell phone until the fourth year of my career. I owned the first generation of the Blackberry, which was very basic and only handled email. And remote connections to office servers were pretty wonky. The evolution of smartphones and the ability to work remotely has significantly changed how law is practiced and how I practice law. I think everyone should take full advantage of it. I now work from home almost 100 percent and wish I had had the technology to do so earlier in my career.
We are excited to spotlight Samantha (Sam) Hunt, Associate at Perkins Coie LLP, in our June 2024 edition of King County Washington Women Lawyers monthly newsletter.
Samantha Hunt is a patent litigation associate with experience in U.S. district court, U.S. International Trade Commission, and Patent Trial and Appeal Board matters. She is well versed in invalidity and noninfringement analysis, claim construction proceedings, discovery, motion practice, patent damages analysis, and issues unique to fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) encumbered patents.
Samantha’s background in project management and flight testing helps her efficiently navigate complex matters to achieve positive outcomes for her clients at every stage of litigation. She has successfully petitioned for inter partes review proceedings and authored winning motions for summary judgment. Samantha also has experience in various technical fields, including video and audio codecs, data security and file management, semiconductors, software, aircraft, and life sciences.
Samantha earned her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law, where she served as an intern in the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, providing comprehensive intellectual property evaluation and advice to entrepreneurs and student inventors. Prior to attending law school, Samantha earned bachelor and master of science degrees in aeronautics and astronautics engineering, with a focus on structural analysis, from Purdue University. Throughout her 10-year career in the aviation industry, Samantha refurbished aging military aircraft and participated in every stage of flight testing and certification for new and modified civilian and military aircraft.
Questions and Answers
Your journey as an aeronautics and astronautics engineer to a patent litigation associate is both unique and inspiring. Can you share what motivated you to transition from engineering to law, specifically into the specialized field of patent litigation, and how your engineering background has influenced your approach to legal challenges in intellectual property law?
I honestly never considered becoming a lawyer until I had the opportunity to serve as the jury foreperson on an inquest into an officer-involved shooting that resulted in a fatality. When I was called for jury duty, I was in the last semester of my master’s program at Purdue and was considering whether I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in engineering with one of my favorite professors. Specifically, I wanted to study and analyze damage tolerance, maintenance, and repair of the type of composite materials rapidly being adopted in the aviation industry for large structural components, such as fuselage and wing skins and their accompanying structural stiffeners. Although I was deeply curious and passionate about my potential area of study, I was also working full time as a flight test engineer; realistically, I knew pursuing a Ph.D. would merely be a passion project to satisfy my intellectual curiosity without providing any precise advantage to my current engineering career.
I remember weighing my options as I sat in the large jury room, waiting to find out if I would be called. Before anyone was called for the day, an attorney addressed all potential jurors to impress the importance of jurors in the legal process, thank us for our service, and express her disappointment that she herself had never had the opportunity to serve on a jury. It really made me excited for the process. Once I was seated on the jury, the judge further impressed how rare it was to serve as a juror on an inquest and explained that we, as jurors, would get the chance to pose questions to the witnesses (which the attorneys and judge would review before asking). I remember feeling great pride every time a question I posed was relayed to a witness.
When I returned to work after the inquest and told my colleagues how much I enjoyed the experience, I began getting a common reply: “You know so-and-so, who used to work here, is now a lawyer. You should talk to them.” So I did. My biggest takeaway after talking to all these former engineers turned lawyers was that one of the best parts of their job was that they get paid to learn new things for a living. I thought that sounded like a great (and more productive) way to satisfy my intellectual curiosity and decided to pursue law school instead of a Ph.D.
With a diverse career that spans across engineering and law, and a successful track record in patent litigation, what advice would you give to women lawyers and law students who are interested in pursuing a career in intellectual property law or transitioning from a technical field to law? How do you see mentorship playing a role in their professional development?
It may not be right for everyone, but for those transitioning from one career to another, I recommend keeping an open mind and taking your time before jumping in. This is especially true if you have a family, mortgage, or other obligations that limit your flexibility as to where you attend law school and work after graduation. For example, after deciding I wanted to go to law school, I immediately assumed I would just do what I did for engineering graduate school—namely, keep my full-time engineering job and go to law school part time. But, after speaking to a ton of local lawyers, I decided it would actually be better for my family (and my long-term career goals) to go to law school full time, graduate in three years, and take on (paid) summer work. I also ended up deferring my first year of law school because (on admitted students day) my husband and I found out that our latest round of fertility treatments had finally worked and I was expecting our first child the week before first-quarter finals. Of course, before I decided to defer, I asked the dean of students to put me in touch with other women who had children during law school so I could make an educated decision.
Through every step of my transition to law (and beyond), my decisions have been informed by other lawyers (often women) taking the time to mentor me—even if they didn’t realize it. We often think mentoring has to be a formal, continuous, intense relationship, but simply being willing to have coffee with someone and tell them about your career or life can be an act of mentoring. We, as women, can help each other out by being bold enough to ask for each other’s time and gracious enough to offer the same.
You have experience with a variety of technical fields, from semiconductors and software to aircraft and life sciences. Based on your extensive experience and considering the rapid pace of technological advancement, what are some of the emerging trends in patent law that you believe will significantly impact litigation and intellectual property strategy in the next few years? How do you stay ahead of these trends to ensure successful outcomes for your clients?
One of my favorite parts about being a lawyer is that the law is not stagnant, and we must, therefore, learn new things all the time. This is true regardless of what type of law you practice. There are a couple of ways I try to ensure I’m staying on top of developing trends in my field. First and foremost, I am an active member of the Seattle Intellectual Property American Inn of Court. As part of my membership in this organization, I attend and contribute to monthly meetings where members of the Inn present on an emerging trend or topic in intellectual property law. Outside of the educational program, I also get to connect informally with my colleagues both inside and outside of my firm, who help me gain a wider perspective of the industry. As a first-generation lawyer and Seattle transplant, I find this connectivity to the wider intellectual property legal community invaluable. I also have a particular passion for the various ways standard essential patents can impact patent litigation. To ensure I stay current on legal developments in this specific area, I receive alerts from relevant news sites when this topic is covered. I also contribute to and attend continuing learning education presentations on the topic whenever I can.
We are excited to spotlight Ihaab Syed (she/her), Judicial Law Clerk at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, in our monthly newsletter.
After spending her formative years in a Mississippi small town, Ihaab attended NYU on a Presidential Honors Scholarship, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Philosophy. Her first post-graduate job was as a paralegal for legal services clients with mental illness. Then, after working as an organizer on political campaigns, she helped found a new labor organization devoted to supporting electoral workers, serving as the union’s secretary as well as a bargaining agent, union representative, and liaison with legal counsel. These experiences motivated Ihaab to pursue a J.D. with a specialization in Public Interest Law & Policy from UCLA School of Law, which she received in 2019. During her studies, she was recognized for her contributions to the campus and wider community as an inaugural recipient of the U. Serve L.A. Student Award.
After graduating, Ihaab became an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Her fellowship project focused on improving access for voters with disabilities through impact litigation, advocacy, and public education. Ihaab also co-led the ACLU’s 2020 nationwide Election Protection effort. To mobilize insights from this work, she co-authored a peer-reviewed article with colleagues from the ACLU and the National Disability Rights Network, published in the Election Law Journal: Designing Accessible Elections: Recommendations from Disability Voting Rights Advocates.
Currently, Ihaab is a law clerk for a federal district judge in Seattle. Since October 2022, she has served on the Ninth Circuit Workplace Environment Committee’s Law Clerk Subcommittee, helping advance initiatives to improve the experience of law clerks throughout the Circuit. She is a participant in MAMA Seattle’s Ladder Down leadership and business development program and has a budding interest in filmmaking. A documentary Ihaab co-directed, Bhaskar Chitrakar: Painting Kalighat Moderns, recently premiered at the Smithsonian Museum’s Mother Tongue Film Festival.
Questions and Answers
1. As someone who serves on the Ninth Circuit Workplace Environment Committee’s Law Clerk Subcommittee, what advice would you give to young lawyers aspiring to become judicial clerks?
In this role, I’ve had the opportunity to work with clerks from all over the Ninth Circuit, across appellate, bankruptcy, and district courts. Everyone has had a unique path to getting here, and several of us are first-generation lawyers. Don’t count yourself out just because you don’t fit the imagined profile of a law clerk. Many judges are eager to hire people with litigation experience, a prior career, or other life circumstances that are outside the mold.
Law schools often encourage students to “bulk apply” to clerkships. However, I would recommend putting considerable thought and effort into a few select applications, making sure those applications are tailored to what each judge’s posting specifically requires. Focus on clearly articulating why you want to clerk and demonstrate why you would be a great fit for that specific judge’s chambers. In particular, the writing sample you choose (and how well it is introduced) can show that you are a serious candidate—even if you weren’t at the top of your class or on the law review—by showcasing your thoughtfulness and ability to independently perform the type of legal analysis that law clerks engage in daily.
2. How can lawyers contribute to creating a more accessible and inclusive legal system?
Accessing legal support can be burdensome for potential clients from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly those who also have disabilities. Many Americans do not have lawyers in their network, and when they seek legal counsel they are likely facing some of the most challenging circumstances in their lives such as a family dispute, immigration consequences, criminal penalties, or financial crisis. A few key things you can do to make your services more available to a broad population include: (1) using plain, easy-to-understand language in retainer agreements and other communications to clients; (2) defaulting to using gender-neutral language until you know someone’s preferred pronouns and not assuming relationships (e.g., using the word “partner”); and (3) ensuring that your practice group’s website meets current accessibility standards. These are simple things that together we can work towards normalizing in our relatively exclusive profession.
Another valuable way I’ve found to gain understanding of the needs of my local community has been to volunteer on projects requiring interaction with people whose experiences differ from my own. My formal work with clients with disabilities began only after years of volunteering as a cooking class instructor at a New York City shelter, where I built deep relationships with many disabled residents.
One community need that lawyers can uniquely fill is providing representation for people of low- to moderate-means in civil cases. The Western District has a pro bono program which offers mentorship and co-counseling support to volunteer attorneys.
3. How can lawyers help make the legal profession more accessible and inclusive?
There are many barriers to success in the legal profession for first-generation lawyers, especially those without close family members with advanced degrees or from primarily non-English language backgrounds. Consider your law office’s recruitment process and how you can help create better pipelines for underrepresented applicants to enter and succeed in the profession. If you can devote time and energy into providing extra writing support (e.g., multiple rounds of redline edits and detailed oral feedback), you may be able to hire and provide coaching to an aspiring intern or associate with a less-polished application or lower grades who has the zeal to learn and do good work.
Beyond the hiring process, each of us can commit to regularly providing mentorship to our junior peers by signaling our willingness to provide advice and support and making ourselves available when they reach out. As the beneficiary of this type of mentorship myself, I am keenly aware of how this understated way of distributing the soft skills of our profession that aren’t taught in law school is critical to building a rewarding career in the law. Each of us can be changemakers within our own spheres of influence: in our workplaces and within our social and professional networks. And none of us succeed in this profession on our own.
Many thanks to Valerie Chelobitchenko for this invitation to share a little bit about my journey and to the King County Chapter of Washington Women Lawyers for being a valuable resource for lawyers in our community.
We are excited to spotlight Makiko Coffland, Member at Christensen O'Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, in our in our King County Washington Women Lawyers May newsletter.
Makiko represents businesses and individuals in all areas of intellectual property (IP) law, including trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret matters. She is a passionate advocate for business owners and individuals and assists clients to protect their valuable business assets tied to intellectual property. She helps clients with IP-related transactions and litigations, including trademark clearance and protection, trademark oppositions and cancellations, negotiation and handling disputes in trademarks and copyrights, domain disputes, licensing, due diligence, trade secret litigations, and antitrust litigations.
Before becoming an attorney, Makiko studied marine biology and molecular biology at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field. She also worked as a researcher in the fields of environmental engineering and microbiology and as an invention analyst for patent examination at the Japan Patent Office. Through these experiences she became passionate about intellectual property and chose a path to study intellectual property law in the United States. With English as a second language, Makiko worked hard to overcome the language barrier to achieve her goal of becoming an attorney, graduating from the University of Idaho College of Law with her J.D. degree in 2010.
Makiko's practice is strengthened by her technology background and industry experience. She began her legal career as a patent attorney, representing clients in a variety of fields and industries. Her prior experience in the life sciences has proven useful when working with brand owners in the pharmaceutical industry, where she assists with the selection, clearance, and protection of their brands in this highly regulated industry. With her unique international background, she easily collaborates with clients around the world.
Makiko is an avid volunteer with local communities and legal organizations. She has volunteered at the King County Bar Association Neighborhood Legal Clinic to assist individuals who need legal support and is a member of the Washington State Bar Association’s International Practice Section and Intellectual Property Section. She has been a board member of the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington since 2018, and served as chair of the events committee for two terms, between 2020-2023, to produce events for the Japanese community in the State of Washington. She currently serves as secretary of the International Trademark Law & Practice Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association.
Questions and Answers
1. What challenges did you face in your career as an IP attorney and how did you manage to overcome them?
Intellectual property refers to so many different types of creations, including inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, names, symbols, and more, and intellectual property laws cover large areas of law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. It is already challenging to practice this complex law associated with a wide array of subject matters, and my background in a different culture and language has added some more challenges for me in this demanding area of law. Perseverance, persistence, and diligence helped me to navigate through these challenging times, and I was also fortunate to have amazing mentors and supervisors who believed in me and helped guide me through my career. When I started my legal career, I had some doubts, to be honest, but through the experience, I came to understand that bringing one’s culture, language, and background to the practice of IP law contributes to the depth of the legal advice I can provide and adds value to those clients who also come from a diverse background. I am so grateful to those mentors and supervisors who recognized my abilities and encouraged me to pursue my career in intellectual property law.
What advice would you give to attorneys who would like to begin an IP law career without technical degrees and background?
I would say that there is a space for anyone interested in IP law. It is true that the majority of IP law issues involve technical backgrounds, and that the majority of IP lawyers are patent attorneys; however, careers in “soft IP” – such as trademarks and copyrights - exist for those without technical degrees and backgrounds. In some cases, those without technical backgrounds have strong business acumen, which is also an important skillset for IP attorneys. Additionally, patent litigation does not require a technical background or degree to practice; it is not a surprise to find many great litigators practicing this field without technical degrees.
Can you provide any thoughts on the new rule: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) amended its rules of practice as it created a new design patent practitioner designation, to represent others before the USPTO as either a “design patent attorney” or “design patent agent.” A new separate design patent practitioner bar, available to an additional set of degrees, will allow admitted design patent practitioners to practice only in design patent proceedings. This amendment took effect on January 2, 2024.
Design patents protect an aesthetic feature of an article, including shapes and configurations. Design patent practitioners are still required to have a bachelor's, master's, or Doctor of Philosophy degree to take the design patent practitioner bar, but this change will definitely create more opportunities for people in industry or product design, architecture, graphic design, or for those with general art backgrounds, to pursue their career in patent law. It is a welcoming change that the US Patent and Trademark Office has made to align with other countries’ IP offices.
We are excited to spotlight Darcel Lobo, the Owner and Attorney at DAL Law Firm PLLC, as well as the Owner of DAL Coaching, in our King County Washington Women Lawyers April newsletter.
Darcel opened DAL Law Firm in 2016, helping her clients plan for their financial future. Her practice areas are Estate Planning, Real Estate, and Bankruptcy. She opened DAL Law Firm as a working lawyer mom who was seeking a fulfilling career that would allow her the flexibility, she wanted to take care of her family while also continuing to develop her career as an attorney. Through opening her own law firm, she has not only navigated all that comes along with law firm ownership and raising two (then) small children, but she also has taken a proactive approach to prioritizing her health and merging all things law firm ownership, motherhood, and personal well-being. Since going out on her own in 2016, she has spent a significant amount of time mentoring and coaching other lawyers who are seeking happiness and fulfillment in both their personal and professional lives. Whether it’s improving time management skills, prioritizing your own health in your life, and/or seeking to open your own law firm, Darcel coaches lawyers who are seeking to open their own law firms, manage their law firms, and avoid the burnout that can come with juggling work and family life. Darcel is a Seattle native and graduated from Seattle University School of Law and was admitted to practice in 2009. Darcel has been very active with her legal and local communities, and currently serves as the WSBA Solo & Small Practice Section Chair, Co-Director of MAMA Seattle Ladder Down Program, serves on the Board of Directors for the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce, and was recently appointed on the WSBA Member Well-Being Task Force, just to name a few of her leadership positions. She has also been recognized as a Rising Star from Washington Super Lawyers from 2021-2023, Best Lawyers from 2021-2023.
Questions and Answers
What are your professional goals for the next few years?
I’ve been practicing law for about 15 years now, and I’ve become very established in my legal practice and have built a law firm that supports the lifestyle that I want to live. As such, I have been turning my focus towards my legal coaching practice in support of other attorneys. I do quite a bit of speaking engagements with my coaching practice, and my goal in the next few years is to continue to expand the growth of my coaching practice. While I enjoy being a solo law firm owner and how my career has been shaped since opening my own law firm, in recent years, I have found my true passion is helping other lawyer moms who are seeking to navigate the work/life juggle (it’s not a balance!) to build amazing careers, take care of their families, while also prioritizing themselves without the guilt that can many times come along with it.
I have firsthand life experience navigating this journey, and if I can share my insight and knowledge with others to help them fast-track to get to where they want to be, and hopefully learn from my mistakes made and lessons learned, then I know I’m on the right path.
How do you envision the impact of your work on the broader legal landscape or society?
I truly believe that when I take care of myself, and am happier and healthier, that I am then in turn a better lawyer. And not just a better lawyer, but also a better mom, wife, law firm owner, employer, etc. It all comes together. Focusing on improving our lives and our law firms isn’t just something that happens separately, it should be integrated into all that we do so we can better support ourselves and those around us who are important to us.
This is how I envision and what I hope for with my recent career transition into coaching. That I can create a safe space for my clients to be vulnerable, make positive changes in their lives and law firms, and in turn, not just have increased satisfaction with themselves and their careers, but to then also be a better lawyer, a happier lawyer, and do the amazing legal work that they were meant to do for their clients.
Can you share an example of how your personal approach to law has positively impacted a case or client?
In my legal practice, I strive to bring a sense of humanness to my practice. This is what has really helped me develop a strong relationship and trust with my clients, and has helped me to grow my practice based on my network and relationships I have developed in my 15 years of practice. For us as lawyers, we deal with similar client issues day in and day out. But for many of our clients, especially in my practice as a consumer practice, I am the first lawyer my client has ever had to hire. Working with my office, in many instances, is the first time the client has had to deal with that specific type of legal issue. I think it’s important that we remember this when working with clients, that this is all new to them, and many times, they’re enduring something that can be scary or overwhelming to them, and I want to ensure that they know we are here to support them and guide them through the process.
We are excited to spotlight Magdalena Bragun, a privacy and data security attorney at Lane Powell, PC in our King County Washington Women Lawyers March newsletter.
Magdalena received a CIPP/US accreditation and she represents clients on a wide variety of information governance, privacy, and related corporate matters. Magdalena’s expertise in privacy and data security law allows her to counsel clients on complex issues like data protection risks, international transfers of data, and structuring data protection agreements. Magdalena has assisted clients with privacy concerns involving a number of laws and jurisdictions, including CCPA/CPRA, GDPR, BDSG (Germany), PIPA (South Korea) and APPI (Japan). Having served as an extern for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and having worked in creditors’ rights litigation in her early years at Lane Powell, Magdalena brings both a transactional and a litigation perspective to the privacy matters she handles.
Magdalena is originally from Poznan, Poland, and although she has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years now, she remains connected to Europe in many ways. She spent two years studying law in Poland before moving to the U.S., which gave her a solid understanding of the traditional European civil law systems and institutions—a knowledge base that pays dividends to this day. In 2008, a few years after immigrating to the U.S., Magdalena received her Juris Doctor degree from Seattle University School of Law, graduating Summa Cum Laude. That same year, she also published a law review article, “The Golden Cage: How Immigration Law Turns Foreign Women into Involuntary Housewives,” which influenced a real change in immigration law and helped hundreds of thousands of immigrants to date.
Questions and Answers
1. Can you share with us your journey into specializing in data security, privacy, and corporate matters? What were some of the key challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
One of the greatest challenges in my career was embracing the unknown. When I first started practicing law, privacy was not on my radar at all. I began my career in 2008 as a litigation attorney with Lane Powell’s creditors’ rights team. The attorneys I worked with were the ultimate models of professionalism, and I learned the true meaning of excellence while practicing with them every day. But the downside of loving the people you work with is that you may lose sight of what you actually want to do with your professional life. It’s very hard to step away from a healthy work environment where you learn a lot and have excellent mentors. Ironically, or perhaps serendipitously, life made that decision for me when a family situation forced me to leave Lane Powell after the first few years in private practice. With some distance, I realized that what I wanted and needed at that time was moving more towards transactional work, so when I was recruited by a global decentralized law firm, Rimon PC, I felt lucky to be able to follow those interests.
Working with a variety of commercial agreements in a transactional setting not only rounded out my practice but also expanded my horizons—I was exposed to all kinds of contracts, including data processing agreements, and I started paying close attention to privacy issues coming up in various settings. Privacy became huge in Europe when GDPR went into effect in 2018, and thanks to spending a part of each year in Europe during that timeframe as an EU citizen, I was getting uniquely familiarized with the European privacy and data protection rules. I started seeking out more privacy and data governance matters, and the more I zoomed in on this work, the more passionate I became about it. Soon, it became obvious that I found my niche.
In hindsight, the greatest challenge I faced on my journey was embracing the uncertainty that’s inherently present in making a change. Stepping into corporate law was not something I saw myself doing after dedicating several years to creditors’ rights litigation. But without taking that step, I may have never discovered my passion for privacy and data security. It was that transactional background and exposure to a number of commercial contracts that opened the door to specializing in privacy. Sometimes life invites us to take a risk and step away from the beaten path. Embracing those moments is critical to finding what you really want in life.
2. How has your CIPP/US certification enhanced your ability to serve your clients? Would you recommend this certification to other attorneys interested in privacy law?
I would highly recommend pursuing the CIPP/US certification to anyone who is interested in privacy and data security work. CIPP/US stands for Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States, and it is awarded by the International Association of Privacy Professionals. The privacy laws in the United States are a patchwork of state and federal rules and regulations that vary significantly depending on the sector. Some sectors, like health care and finance, are regulated heavily on a federal level. However, unlike most developed countries, the U.S. has no federal comprehensive privacy law, which leaves it to the states to decide how to regulate this field. This, in turn, creates a multitude of inconsistencies, ambiguities, and sometimes conflicts between various states’ comprehensive and specialized privacy laws. Pursuing a CIPP/US training and certification is a great way to gain a comprehensive understanding of this complex privacy and data protection landscape.
3. Where do you see the field of privacy and data security law heading in the next five years, and what emerging issues should lawyers be preparing for?
Privacy and data security will continue to develop rapidly in the next five years. We are witnessing an unprecedented growth in this field—privacy and cybersecurity have become massive recurring expenses for businesses in all industries. This trend will continue, particularly in light of the AI-related privacy challenges. AI creates risks of data reidentification, deanonymization, and bias, which means that businesses will need to invest even more time, energy and funds to comply with the future AI-driven privacy laws as well as to shield data from AI-assisted cybercrime.
Children’s privacy protections are likely to get much more attention in the coming years, both from the government and from the parents pursuing class actions for social media addiction and similar claims. Courts have started certifying such class actions recently and we can expect that this tendency will continue in the coming years. We are also likely to see a nationwide trend toward specificity of consent for sharing and selling information relating to children.
Specificity of consent, as a trend, may also be visible in the health data protection realm. Washington’s My Health My Data Act (MHMD) is the first law in the country to require separate and distinct consents for collection, sharing and sales of health-related data that is not subject to HIPAA and similar laws. MHMD will go into effect in March/June 2024 and will require substantial compliance efforts from businesses in many industries entirely unrelated to health care. Many expect that other states will enact laws similar to MHMD in the coming years to protect health-related information of their residents.
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We are excited to spotlight Claire H. Taylor, Shareholder at Stokes Lawrence, P.S. in our King County Washington Women Lawyers February newsletter.
Claire represents businesses and individuals in a range of creditors’ rights and civil litigation matters. She assists creditors and businesses with protecting and enforcing their rights in bankruptcy, enforcing promissory notes and guarantees, foreclosures, receiverships, and workout negotiations. She also helps clients with other civil litigation, including but not limited to contract disputes, real estate disputes, and commercial landlord-tenant disputes. Leveraging her background as a litigator with the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division, Claire also advocates for clients in IRS audits and appeals, and resolves other tax controversies for her clients.
Claire’s educational journey began at Middlebury College, where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 2001. Her thirst for knowledge and passion for law and society led her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned a Master of Science in Sociology in 2006. Claire's dedication and hard work culminated at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she not only graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor in 2010 but also served as the Articles Editor for the Wisconsin Law Review.
Claire's legal career has been marked by significant recognitions and honors, highlighting her expertise and contributions to the field of tax law. She has been named among The Best Lawyers in America in Tax Law consecutively from 2021 to 2024, a testament to her excellence and dedication. Her remarkable work has also earned her the Rising Stars accolade from Washington Super Lawyers from 2017 to 2020, further solidifying her reputation in the legal community.
Admitted to practice in Wisconsin in 2010 and in Washington in 2014, Claire has been an active and engaged member of the legal profession. Her commitment to professional growth and community service is evident through her leadership roles. As the President of Washington Women in Tax from 2020 to 2023, and previously as Vice-President from 2018 to 2020, Claire has demonstrated her leadership skills and commitment to promoting women in the legal field. Furthermore, her involvement with the Washington State Bar Association Tax Section, where she served as Chair from 2021 to 2022 and was a member of the Executive Committee from 2016 to 2022, underscores her dedication to the advancement of tax law and her contributions to the legal community.
Questions and Answers
Claire, can you share your journey to becoming a litigator with the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division and how this experience has influenced your current practice?
I started my legal career at the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division as a trial attorney. During law school, I knew I wanted to litigate and was interested in getting a lot of responsibility and experience right at the outset. I was not a tax specialist by any means. But when a Tax Division attorney who was an alum of the University of Wisconsin Law School (my alma mater, the other UW) came to share his experience at the Tax Division, I was intrigued because he told us that the trial attorneys at the Tax Division were litigators first and foremost and tax attorneys second, and I was assured that I didn’t need to know anything about tax. I took his word, and interned at the Tax Division for my 2L summer, finding he was right and that I loved the work and my Tax Division colleagues.
I started at the DOJ Tax Division shortly after I graduated through the Honors Program. My experience working as a litigator at DOJ has influenced every aspect of my litigation practice. As a new attorney, I was expected to hit the ground running, having responsibility for dozens of cases in district and bankruptcy courts in the Eastern U.S., but with full support of colleagues and managers for the all-important training, mentoring, and gut check. My time at the Tax Division taught me how to juggle varying case deadlines, develop strategy, navigating all manner of procedural rules, the necessity of checking local rules, and the importance of a collegial work environment. These are all key to my current litigation practice at Stokes Lawrence, P.S., where I am now a shareholder and litigate commercial disputes with a focus on creditors’ rights.
What inspired you to specialize in creditors’ rights and civil litigation matters?
As a tax litigator at the DOJ, my practice involved representing the IRS as a creditor in both district court and bankruptcy contexts. Although I initially specialized exclusively in tax controversy after I first moved to Seattle, I joined Stokes Lawrence in 2018 to broaden my practice to encompass creditors’ rights and other commercial litigation, including commercial landlord-tenant disputes, breach of contract suits, tax litigation, and creditor-side insolvency matters in bankruptcy courts or state court receiverships. I like these overlapping practice areas because they allow me to help clients navigate challenging circumstances to maximize recovery, whether through out of court negotiation or through litigation.
My approach is very practical and I like applying a business mindset to help my clients solve their problems as promptly, efficiently, and effectively as possible. Stokes Lawrence has been a great place to build my practice as a woman and a lawyer, as we are a majority women-owned firm and we have a very collegial, supportive approach that promotes attorney development.
What trends are you seeing in real estate disputes and commercial landlord-tenant disputes in the current legal landscape?
The post-pandemic real estate market economy continues to have an impact on commercial landlord-tenant disputes, and more broadly, on creditor-debtor disputes. In the commercial real estate context, in recent months, I have seen more commercial landlords who are facing tenant bankruptcies such as, for instance, the Rite Aid bankruptcy which has been in the news. And we continue to see disputes between commercial landlords and tenants regarding early lease termination/lease damages, where mitigation of damages (i.e. re-letting the premises) plays a big role in the dispute given the current real estate market.