Laurie Rule

Laurie is a 2001 graduate of Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College, with a certificate in environmental and natural resource law. During 2001-2002, she served as law clerk to the Hon. Thomas Nelson, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. During 1992-1998, Laurie worked as a fish and wildlife biologist with the US Forest Service and as a private consultant.

Laurie has been with Advocates for the West since its inception in 2003. She has been the lead attorney on our successful efforts protecting wild salmon and steelhead in Oregon’s Willamette River Basin from harm caused by dams and reservoirs; defending Arizona’s Sonoran Desert National Monument from harmful livestock grazing; safeguarding bighorn sheep from threats posed by domestic sheep; and preserving quiet open spaces for non-motorized winter recreation and critical winter habitat. Laurie has also won other precedent-setting cases challenging grazing mismanagement, snowmobile use in habitat of endangered woodland caribou, and regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations under the Clean Air Act, among others.

Laurie heads our Portland, Oregon office where she works with and supervises Staff Attorneys Lizzy Potter, Andrew Missel, and Hannah (Clements) Goldblatt, and manages a broad portfolio of cases protecting public lands and wildlife throughout the West.