About Chris Kitchel

Chris Kitchel is a retired partner from Stoel Rives LLP. She worked there 38 years as a trial lawyer, handling employment litigation, health care litigation, and all manner of business litigation. She also has deep experience working with health organizations on physician peer review and related proceedings. Her work won her many plaudits from her clients and peers. Named an Oregon Top 25 Women Super Lawyers and Top 50 Lawyers in Oregon by Oregon Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America (1995-2019), including Best Lawyers as Portland Litigation-Labor & Employment Law Lawyer of the year 2014. Chris is praised in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2011 for her “very good client relationship skills and extensive litigation experience.” She was named Mentor of the Year by the Multnomah Bar Association in 2010.

Chris is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), and a member of ABOTA (American Board of Trial Advocates). In the ACTL She was chair of the Federal Rules Committee, former chair of the Oregon State committee, and a member of the National Mock Trial Competition Committee. She has been recognized repeatedly in Oregon Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, and in Chambers USA.

She is a past president of the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel.

Chris recently completed certification at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University Law School. Chris is approved as an AAA arbitrator, and has active cases for the American Arbitration Association.

Working with the American Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) she co-chaired three national committees consisting of plaintiff and defense counsel, successfully developing discovery protocols for FLSA cases, disaster relief cases, and certain employment cases.