Nellie Barnard is an experienced litigator who excels at providing legal ethics and risk management advice to lawyers, law firms, law students, and in-house legal departments. Nellie also represents Oregon and Washington lawyers in attorney discipline matters and character and fitness proceedings, including on appeal. Capable of defending complex business or financial services litigation disputes, Nellie guides her clients toward successful resolutions from inception through appeal, if necessary.

Nellie appreciates the obstacles that lawyers and law firms face in the practice and the business of law. She works collaboratively with her clients to minimize the risk of liability including issues involving conflicts of interest, sanctions, privilege, client confidentiality, engagement and withdrawal procedures, multi-jurisdictional practice, lawyer-client relationships, fee disputes, and practice planning and management. She helps lawyers and law firms address the boundaries involving attorney advertising and marketing, including issues particular to social media, client solicitation, business relationships with non-lawyers, and fee sharing. Nellie also advises law firms and lawyers on ethical and fiduciary issues related to lateral hiring, law firm dissolution, and expulsion matters, and she serves as outside ethics counsel to law firms. She also serves as Assistant General Counsel to the firm.

Bar Admissions

• Oregon State Courts
• Washington State Courts
• United States Court of Appeals, the Ninth Circuit
• United States District Court, District of Oregon
• United States District Court, Western District of Washington

Education

• Lewis & Clark Law School, Juris Doctor degree, cum laude (2012)‎
• Middlebury College, Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude (2006)

• Provided outside general counsel services and risk management advice to lawyers, law firms, and in-house legal departments on the topics of conflicts, engagement and withdrawal procedures, privilege, client solicitation, client confidentiality, lawyer-client relationships, social media, and more.
• Defended sanctions motions, disqualification motions, fee disputes, and complex privilege disputes.
• Represented lawyers and students before bar associations on disciplinary matters, licensing, admissions, reciprocity, character and fitness reviews, and unauthorized practice of law issues.
• Defended complex business disputes and consumer financial services litigation in state and federal court at both the trial and appellate court levels, including successfully arguing dispositive motions and appeals.

• ABA Relaxes Rule 4.2 When a Lawyer Hits ‘Reply All’: Will Oregon and Washington Follow Suit?
• New ABA Opinion on the ‘No-Contact Rule’: The Text Might Not Set You Free
• Employers Can No Longer Require Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Claims
• Three Ways the Pandemic is Impacting Litigation Costs
• ABA Formal Opinion Approves Lawyers' Passive Investment in Law Firms with Nonlawyer Owners
• ABA Formal Opinion OKs Lawyers Who Sit in One Jurisdiction But Are Licensed in Another

Seminar

• Ethics Hour: Legal Confidentiality
• Ethics Hour: Ethical Communications
• Ethics Hour: Do I Have a Conflict?