Miller Nash LLP partner, Chris Helmer, was selected as a 2023 Women of Influence honoree by the Portland Business Journal. This prestigious award recognizes notable women business leaders throughout Oregon and southwest Washington who demonstrate a history of innovation, significant professional accomplishments and meaningful community involvement. Chris, along with the other honorees, will be celebrated at the Women of Influence Awards 20th Anniversary Luncheon on April 4, 2023.
“We are excited to celebrate Chris on this well-deserved honor,” said Kieran Curley, managing partner of Miller Nash. “Her recognition as a Women of Influence honoree further demonstrates the positive impact she’s had on our community and her unwavering commitment to advancing the legal profession.”
About Chris Helmer
Chris primarily handles international and maritime matters—both litigation and transactional. She has over 40 years of litigation experience, putting her in a great position to assist clients in contract drafting and assessing contractual risks. Chris works with clients in a variety of industries and has negotiated and documented hundreds of simple to complex contracts dealing with licensing and product sales, custom manufacturing abroad, agency and distribution, vessel construction, charter parties, foreign joint ventures, letters of credit, and cross-border financing. If a business plan or problem has a foreign component, Chris has likely dealt with it.
Chris’s commitment to the practice of law includes service on numerous boards, including being the first woman appointed by the Oregon Supreme Court to serve on the Oregon State Board of Bar Examiners, the first woman to be elected to the Oregon State Bar Board of Governors, and serving in multiple leadership positions in the International Bar Association, based in London. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and has taught law in China and Italy.
Chris has been routinely selected for inclusion on the Oregon Super Lawyers list and recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® in Admiralty and Maritime Law and Commercial Litigation. She was also recognized as “Lawyer of the Year—USA” in Admiralty and Maritime by Lawyer Monthly and selected to the international edition of Who’s Who Legal: Litigation. Chris received her B.A. from Washington State University, magna cum laude, her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School, cum laude, and her LL.M. from Columbia University in international law.
