Lisa Howley

Lisa Howley is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Portland office. Ms. Howley has more than 20 years of experience representing businesses, government entities and individuals in high-stakes litigation, and she has advised institutional clients in diverse areas of law.

Ms. Howley has extensive complex litigation experience. Her clients have included large corporations, major private equity firms and hedge funds, developers and executives of Fortune 500 companies, and state, local and federal government entities. Ms. Howley is well versed in complex business disputes, shareholder litigation and derivative suits, intellectual property (IP) and trade secrets disputes, and professional negligence and fiduciary duty litigation, as well as challenges to complex, multifaceted cross-border transactions.

In addition, Ms. Howley has substantial experience with political law matters, including elections administration, campaign finance, lobbying and ethics regulations, having served as the primary in-house counsel to the City of Portland's elections and lobbying programs. She also is experienced with employment and labor matters, including disputes regarding executive compensation, the enforcement of restrictive covenants, and advising on compliance with federal and local regulations.

Ms. Howley's representative engagements include:

• representing a clean energy company in a more than $500 million trade secret litigation
• representing a local government entity in litigation pertaining to a failed customized software solution
• representing a company in a $30 million breach of contract and fraud claims arising from a failed acquisition in Delaware federal court
• representing a developer in a series of complex disputes with contractors and an architect, resulting in favorable global settlements
• representing a minority member in a multimillion-dollar oppression suit against managing members of real estate development limited liability companies (LLCs)
• defending a multinational dental equipment manufacturer and family shareholders in a preliminary injunction and related litigation filed by a dissident shareholder seeking control of the company in Oregon state court, resulting in a favorable settlement
• defending foreign hedge fund clients in U.S. state and federal court actions brought by fellow noteholders seeking to challenge clients' notes, worth several hundred million dollars, as fraudulently obtained
• defending a foreign private equity firm in a securities class action
• representing an investment firm in investigations conducted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into investment practices at public pension funds

Prior to rejoining Holland & Knight, Ms. Howley served as general counsel of the Portland City Auditor's Office, where she provided independent legal and policy advice to the city's principal transparency, accountability and elections functions.