KR is fortunate to have seven promising summer associates joining us this season from a diverse array of backgrounds and experiences. Let's meet the first four who have already started their KR journey: Yobi Tiezazu, Maggy Mulhern, Ananya Raghavan, and Natalia Brown!
Yewobdar “Yobi” Tiezazu is a familiar face in Keller Rohrback environs, having served as a Complex Litigation paralegal for several years until electing to enter law school. Her undergraduate years were spent at Boston College, where she majored in sociology with a minor in international studies. Now a 1L at Seattle University, Yobi returns as a 2024 summer associate and will work with the Business Group in the hope of increasing her experience in those practice areas as a precursor to a possible concentration in small business start-up.
Yobi’s prior experience reinforced her sense of the law as a tool for bringing equity, fairness, and justice to society, and she recognizes the need for specifically targeted legal assistance for emerging businesses trying to create, define, and sustain themselves. She remains drawn to KR because of its well-established devotion to those principles, and is delighted by the opportunity to bring her strong organizational skills back to the firm to further benefit both the case work and the social justice outreach that it undertakes.
Yobi—the shortened version of a traditional Ethiopian name meaning “beautiful beyond limits”—is Seattle born and raised, and counts its orientation to the water as its greatest asset. In her free time, she loves to sail, swim, or be near the water in any way possible. She also maintains a passionate interest in animal welfare, and is a frequent volunteer in Seattle area shelters.
Maggy Mulhern (they/them) is a rising 3L at the University of Colorado Law School. An east coast transplant, Maggy grew up skiing in the mountains of Vermont then received their BA in Geography from Middlebury College.
Prior to starting law school, Maggy worked for a time as a field organizer for a political campaign in Denver, then spent time running the operations department at a natural foods company in Boulder, Colorado.
Maggy first became interested in law because of the impactful environmental remedies available in the legal system that were less accessible in politics and business. Inspired by the idea that the practice of law could provide help to people who have been systematically harmed, Maggy left the natural food industry for law school. At CU, Maggy has volunteered with the Acequia Assistance Project to help Coloradans in the San Luis Valley protect their communal access to water, interned with Earthjustice and the Colorado Supreme Court, and gotten to know the 1Ls as a Contracts Tutor. Last summer, Maggy found that the work that Keller Rohrback pursues aligns with their desire to make a positive change and is thrilled to be back for another summer.
Outside of law school, Maggy enjoys backcountry skiing, baking bread, and rescuing plants from the discount section of the hardware store.
Ananya Raghavan arrives at Keller Rohrback as a 2024 Complex Litigation summer associate, and will be working out of the Portland office. A rising 3L at Lewis & Clark Law School, Ananya previously attended U.C. Berkeley where she earned a B.S. in Society and Environment, and a B.A. in Data Science with a minor in Public Policy. She tentatively intends to practice environmental justice, energy and animal welfare law in the future, and looks forward to the summer associate term as an opportunity to learn by helping a firm with a highly respected environmental litigation history.
Ananya, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, has extensive experience in African and Indian wildlife studies, Sub-Saharan water access, and she has worked with a variety of NGOs that deal with sustainability and environmental justice. Ananya’s observations that animals are vulnerable under the law and that the harshest consequences of climate change and natural disasters are disproportionately visited upon vulnerable communities, were the driving issues that inspired her to embark on a career in law where she could endeavor to do her part to make sure that they “are not treated terribly just because it’s legal.” She counts empathy and compassion as her greatest strengths, as a means of integrating different backgrounds and points of view and allowing an open mind to guide her involvement with all those she wants to serve in her career.
A former high school thespian, Ananya enjoys singing, accompanying herself on guitar—self-taught during the pandemic—and spending time outdoors hiking and swimming. She is also an enthusiastic reader now migrating her books from Goodreads into StoryGraph, but would welcome being added to book conversations with KR colleagues on any platform.
Natalia Brown, a Rising 2L at Harvard Law School, is one of Keller Rohrback’s 2024 summer associates and will be working with the Complex Litigation Group out of the Seattle office. Her background in science, fortified with a magna cum laude B.S. in Ecosystem Science and Policy from the University of Miami, drew her attention toward KR’s Wildfire Litigation in particular. Her extensive experience in environmental issues and climate science, coupled with her strong interest in utility regulation, led her to believe that she and KR would be “a good match.”
Natalia was born and raised in South Florida, where she says that growing up in a dynamic coastal town with an agricultural bent, and the socio-economic characteristics that defined it, helped shape her attraction to the law, not least because of the public health implications of climate change and extreme weather. As an undergrad, and during the period between Miami and law school, she was involved with a succession of research projects related to climate and energy justice, managed policy advocacy at the intersections of economic justice at a non-profit organization, and helped to lead her family’s business by writing curriculum for an experiential youth science program. In her first year at Harvard, Natalia was an active member of the Women’s Law, Antitrust Law, Law and Political Economy, and Plaintiffs’ Law Associations. She continues contributing to legal research and serves on the masthead of the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and the Harvard Latin American Law Review.
Natalia describes her greatest strength as a relentless curiosity, one that her family and friends say has defined her approach to challenging questions and new experiences for as long as she can remember. Natalia observes that as an adult she appreciates that part of her nature because it helps her to adapt and empathize in new environments and communities. She loves the outdoors, particularly by the water, and looks forward to setting out on many Northwest hikes.