About Lisa

I was born and raised locally in Puyallup -- home of The Fair and one of my favorite treats, their delicious scones! My mother was a home health physical therapist, and my father was a union electrician. No one in my immediate family practiced law. But even as a child, before I really knew what it meant, it seemed like everyone commented that “She’s going to be a lawyer when she grows up!”

That is, of course, if I didn’t go into Starfleet instead! For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a geek. I think I first got a taste from my parents. When I was growing up, we always enjoyed watching Star Trek: The Next Generation as a family – my first Sci Fi love. But quickly my interest blossomed into far more than I think even they expected. It’s a love I still enjoy – whether it’s classic Sci Fi like TNG, niche space dramas like Babylon 5, gritty reboots like Battlestar Galactica, or comic book adventures like the Marvel movies.

You may be wondering – why is Lisa spending so much time on her legal website talking about geekdom? Well, I think the same motivations that led me to my geekier interests also explain what drove me to becoming a lawyer. I remember growing up having on my shelf “The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers” – a book that summarized every episode, analyzed how it fit into the overall Star Trek universe, and always managed to find some discrepancies between one episode and another.

Nitpicking is a habit found among geeks of all flavors – it’s one way of showing our love for the tales that interest us. And I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised that nitpicking is a lot of what’s involved in lawyering, too.

But I’ve also found that these interests of mine – my personal creative outlets – also help me be a better lawyer in other ways. Take, for example, a game I play regularly with my friends – Dungeons & Dragons. On one level, it’s about creating characters with “stats” and abilities, rolling dice, and fighting monsters. On another level, it’s about putting yourself into the shoes of another, understanding that person, becoming them, and figuring out their “story” through role playing. This is something we as personal injury attorneys do every day. We learn the story of our clients, through reviewing their records, visiting their homes, talking with them and their friends and loved ones, and so on. And then we tell that story to others, like jurors, to obtain justice for the harms they have suffered.

About the Blog

To honor the interconnectedness of my two geekdoms – science fiction/fantasy, and the law – I present to you my blog, where I will discuss both in… relatively equal measure. It’s an experiment, to be sure, but what would science be without experimentation!