Author: Becky Walter

Congratulations to Erik Olsen for recently passing the bar exam.


Congratulations to Erik Olsen for recently passing the bar exam.
Erik Olsen has been working as a Intern at HIP for the past 3 summers while attending Gonzaga School of Law. Erik will be sworn in on October 27th and will join our Criminal Defense Department working alongside Mark Prothero and Greg Girard.
Congratulations Erik!

Hanis Irvine Prothero welcomes attorney Vanessa Vanderbrug


Hanis Irvine Prothero welcomes attorney Vanessa Vanderbrug. Vanessa’s practice areas include Employment Law, Administrative Law and Personal Injury. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon and attended to law school at Gonzaga University School of Law. Vanessa comes to Hanis Irvine Prothero with extensive litigation, motion, trial and courtroom experience. Welcome Vanessa.

Mark Prothero appointed to the Washington State Forensic Investigation Council

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Mark Prothero, Partner with the Kent, Washington law firm of Hanis Irvine Prothero, has been appointed by Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire to the Washington State Forensic Investigation Council (FIC). The Council is a 13-member Board that provides oversight of the State’s crime laboratories. Other members include the Chief of the Washington State Patrol, the Prosecuting Attorneys for Whatcom County and Kittitas County, the Walla Walla County Sheriff, the City of Connell Police Chief, the Kitsap County Coroner, and the Clark County Medical Examiner. Mark is the first criminal defense attorney to be appointed to the FIC.

Hanis Irvine Prothero congratulates paralegal Margarethe Merritt on U.S. citizenship


Margarethe Merritt was born in Poland. Upon completion of Boleslaw Chrobry High School in Bytom she immigrated to Germany and became a German citizen. She quickly learned German, two years later she graduated with honors from Geschwister-Sholl Preparatory School in Mannheim, Germany, and was admitted to the Heidelberg University, where she majored in chemistry and biology. During her 6 years in Germany she also completed a foreign language correspondent course (English/German). A year later she met her future husband, a U.S. soldier stationed in Germany. When her husband’s brigade was transferred to Fort Lewis, WA, she moved to the U.S. In 1995 shortly after her arrival, she enrolled in the ABA approved paralegal program at Highline Community College. In 1997 she graduated with honors and a GPA of 3.96 as the only non-American paralegal student, and was awarded an applied science degree. In 2001 she joined Curran Law Firm in Kent, WA and begun assisting attorney Gregory F. Cromwell whose practice focuses on the Homeowners’ Associations field. In November of 2009, their HOA team joined Hanis Irvine Prothero. After 15 years of living in the U.S. on July 8, 2010 she became a U.S. citizen. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her family, her husband and their two children, Michael (11) and Ashley (6), jazz and tap dancing at the British Dancing Academy, skiing, reading, decorating and breeding and showing her Siberian cats of Frosty Forest Siberians.