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Becoming an attorney is something Lane Powell鈥檚 Parna Mehrbani wanted to do from a young age. She originally wanted to pursue a doctorate in English literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but after working at the Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest as an intern, she decided to apply to Lewis and Clark Law School.

Today, Mehrbani鈥檚 practice focuses on intellectual property law. She manages Lane Powell鈥檚 trademark registration and enforcement practice, including trademark portfolios for both small and large companies. She has been named an Oregon Rising Star for the past three years by Super Lawyers.

An expert in the growing area of online intellectual property law, Mehrbani assists her clients with domain name disputes, security and privacy concerns, contracts for e-commerce and other online legal matters.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an exciting practice area,鈥� said Mehrbani.聽 鈥淵ou鈥檙e trying to apply legal rules that were not made for the Internet to protect your clients.鈥�

Outside Lane Powell, Mehrbani provides pro bono services to underprivileged clients and is a recipient of Lewis and Clark鈥檚 Pro Bono Honors Award. She has been included on the Multnomah Bar Association鈥檚 Pro Bono Honor Roll. She is also the co-chairwoman of the Board of Directors for Rock and Roll Camp For Girls, a nonprofit that seeks to build self esteem in girls and women by teaching them music and performance skills.

If you could have a drink with any person, dead or alive, who would it be?

I know I should probably choose someone in the legal scholar genre, but if I’m perfectly honest, George Harrison.

Do you have any tattoos?

Yes, two!

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Flying. Or maybe organizing things with a wave of my hand, as that might be more useful on a day-to-day basis.

What is something that most people don鈥檛 know about you?

That I really, really love Star Trek 鈥� especially The Next Generation.

What do you spend your non-lawyer time doing?

Knitting; teaching knitting classes at Twisted, a yarn shop on Northeast Broadway; reading; and playing goalkeeper on the best soccer team ever, the Belle Bottoms.

If you hadn鈥檛 become an attorney, what career would you have pursued?

I would have pursued a career in writing — poetry and travel writing.

What person do you most admire?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (and in fact, also Eleanor Roosevelt).

If you were trapped on a desert island, you couldn鈥檛 live without your:

Knitting.

Which song is in heavy rotation on your iPod?

鈥淗ummingbird鈥� by Wilco.

What was the last book you read?

鈥淩oad-side Dog,鈥� a book of poems by Czeslaw Milosz.

What was the most influential Supreme Court decision of all time?

Marbury v. Madison.

What was the most harmful Supreme Court decision of all time?

This is a hard question.聽 I think I would say Bowers v. Hardwick, but that was later overruled, which is what happens with most of the 鈥渂ad鈥� or 鈥渉armful鈥� decisions over time.聽 In recent history:聽 Bush v. Gore, not for the simple reason of the result, but because of the federalism issues raised by the decision and because I think the unusual rushed procedure affected the analysis.

What was your favorite course in law school? Your least favorite?

My favorite course was Property, my least favorite course was Administrative Law.

What is the first concert you attended?

Violent Femmes at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, IL.

What is the best part of being an attorney/the worst?

The best part of being an attorney is helping people solve problems and succeeding in that task.聽 The worst part of being an attorney is the difficulty of explaining to my colleagues why, yes, actually, I really do have to leave by 6pm on Thursdays to go play soccer (and actually, no, they don鈥檛 cancel games for rain).