NAPOLS Regional Highlight: Meet Rohan Hiatt!

Meet Rohan Hiatt. He joined the NAPOLS office last year and brings a lot of new vivacious energy to the team. After traversing some of the many twists and turns life leads us through, Rohan decided he wanted to work in a field where he could make a positive impact on real people’s lives, and that led him to law school.

 

Rohan first became connected to legal aid and NAPOLS through his mentor in law school, Martha Klein Izenson. Martha worked at NAPOLS at the time that she was assigned to be his mentor, and so from the beginning he cultivated an interest in working for legal aid.

“I spent the majority of my law school career focusing on Native American legal issues from a business and economic perspective, and I quickly realized the disproportionate need for access to justice in indigenous communities at a more fundamental level. I joined NAPOLS in order to bolster individual tribal members and increase the range of baseline legal services available to Native Americans throughout Oregon. In line with this work, I am enthusiastic about helping move the field further away from adversarial legal processes and toward conciliatory solutions, whenever possible.”

 

Rohan is interested in other areas of the law and can see himself branching out in the future, including antitrust law, business development, and tribal sovereignty work more generally.

Rohan says the most enjoyable part of his job is interacting with and learning from his clients. “Often times, I feel like they teach me more about life and resiliency compared to the legal advice I provide to them. I truly feel privileged to be able to serve these folks and I look forward to my time in the community conducting outreach the most.” Thank you for your amazing dedication and hard work for the community Rohan!

 

*Photo of the NAPOLS team