Misha Isaak
USA Guide 2023
Up and Coming : Litigation: General Commercial
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Up and Coming
About
Provided by Misha Isaak
Practice Areas
Misha Isaak has been trusted to litigate Oregon’s most significant cases. He has successfully defended the state’s congressional redistricting plan in court, obtained an injunction striking down Oregon’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples, and represented Governor Kate Brown in brokering favorable settlements of the state government’s most important cases during her tenure. He represents clients in state and federal courts, at both the trial and appellate levels, as well as in private arbitrations. Misha handles high-profile, complex litigation involving government and political law, class actions, securities, corporate governance, antitrust, and business torts. He also advises clients and conducts investigations involving employment, professional standards, tribal affairs, and state government.
As chief counsel in the Governor’s Office, Misha managed the appointment of a historic number of state judges, creating the most diverse bench in Oregon history. He represented the governor in negotiating favorable settlements of major state litigation, including the hoteling of foster youth, services for the intellectually disabled, treatment of transgender inmates, sale of the Elliott State Forest, tribal hunting and fishing rights, and property taxation of Comcast. He also managed the clemency program, facilitating pardons and commutations for reformed offenders and maintaining a moratorium on the death penalty.
Misha also litigates civil rights and constitutional cases involving free speech, equal protection, and privacy for business, nonprofit, and individual clients. In 2014, he led a successful challenge to Oregon’s laws excluding same-sex couples from marriage, and then successfully opposed efforts to stop the marriages of same-sex couples at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. He has been recognized by the National LGBT Bar Association as one of the top 40 Under 40 LGBT lawyers in the United States, and by Basic Rights Oregon as one of the five most influential LGBT Oregonians.
Career
Misha clerked for Judge Ronald M. Gould, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Judge Renée M. Bumb, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Before joining Stoel Rives, Misha was a partner, associate, and summer associate at Perkins Coie LLP, Portland, OR (2020–2022; 2011–2015; 2007–2008) and served as General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel in the Office of Governor Kate Brown, Salem, OR (2015–2020).
Prior to law school, he worked for U.S. Congresswoman Darlene Hooley (Special Assistant, 2005); and Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers (Reelect Attorney General Hardy Myers, Campaign Manager, 2004).
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