2024 OADC Annual Convention
Speaker Profiles
June 13 - 15, 2024 | Sunriver, Oregon
Take a look at the 2024 Annual Convention Speakers by clicking on their names below!
 Amber Bevacqua-Lynott
Amber Bevacqua-Lynott is Senior Counsel in the Firm’s Portland and San Diego offices, and a member of the Firm’s Professional Responsibility and Litigation Practice Groups.
Ms. Bevacqua-Lynott provides guidance and legal representation to attorneys, licensed professionals, and other business clients, including firms and in-house legal departments. Her practice centers on legal ethics, risk management, and discipline defense. She acts as outside counsel to clients in a variety of industries, providing advice and counsel on all manner of ethics issues, including conflicts, confidentiality, malpractice, risk management, and fee issues.
In addition, Ms. Bevacqua-Lynott represents lawyers, students, and other professionals in front of regulatory authorities and bar associations on licensing, admissions, reinstatement, reciprocity, character and fitness, consumer protection, unauthorized practice of law, and disciplinary matters.
Ms. Bevacqua-Lynott has more than 20 years of legal experience, including extensive civil trial experience. Prior to joining Buchalter, Ms. Bevacqua-Lynott worked in the Oregon State Bar’s Disciplinary Counsel’s Office (DCO) as an Assistant Disciplinary Counsel, where she enforced the Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct through the investigation and prosecution of alleged misconduct. During her time in DCO, Ms. Bevacqua-Lynott successfully first-chaired several dozen civil trials, and investigated or prosecuted hundreds of disciplinary matters. The last six years of her tenure with DCO, she was the Chief Assistant Disciplinary Counsel and Deputy Director of Regulatory Services, and also acted as Chief Trial Counsel. Ms. Bevacqua-Lynott’s prior experience as a Bar prosecutor, offers her clients a unique insight and expertise on ethics issues and professional obligations.
Intimately versed in legal ethics, Ms. Bevacqua-Lynott developed, updated, and presented Legal Ethics Best Practices, a semi-annual “ethics school” for attorneys. She also prepared and edited the annual annotations of all Bar formal proceeding dispositions, requiring that she be expertly familiar with each stipulated and adjudicated case result.
She regularly presents seminars on ethics issues, both locally and nationally, and frequently provides ethics advice to attorneys.
BACK TO TOP
 Judge Ben Souede
Judge Benjamin Souede has been a Multnomah County Circuit Judge since 2017. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Souede moved between private practice and public service throughout his legal career. His private practice in Oregon (first at Lane Powell and then as a founding member of the Angeli Law Group) focused on complex civil and white collar criminal litigation. His public service career included stints as a Senior Advisory to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and as General Counsel to Oregon Governor Kate Brown.
BACK TO TOP
 Judge Beth Bagley
Judge Bagley was elected to the Deschutes County Circuit Court November, 2012, and took the bench January, 2013. Judge Bagley handles general civil, criminal and domestic relations cases. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Bagley was a prosecutor for 13 years, and a criminal defense attorney handling indigent defense cases for 2 years before that.
Judge Bagley received her undergraduate degree from the University of California—Santa Barbara in 1994, and her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1997. Judge Bagley has lived and practiced law in Oregon since 1997.
Judge Bagley is currently an executive committee officer for the Oregon Circuit Court Judges Association, was one of the founding Board Members of OAPABA (Oregon Asian Pacific American Bar Association), is a member of Oregon Women Lawyers and its affiliate chapter Cascade Women Lawyers, regularly provides training and education to judges and lawyers and is an active volunteer in her local Bar Association and community.
BACK TO TOP
 Bob Christie
Bob Christie is the founding principal of Christie Law Group, PLLC. A trial lawyer for over 39 years, Bob has tried over 100 cases throughout Washington State and the U.S. District Courts in Washington and Alaska, argued appeals in all divisions of the Washington Court of Appeals, the Washington State Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court (on briefs). Bob is widely recognized as one of the foremost lawyers defending police officers and their agencies in civil rights cases in Washington. He also represents professionals, individuals, and companies in litigation ranging from malpractice, products liability, transportation liability, road design, premises liability, commercial litigation, employment, construction, and many other categories of civil disputes. He works extensively in cases involving death and serious injury and is often called to serve as trial counsel in defense of significant claims. Working occasionally on behalf of catastrophically injured individuals and damaged business owners, Bob has also achieved several multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements.
Bob is a member of two prestigious peer selected international defense lawyer organizations--the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel (FDCC), and the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys (ADTA), which invites only one defense trial attorney per million population for each city. He has recently completed his tenure as President and is now a Board Chair of the FDCC. Bob is also a board member for DRI, the country's largest defense counsel organization, and a board member of Lawyers for Civil Justice.
BACK TO TOP
 Dan Schanz
Dan began his legal career as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Judge Edmonds at the Oregon Court of Appeals. In 1996, he joined Spooner & Much, P.C. In 2013, he and Jim Lawler formed Schanz Lawler, P.C. Dan has tried multiple jury trials and hundreds of arbitrations. He also represents clients before the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court. Dan was admitted to practice in the State Courts of Michigan in 1994. His practice is now exclusively in the State Courts of Oregon and the U.S. Federal District Court.
Dan has also been a speaker on a number of legal topics. He has authored various articles on defense of first-party cases and personal injury medical issues. Since 1996, Dan has been a proud member of the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel (OADC), which is an organization of approximately 700 Oregon attorneys who defend individuals and businesses in civil litigation. He served as the President of OADC for 2014. He also serves on the Board for the Union Gospel Mission in Salem, which provides shelter and food for the homeless.
BACK TO TOP
 Garrett McGinn
Garrett McGinn is a Partner with DigiStream Investigations’ R&D Department and its complex investigations company UpStream Intelligence. He has over 17 years of investigative experience and is a Certified Fraud Examiner, a licensed Private Investigator and holds a master’s degree in Transatlantic Relations from Jagiellonian University in Krakow Poland, and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. Mr. McGinn trained in advanced surveillance tactics in the United Kingdom, achieving a Level III Advanced Award in Foot & Mobile Surveillance. Prior to his employment with DigiStream in 2006, Mr. McGinn was a Research Analyst for Glass, Lewis & Co., an institutional investment advisory firm.
BACK TO TOP
 George Pitcher
George Pitcher, managing partner and founder of the firm’s Portland, Oregon, office, focuses his practice on product liability, professional liability and commercial litigation. He serves as national and local counsel to defendants in product liability litigation.
George has tried cases in Oregon and Washington courts and argued cases before the Oregon Supreme Court and Oregon Court of Appeals. His cases at the Oregon Supreme Court have resulted in published opinions on issues of first impression in Oregon tort law, including the standard for bringing a claim for punitive damages and the viability of “loss of chance” medical malpractice claims in Oregon.
Cases George has tried to verdict include legal malpractice, medical malpractice, asbestos, professional liability, employment discrimination, breach of warranty, lemon law, commercial disputes and breach of contract.
BACK TO TOP
 Gordy Welborn
After a 35 year career trying cases throughout Oregon and Washington, Welborn retired from Hart Wagner LLP at the end of 2022 and began a full time mediation and arbitration practice.
BACK TO TOP
 Grant Stockton
Grant is a civil attorney who focuses on defending complex liability claims on behalf of businesses, professionals and insurers in Oregon and southwest Washington. His caseload is focused on the defense of professional malpractice and catastrophic injuries, but also includes matters of general liability. In addition to litigated matters, Grant represents professional clients before state administrative agencies and professional licensing boards.
Grant is peer review rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubble. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel, and is the Board Liaison to the Professional Liability Practice Group. With the OADC, Grant is also a frequent contributor to the quarterly publication and CLE speaker. He has been a guest presenter for professional organizations, business groups and insurers.
BACK TO TOP
 Jaci Houser
Jacqueline E. Houser is a thoughtful counselor and proactive problem solver. Jacqueline has extensive experience representing employers of all sizes in litigation in both state and federal court in the Pacific Northwest.
Jacqueline also provides advice and counseling to employers on an extensive variety of workplace issues, including best practices for avoiding litigation and on employee-related policies and procedures, including performing handbook analysis for compliance with state and federal laws, and advising on discipline and termination decisions.
BACK TO TOP
 Karen Bamberger
Karen Bamberger is a skilled negotiator who has settled hundreds of cases over her more than 35-year career as a litigator in private practice. She has tried jury and bench trials in both state and federal courts.
Ms. Bamberger has served as lead counsel, focusing primarily on personal injury and product liability cases running the gamut from soft-tissue injuries to wrongful death cases. The types of injuries have been as varied as the contexts in which they occur—from motor vehicle accidents to construction sites to dram shop liability scenarios. She is known for her thorough preparation, knowledge of the law, ability to develop rapport with the parties and collegiality in dealing with opposing counsel. As a mediator, she looks forward to working with parties to resolve claims in collaborative and meaningful ways rather than engaging in an adversarial process.
Ms. Bamberger has served as an arbitrator on three-member UIM panels throughout her career, as well as an arbitrator for mandatory arbitration cases for over a decade. She takes pride in being selected to serve in these capacities, viewing her selection as a reflection of her reputation for being fair and listening to what every party has to say.
BACK TO TOP
 Katie Smith
Katie Smith received her Juris Doctorate degree from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas in 2003 and obtained her law license in the State of Oregon. She began her legal career as a JAG in the United States Air Force, stationed in Colorado where she was both a criminal prosecutor and served as general legal counsel for the base she was assigned. Katie returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2007 and began her practice as a civil defense litigator, specializing in construction defect litigation and other casualty and business disputes. Over the course of her career, she worked as staff counsel for an insurance company, managed her own practice for 7 years and served as managing partner for a firm with offices in Oregon and Washington, before joining Walhood Law Group, LLC.
With her extensive experience as a litigator involving complex construction defect claims, casualty claims and business disputes, along with her ability to view even the most challenging of cases with a lens towards compromise and resolution, Katie Smith also provides mediation and arbitration services.
BACK TO TOP
 Kirsten Blume
Kirsten Blume, JD, MA-candidate, was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon. She earned her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. Kirsten is in the process of obtaining her Masters in Counseling from Oregon State University. Prior to joining the OAAP in 2022, Kirsten served those in need of legal service across the globe, including a fellowship in women’s health human rights in Delhi, India, advocating to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on the issue of homelessness in the U.S., working at a firm in Hawaii, clerking for Clackamas County Circuit Court in Oregon, engaging in Title IX and non-discrimination investigations in higher education, and directing a housing advocacy program for a non-profit. In addition to her professional accolades, she is a certified yoga instructor, avid runner and hiker, urban farmer, and parent to two young children.
BACK TO TOP
 Lloyd Bernstein
Lloyd Bernstein has been protecting the interests of insurers and businesses in the Pacific Northwest for more than 25 years. They rely on him to navigate them through thorny legal issues, resolve insurance coverage and commercial disputes and defend extra-contractual and bad faith claims. Because he has been handling these types of cases for a long time, he has a thorough understanding of the insurance and legal issues involved. He’s also keenly aware of the nuances relative to the local venues and knows the landscape, judges and insurance laws unique to these jurisdictions.
Lloyd’s work often involves extensive motion practice or trial in state and federal court. But he also recognizes that effective representation does not always mean going to trial, and that an arbitrated, mediated or negotiated resolution can oftentimes be more successful. Clients appreciate that he’s a straight shooter and that they can count on his real-life approach and practical advice. Given his significant experience, he’s better prepared to lay out the risks and counsel clients on the best path for resolution.
BACK TO TOP
 Peter Tuenge
Peter is a trial lawyer and an advocate for medical and dental professionals in all forums. He is a past President of the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel, the state-wide association of Oregon lawyers who practice civil litigation defense. Peter is regularly selected by his peers as a “Super Lawyer®” and recognized nationally as one of the “Best Lawyers in America.®” In 2020, Peter was inducted into the American Board of Trial Advocates, a highly selective national association of experienced trial lawyers and judges. He has obtained defense jury verdicts on behalf of the leading healthcare systems in Oregon and Washington, including PeaceHealth, Legacy Health, Samaritan Health Services, and Asante in significant medical cases with the plaintiffs asking the jury for six, seven, and eight figures. Peter has won jury trials for emergency medicine doctors, neurologists, oral surgeons, dentists, and nurses.
Peter graduated from Gonzaga University, and then from the University of Oregon School of Law (Order of the Coif – top 10%). While in law school, he served on the Moot Court Board and as an Articles Editor for the Oregon Law Review. Following law school, Peter clerked for the Honorable Richard B. Sanders of the Washington Supreme Court.
BACK TO TOP
 Peter Wilcox-Jones
Peter Willcox-Jones is an experienced trial lawyer who represents business clients in complex civil litigation related to bid and contract disputes, Construction Contractor Board disputes, commercial disputes, trespass/nuisance, catastrophic injuries, product liability, OSHA defense, and general tort/casualty litigation.
Peter works with clients to develop agreements specific to their needs, as well as aiding in the areas of risk analysis, management and risk shifting, insurance review and analysis, lien foreclosures, lease disputes, and employee related issues.
BACK TO TOP
 Rachel Timmins
Rachel is an associate in Tonkon Torp’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. She represents employers in a variety of employment-related disputes including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, leave issues, disability issues, and wage and hour claims. Rachel also represents clients in labor matters both in front of the NLRB and the Oregon Employee Relations Board, and at the table negotiating collective bargaining agreements.
Rachel is known for her light-hearted and positive personality and her ability to quickly engage with and understand a client’s business, enabling her to offer tailored advice and solutions.
Before joining Tonkon Torp, Rachel was an attorney with Ogletree Deakins. During law school, Rachel served as a judicial extern with the Hon. Stacie F. Beckerman at the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. She also interned at adidas. Rachel is a cum laude graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was lead article editor at the Lewis & Clark Law Review.
BACK TO TOP
 Judge Randy Miller
Judge Miller was elected in 2014, and presides over all case types including the Deschutes District Attorney’s court connected Veteran Intervention Strategy docket. Judge Miller served as Chair of the OJD SEPAC committee and was a past member of the OJD UTCR committee. Prior to office, Judge Miller worked as a civil litigator at Schwabe Williamson and Wyatt, an internal auditor with Les Schwab Tire Company, a police officer in Sunriver Oregon, and served in the Marine Corps. Judge Miller loves fly fishing, and funny jokes.
BACK TO TOP
 Richard Vangelisti
Richard Vangelisti is a full-time mediator based in Oregon. His mediation practice is focused on personal injury, employment, and insurance matters. Richard has mediation training from the National Judicial College, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, and the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. Richard is a former President of the Multnomah Bar Association and the Oregon Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
BACK TO TOP
 Thomas Dupree
Thomas H. Dupree returns to the OADC Convention following his popular presentation in 2022. He is co-partner in charge of the Washington, DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, co-chair of the firm’s nationwide Appellate and Constitutional Law practice group, and a member of the firm’s litigation department. Mr. Dupree is an experienced trial and appellate advocate. He has argued more than 100 appeals in the federal courts, including in all thirteen circuits as well as the United States Supreme Court. He has represented clients throughout the country in a wide variety of trial and appellate matters, including cases involving punitive damages, class actions, product liability, arbitration, intellectual property, employment, and constitutional challenges to federal and state statutes. Chambers and Partners has named Mr. Dupree one of the leading appellate lawyers in the United States every year from 2012 through 2023, and The Legal 500 has similarly recognized Mr. Dupree for years as one of the nation’s “leading lawyers.” Mr. Dupree previously served in the United States Department of Justice. He was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, and later became the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. In that capacity, he served as the division’s second-in-command, overseeing the more than 900 lawyers in the Civil Appellate, Commercial, Federal Programs and Torts branches, as well as the Office of Immigration Litigation and the Office of Consumer Litigation. Mr. Dupree was responsible for managing many of the government’s most significant cases involving regulatory, commercial, constitutional and national security matters on behalf of virtually all of the federal agencies, the White House, and senior federal officials. Before being named the division’s top deputy, Mr. Dupree ran its largest litigating branch, managing a staff of 280 lawyers. Legal Times has called Mr. Dupree “no stranger to high-profile work.” Among other things, he played a substantial role in the successful representation of George W. Bush before the United States Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, and represented New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in challenging his “Deflategate” suspension. Mr. Dupree argued and won, by a unanimous 9-0 vote, a landmark personal jurisdiction case in the United States Supreme Court, Daimler AG v. Bauman. For this achievement, American Lawyer magazine named him Litigator of the Week, noting that he “won over both the liberal and conservative wings of the court.” In 2021, American Lawyer again named Mr. Dupree its Litigator of the Week. This time he was recognized for winning a highprofile appeal in the midst of the chaos enveloping the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
BACK TO TOP
 Vicki Smith
Vicki is a lead trial lawyer who regularly handles and tries cases involving insurance coverage, civil rights, product and warranty claims, professional liability claims, personal injury and wrongful death claims, and other commercial disputes. She advises and represents individuals, businesses, and insurance clients in and outside of litigation throughout all Oregon and Washington.
Martindale-Hubbell assigned Vicki an AV® Peer Review Rating — the highest rating an attorney can obtain for legal ability and ethical standards. Best Lawyers in America lists Vicki in the category of Insurance Litigation. She has also been listed as an Oregon Super Lawyer for 2020 - 2022.
BACK TO TOP
Chet Nakada
Chet Nakada is a Training and Development Specialist with the State of Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Employer Assistance program. A University of Oregon graduate, he has been with BOLI for over twenty years. He conducts employer seminars and helps employers comply with Oregon's Wage and Hour and Civil Rights Laws. Prior to working for Employer Assistance he worked as a Senior Civil Rights Investigator and prosecuted cases for the Agency in the Administrative Prosecution Unit.
BACK TO TOP
 Claire Whittal
Claire Whittal is a partner at Gillaspy, Rhode, Faddis & Benn, LLC and the Vice-Chair of OADC’s Construction Practice Group. Her practice consists of construction defect litigation, personal injury defense, and general civil litigation throughout Washington and Oregon. Claire is pragmatic, detail-oriented, and always one to over-prepare. She works with clients to achieve the best resolution possible, be it via pre-suit resolution or at trial.
BACK TO TOP
|
