Wayne E. Harris
After graduation from law school in 1984, Wayne Harris worked for two
years as a judicial law clerk with the federal trial court in Portland,
Oregon. For the next eight years, he worked as a judicial law clerk with
the Oregon Court of Appeals and as an attorney in the public and private
sectors. His
work in the public sector involved administrative review of unemployment
compensation claims. His work in the private sector involved corporate law and litigation.
During the five years he worked as a judicial law clerk, Wayne
researched a variety of complex state and federal legal issues and wrote
hundreds of court decisions for trial and appellate level judges.
In 1994, he decided to specialize in the field of law called employee
benefits, with a primary focus on pension plans qualified under the
Internal Revenue Code and subject to regulation by a federal law called the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"). Wayne drafted pension plan documents and advised employers about how to comply with the law that governs pension plans. QDROs formed a substantial
part of his employee benefits practice from the outset and, over time,
have become his practice focus. Wayne has prepared over 4,000 QDROs in the past sixteen years. He
speaks at continuing legal education seminars about pension division
incident to divorce and related topics. He is a recognized authority in
his field.
Wayne has been an Oregon attorney since 1984. He has been an Idaho and Washington attorney since 2003. His law firm
does business throughout the Pacific Northwest under the name
QDRO-law, in recognition of Wayne's practice focus and expertise.
It is important to know that Wayne Harris is not a divorce lawyer. His
work in a divorce proceeding is limited to what is often the most
valuable - yet least understood - marital asset: the pension plan
benefits and retirement accounts.
Licensed to Practice Law in:
| Oregon (1984) |
| Washington (2003) |
| Idaho (2003) |
Education:
| J.D., Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon (1984) |
| Law Review Member and Editor, Environmental Law, (1982-84) |
| A.B. with Honors, Political Science, University of Missouri at Columbia
(1979) |
| Park Hill High School, Kansas City, Missouri (1974) |
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