I am a human rights lawyer, researcher and the co-founder of Just Ground, where I work to advance the visions of communities working to address corporate activity that threatens or violates their human rights. Before my current role, among other endeavors, I served as the associate general counsel for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, as the research director for the Institute for Multi-Stakeholder Initiative Integrity, and litigated cases as a civil rights attorney at my law firm, Curphey Law. I also spent a year teaching and writing for EarthRights International in Thailand, served as a federal judicial clerk in the District of Oregon, defended the Fourth Amendment as research attorney for the Federal Public Defender for Oregon and pushed for police reform as a staff attorney for the NW Constitutional Rights Center. Before all that, I wrote for Women’s Enews, MSN and Real Change, and worked for the YWCA of Seattle and the ACLU of Louisiana
I studied community development at the Evergreen State College and mass communication and social change at the University of Washington, where I taught freshmen while writing my thesis to earn my Master’s Degree in Communication. I studied law as a Public Interest Scholar at Loyola Law School, graduated second in my class, summa cum laude and Order of the Coif, served as an editor of the Loyola Law Review, and received the Alumni Association Award for public service.
I am admitted to practice in the courts of Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina (inactive), Oregon (inactive), Texas (inactive) and Virginia (inactive) as well as the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida, the Northern District of Texas and the District of Oregon.
I also serve on the Steering Committee for the Human Rights Committee of the American Bar Association Section of International Law.