Meet Katie Russell, Our Newest Associate Attorney at Smith Freed Eberhard

Please join us in welcoming Katie Russell!

Katie is based in our Portland office and is working on Bill Taaffe’s team. Her practice focuses on commercial liability defense.

Katie graduated from UC Davis School of Law in 2020 where she worked on a class action lawsuit as a part of the UC Davis Civil Rights Clinic. She helped represent all inmates and ICE detainees being held at Yuba County Jail in a claim involving inadequate living conditions and denial of medical care. Her team won the class action and monitored the implementation of new procedures, ADA accessible cells, and reform of jail policies regarding medical care.

Katie was born and raised in the Bay Area in California. She moved to Oregon for undergrad and fell in love with the rain, the forest, and the Ducks. Katie went back to the sunshine for law school, but she could not deny her love for Oregon and returned to Portland to start her legal career. In her free time, Katie loves to go on adventures to discover parts of the PNW she has not seen before. She is also an avid reader and enjoys science fiction, in particular Octavia Butler and Ray Bradbury.