Our Board of Directors
-
Quinn Oppenheim - President
Quinn Oppenheim is a partner with Summit Law Group in Seattle, WA. She is a defense-side employment litigator who represents corporations and governmental entities in employment discrimination matters, wage and hour cases, grievance arbitrations, and non-compete and trade secrets litigation. She is also an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law, where she teaches employment law. Prior to joining Summit Law Group, Quinn worked as an Assistant Public Defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia and as a white-collar criminal defense attorney with a large Philadelphia law firm.
-
Ariel Bevier - Treasurer
Ariel Bevier was born and raised in SW Portland and currently resides in Lake Oswego Oregon. Ariel spent four years in Helena, Montana, receiving her Bachelor's degree in Accounting and a minor in Business Administration from Carroll College while competing for the school's equestrian team. Since graduating she has spent the last 9 years working for a nationally ranked, female-founded accounting firm in Portland in her role as a senior manager/in-charge accountant. Ariel's career in the accounting industry has afforded her the pleasure of working with many local small businesses and families from all over the Pacific Northwest. In her free time, Ariel loves to read, cross-country ski, and explore the Columbia River Gorge with her family.
-
Nancy Rimmer - Secretary
Nancy is a Supervising Attorney at Justice at Work, a non-profit legal services organization that represents low-wage workers throughout Pennsylvania in employment matters. From 2008-2018, Nancy served as a public defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where she held a variety of positions including trial attorney, legal clinic instructor and supervisor. She graduated cum laude from the New York University School of Law in 2005.
-
Cerys St. John Richter
Cerys St. John Richter is an attorney who has specialized in litigation of health law, medical malpractice, and insurance matters in private firm and corporate settings. For the past decade, Ms. St. John Richter has channeled her legal knowledge, expertise, and desire to contribute to society into law school administration, first as Director of the Office of Career Services at Temple University Beasley School of Law where she helped launch the legal careers of hundreds of graduates – including several Public Defenders, and more recently, in strategic, operational, and management capacities as Chief of Staff at Drexel University Kline School of Law. Ms. St. John Richter has significant non-profit board service and leadership experience, including her service as President and Chair of the Board of The Miquon School, as Treasurer of the Philadelphia Area Diversity Job Fair, and as Chair of the Greater Philadelphia Area Law Schools Consortium. Ms. St. John Richter is a graduate of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and Fox School of Business, where she earned her Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees, respectively. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from New York University. She currently resides in Philadelphia with her family.
Ms. St. John Richter is honored to serve on the board of the Columbia Gorge Defenders, and to join in the work of supporting its mission and equipping it to meet the challenges of the future.
-
Jonas Bednarek
Jonas Bednarek is a trial lawyer. He loves to be in the courtroom defending his client. Regardless of whether that courtroom is a municipal court, a state court or a federal court, Jonas defends those who have been accused of crimes. Jonas has tried more than 75 jury trials to verdict – and he has had well over 100 trials to the court. He has obtained acquittals (not guilty verdicts) for his clients in all manner of cases from disorderly conduct to drunk driving to homicide.
Jonas has been admitted to practice in Wisconsin’s state and federal courts and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals (Seventh Circuit). He is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Dane County Criminal Defense Bar Association, Dane County Bar Association, and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.
Outside the courtroom, Jonas enjoys spending time with his four children and wife, fishing, skiing and contemplating life in his outdoor sauna.
-
Scott F. Brown
Scott F. Brown is the Corporation Counsel for Milwaukee County, WI. He was a law clerk to New Jersey Superior Court Judge Frederick Schuck and was a public defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
He is an accomplished trial attorney with extensive experience in complex litigation, civil rights and employment law. He has been admitted to the State Bar of Wisconsin, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the State Bar of Pennsylvania and the State Bar of New Jersey