With a legacy spanning decades, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has established itself as a leader in the construction and real estate legal sectors, delivering strategic counsel to clients nationwide. The firm’s attorneys bring extensive expertise to complex projects, offering a full spectrum of services, from contract negotiation to dispute resolution.

Renowned for its innovative approach to legal challenges, Davis Wright Tremaine is dedicated to crafting practical solutions that help clients achieve their goals while managing risk. The firm collaborates closely with developers, contractors, and property owners, ensuring that every legal step – whether it’s land acquisition or project completion – is executed with precision and foresight.

The firm’s experience covers various sectors, including residential, commercial, and public infrastructure, supported by a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory frameworks that govern construction law. Clients rely on the firm’s ability to navigate complex legal matters and its track record of success in litigation, arbitration, and settlement.

Davis Wright Tremaine continues to be a trusted partner for construction and real estate professionals, providing legal counsel that helps clients achieve their objectives and manage risk effectively throughout the lifecycle of their projects.

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Oregon landlords filed a federal lawsuit late Monday seeking to strike down state and local eviction moratoriums, charging that the restrictions violate their constitutional rights.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Portland in the immediate aftermath of the Legislature’s approval of an extension of the statewide eviction moratorium.

Some landlords have not received rent payments since March, and large landlords have seen their revenues reduced. The latest state bill extends the ban on evictions until June 30, 2021.

John DiLorenzo, a Davis Wright Tremaine attorney who filed the lawsuit, said state leaders should deliver aid for landlords.

“What we really prefer is the alternative relief, and that is a proposal by the state as to how they’re going to compensate housing providers for serving as social service providers,” he said.

The property owners may be willing to consider dropping the lawsuit if lawmakers can loosen the purse strings for landlords, DiLorenzo said.

“We’ll look at it,” he said. “We’ll look at anything they’re willing to do.”

The lawsuit seeks to prohibit Gov. Kate Brown from enforcing the moratorium, and strike down the eviction ban as unconstitutional. It names Brown, Multnomah County and the city of Portland as defendants.

Brown, in a press conference on Tuesday, said stable housing is crucial during the COVID-19 crisis.

“No one should be turned out of their home or rental during a pandemic,” she said.

Eviction is a core issue for tenants’ rights activists, who have scored a string of political victories in recent years.

“We know the COVID-19 pandemic is only worsened by evictions at this time, and the stories we are hearing from tenants make it clear the financial struggles and harassment they are facing are not going to resolve themselves,” Kim McCarty, executive director of Community Alliance of Tenants, stated via email. “Right now, eviction is a public-health issue. This is another frivolous lawsuit from special interests that undermines the public good.”

Landlords are feeling more pain now than during the spring, said Greg Frick, a partner at HFO Investment Real Estate in Portland. He is not a party to the lawsuit.

“It’s getting progressively worse,” he said. “It depends on the project. Some property owners are 25-30 percent in arrears. We have others who are doing better.”

The lawsuit comes from individual landlords and is backed by the industry group More Housing Now.

One plaintiff, Moe Farhoud, owns about 1,200 rental units in Oregon, including in Portland and Multnomah County. His tenants owe more than $1 million in back rent, the lawsuit alleges.

Brown issued the first statewide eviction moratorium on March 22. A June bill extended and streamlined eviction moratoriums statewide after Multnomah County and Portland enacted their own bans.

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The number should be encouraging – women represent approximately one third of all attorneys involved in private legal practice, according to the 2017 Glass Ceiling Report produced by Law360.

But dig a little deeper into the report and the statistic loses its shine. In the past four years, that representation has barely budged, despite women accounting for 40 percent of all law students.

The situation might seem disheartening. But some local firms that have decided to view it as a challenge are now emerging as leaders in the push to find innovative ways to not only attract, but retain women in the legal profession.

Fisher Phillips, Littler, Davis Wright Tremaine and Perkins Coie – all national firms with Portland-area offices – recently earned spots on Working Mother magazine’s list of Best Law Firms for Women 2017.

Meanwhile, Miller Nash Graham and Dunn – a locally grown firm with offices in Portland and Seattle – claimed the number seven slot for firms with 150 to 299 lawyers in a 2017 national ranking of the best firms for female attorneys.

For Brandy Thompson Cody, an equity partner at Fisher Phillips, seeing the firm make a list that recognizes outstanding efforts to both attract and retain women is a sign that her firm’s focused efforts are working. Those efforts started a few years ago, after the firm discovered a troubling trend.

“We noticed a pattern – not just in our firm, but across the practice – of law firms having a hard time maintaining levels of women (lawyers),” Cody said. “We were losing a lot to private practice, to in-house counsel positions. We decided to ask what the firm could do better to retain them.”

The firm formed a group called the Women’s Initiative and Leadership Council that gathered input from its lawyers at all levels. The results, along with some possible solutions, were presented to firm leaders. Those leaders didn’t just listen, but also responded, said Cody, who serves as a member of the council.

One of the biggest changes resulting from the council’s work, for example, lies in how the firm evaluates attorney performances, information that is used to determine whether lawyers climb the firm’s career ladder. In the past, all attorneys were judged based on 12-month standards, even if an attorney had taken a couple of months off after having a baby or to care for a sick family member. Now, though, those standards have been adjusted to create a fairer evaluation system.

“Basically, we’ve adjusted performance requirements to match the actual hours worked,” Cody said.

The firm also has implemented what Cody considers a hallmark policy for Fisher Phillips.

“We’re one of a handful of firms that consider part-time equity partnership,” she said. “A lot of firms won’t even consider you unless you agree to work full time. That’s just not feasible for everyone, and those people still have value.”

Jenna Mooney, an equity partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, is proof that lawyers who work part time can provide as much value as attorneys who work full-time, 1,800-billable-hour schedules.

After giving birth to her first son, Mooney returned to the firm to an adjusted schedule that allowed her to work half days every Wednesday and Friday. Now an equity partner at the firm where she’s spent her entire legal career, she still works part time, a status that her firm has come to realize is a unique asset.

“I’ll always be a part-time lawyer, at least until my kids go to college,” Mooney said. “I’ll always bring in less than that 1,800 billable hours; that’s just the math. But I very well also may be bringing in more business to the firm than the person sitting next to me (who’s) bringing in 1,800 billable hours.”

Flexible schedules, including an increasing tolerance toward telecommuting, aren’t the only way that firms like Davis Wright Tremaine and Fisher Phillips are helping support women attorneys, who both Cody and Mooney agree face challenges their male colleagues may not have to deal with.

At Davis Wright Tremaine, support comes in the form of a series of “lean in” groups that began with a training session that brought women attorneys from firm offices across the country together in Seattle. The women were divided into groups that now hold regular conference calls to discuss challenges and share suggestions.

Cody has found a similar support network of female lawyers at Fisher Phillips through her ongoing involvement with the Women’s Initiative and Leadership Council.

“We share stories of success, we support each other and it’s very empowering,” Cody said. “You see these women a generation or two ahead of and behind you, and you’re inspired by them.”

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