About Susan G. Hauser
Susan G. Hauser is a Portland writer whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, People, O, and many other publications. She holds a B.A. in English from Portland State University and an M.A. in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from the University of Chicago.
Articles written by Susan G. Hauser
‘Girl Warrior’
Colleen Durkin Peterson learned the value of lawyering from her fatherColleen Durkin Peterson remembers standing at the door behind her father as a young girl, trying to see who had rung the bell. Crowded onto the small porch were a couple with two children. They bore a gift: a small lawn statue of St. Francis of Assisi. “‘We just want to thank you,’” Durkin Peterson recalls them saying to her father, John, an attorney who had repped them in a personal injury case. “‘We know you lost, but don’t be upset. It meant the world to us that you …
'The Impossible Case'
How Paul Heer set a new standard in clemency work“Give me a tough one.” Paul Heer remembers speaking those words when he asked for his first pro bono case with the Seattle Clemency Project (SCP) in 2017. What followed: “a three-year slog getting to the finish line,” recalls Heer, 31, who represented a 48-year-old man imprisoned for nearly three decades on a double homicide conviction. “It ended up being more than just a hard one,” he says. “There hadn’t been any precedent for a win of that kind of case.” Heer says his …
What Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Do?
Personal injury lawyers are licensed legal practitioners representing clients who have been injured by other people or entities, such as businesses or organizations. Let's say you were in a car accident and the driver of the other vehicle was at fault. You decide to file a personal injury lawsuit to recover the cost of your medical bills. A personal injury lawyer can provide vital legal advice, file the lawsuit, and guide you through all stages of litigation. Most people who work with personal …
Incubating Success
Stan Perkins helps legal entrepreneurs find their footing—while helping those who can’t afford a lawyerWhen Stan Perkins got out of law school in 1985, the first thing he did was hang his own shingle. “I was always pretty entrepreneurial,” he says, “and I always thought that I wanted to be my own boss.” It wasn’t as easy as he thought. He ended up working on the side as a waiter at Red Robin, a model for companies ranging from REI to Nordstrom, and as an actor—even appearing on Northern Exposure as “Handsome Man.” At the office, he says, “There were some days I would just sit …
Eventing Planner
Seattle litigator Kevin Baumgardner finds the secret to stress relief—on horsebackKevin Baumgardner was 30 years old when he sat on a horse for the first time. Not quite four years later, in April 1993, he participated in his first cross-country competition in the equestrian sport of eventing. The ride didn’t go exactly as planned, but his advancement in the U.S. Eventing Association outpaced expectations. In 2010, in his letter signing off after his term as USEA president, Baumgardner described his inauspicious 1993 debut. “My horse chose the occasion to come to a neat …
Safety Boosters
Russell Reiner and Todd Slaughter on stepping up to protect the communityRussell Reiner and Todd Slaughter see a lot of accident victims in their line of work. Too often, something could have been done to prevent—or at least lessen—the injuries. So in 2012, the personal injury attorneys launched a program called Safety Matters. “Todd and I decided to look for ways to attempt to give back to the community, and attempt to reduce injuries that we see all the time,” says Reiner, with Reiner, Slaughter, McCartney & Frankel in Redding. They looked no further …
Heart Strings
Environmental lawyer Beth Ginsberg is making beautiful music out of a childhood passionIt wasn’t until Beth Ginsberg’s 8-year-old daughter began playing the violin that Ginsberg—who has been playing since she was 8—found out she’d been doing it wrong. Ginsberg, who performs with the Ravenna String Orchestra in Seattle, has been taking weekly lessons for the past seven years from Elizabeth Knighton, principal second violin with Northwest Symphony Orchestra, whom she hired originally to teach her daughter. Growing up in Amherst, New York, Ginsberg joined her school …
Self-Defense and Deadly Force in Oregon
Be reasonable. That’s good advice in most situations. It’s also the key idea behind any self-defense case. “Most states’ self-defense laws, be they ‘stand your ground’ or not ‘stand your ground,’ are really not that dissimilar,” says Portland criminal defense lawyer Janet Hoffman. “The standards that we already have in place require that the force be reasonable, and that your perceptions of [the threat of] serious physical injury or death be reasonable before you use deadly …
Common Myths About the U.S. Immigration System
Immigration has been a hot topic in multiple presidential election cycles, from the Obama administration through the Trump administration and into the Biden administration. So, we asked several Portland immigration attorneys for their thoughts. Turns out they didn’t always agree with what’s being said on the campaign trail. Common Myths About U.S. Immigration Take mass deportations. “It’s a totally ridiculous idea to get rid of the people who are here undocumented,” says Brent …
It Takes a Tugboat
How Bert Markovich navigated his way to maritime lawBert Markovich never saw the ocean until he was an adult. Growing up in Butte, Montana, then serving as captain of Montana State University’s 1976 title-winning football team, he had his sights set on high school coaching and teaching. So how did he end up as a cook on a tugboat? It was 1977, and he’d followed his heart—and wife-to-be Theresa—to the coastal Oregon town of North Bend, where she had been hired to teach at the local high school. Bored and jobless—with a recent double …
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