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, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. During 1992-1998, Laurie worked as a fish and wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service and as a private consultant.

One of two senior staff attorneys, Laurie has been with Advocates for the West since its inception in 2003, dividing her time between our Northern Rockies and Sagebrush Sea projects. She has been the lead attorney on our successful efforts to protect endangered Selkirk woodland caribou from winter motorized recreation impacts; and to protect bighorn sheep from threats posed by domestic sheep grazing in Hells Canyon, Salmon River, and central Idaho regions. Laurie also has brought cases over grazing management in National Monuments, protecting threatened fish in eastern Idaho, stopping the rampant killing of wolves in central Idaho, and regulating CAFOs under the Clean Air Act, among others.