Portland civil litigation firm Bodyfelt Mount has appointed IADC member Kirstin Abel as managing partner. Abel has been with the law firm for five years, and concentrates her practice on product liability; drug and medical device; professional liability; and medical malpractice matters. Abel is the fourth partner to take the helm since the law firm was founded forty years ago.
Abel serves on the Oregon State Bar’s Products Liability Section Executive Committee and is a Barrister in the Owen M. Panner American Inn of Court. She volunteers for several youth mentoring and dropout prevention programs, and has been an advisory board member for Girl Scouts Beyond Bars for more than a decade. In 2017, she was elected to the Board of Trustees for St. Andrew Nativity School, after several years of service on the school’s Ambassador Board.
Before joining Bodyfelt Mount, Abel spent eight years focused exclusively on defending hospitals and physicians in malpractice lawsuits while working for a Portland medical malpractice boutique litigation firm. She also clerked in Multnomah County for then Circuit Court Judge Ellen F. Rosenblum and served as a legislative aide to then Oregon State Representative Vicki Walker. Abel earned her J.D. from The John Marshall Law School and her bachelor’s degree in political science from Linfield College.