Labor and Employment Law

Associate General Counsel
Practice Areas: Constitutional Law, Governance, Labor and Employment Law, Student Conduct, Emergency Management, Athletics, Litigation

Prior to joining the University of Oregon, Jeslyn Everitt was an attorney at the law firm Munger Tolles & Olson in San Francisco, where she litigated numerous matters involving higher education, intellectual property, contract, tort, and labor and employment law.

Jeslyn also has extensive experience advising clients on issues related to free speech, privacy, and government regulation. In addition to her work at Munger Tolles, Jeslyn spent brief periods of time as a trial attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and with the Office of General Counsel at the University of California.

Jeslyn holds a BA in social studies and comparative religion from Harvard College and a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as a senior editor for the California Law Review. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and, following law school, clerked for the Honorable Sandra S. Ikuta with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In her free time, Jeslyn teaches a law school course on alternative dispute resolution, serves on the local board for the Fulbright Association, and volunteers as a community mediator.

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Assistant:
Kelly Fondren
541-346-3463


Deputy General Counsel
Practice Areas: Litigation, Intellectual Property, Governance, Constitutional Law, Sponsored Research, Athletics, Government Ethics, Labor and Employment Law, Federal Agencies , Library & Museum Administration, Student Conduct, Police & Law Enforcement, Immigration & International Programs, Public Records & Public Meetings

As the Deputy General Counsel, Doug is UO’s Chief Counsel for the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, and UO’s Head of Litigation.  He also manages UO’s outside-counsel legal services portfolio, supervises the Law Fellowship Program, and advises units on all aspects of UO operations.  Since joining UO in 2007, Doug has held the positions of Assistant General Counsel, Associate General Counsel, and Interim General Counsel.  His prior work includes teaching at the UO law school, and working for a private law firm, the ACLU, the Associated Counsel for the Accused, and the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ). 

While at DOJ, Doug developed the arguments that prevailed in two U.S. Supreme Court cases and received DOJ’s highest professional honor (the Outstanding Achievement Award) for successfully defending the constitutionality of Oregon’s dangerous offender statute and the Balfour appellate procedures.  In 2020, the Oregon Women Lawyers Association awarded Doug its highest professional honor (the Justice Roberts & Judge Deiz Award) for his outstanding contributions to promoting women and people from outside the dominant culture in the legal profession and in the community. In May 2023, the federal district judges in Oregon selected Doug as a Ninth Circuit Lawyer Representative for the District of Oregon (2023 - 2026 term).  Lawyer representatives are chosen by federal judges in each of the Ninth Circuit’s fifteen districts.  In this role, Doug works closely with federal judges and the federal bar to improve the administration of justice in the Circuit.

Doug holds a BA in English literature from the University of Washington, and a JD from the University of Oregon.  He has co-authored articles published in the Willamette Law Review and the Oregon State Bar Criminal Law Manual. He served on the Board of Directors for the Eugene Education Foundation for six years helping to raise funds for and distribute grants to Eugene’s public K-12 schools.  Doug is currently one of the longest serving members (10 years) on the UO’s Leadership Council for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, where he also serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Development Committee.  Doug has served as a presenter on multiple higher education topics, including serving as panelist for the National Association of College and University Attorneys, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Student Conduct Administrators. 

Pronouns: he/him/his

Assistant:
Kelly Fondren
541-346-3463


Vice President and General Counsel
Practice Areas: Constitutional Law, Governance, Government Ethics, Labor and Employment Law, Litigation

Kevin S. Reed serves as vice president and general counsel for the University of Oregon. He is responsible for the management of the legal affairs of the university, including the provision of legal guidance to all university units, schools, and colleges. His work involves drafting and counseling on a wide array of issues facing a large public research university, ranging from government ethics, procurement policy, research compliance, athletics compliance, IP protection, employment and labor issues, Title IX, free speech, academic freedom, governance, and promotion of diversity. Additionally, Kevin oversees the Office of Public Records and the university’s purchasing and contracting services office.

Kevin previously served as vice chancellor, legal affairs at UCLA, where he oversaw UCLA’s provision of campus-wide legal assistance and ombuds services, the prevention of sexual harassment and compliance with Title IX.  Prior to joining UCLA in March 2008, Kevin was acting general counsel and then general counsel of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second largest school district. In nearly five years there, he directed LAUSD legal affairs, conducted litigation for the district and oversaw the work of 40 outside law firms and 40 in-house attorneys.  He also oversaw the District’s Ethics Office, Educational Equity Compliance Office, and directed collective bargaining with the District’s 11 employee units. A civil rights lawyer by training, from 1996 through 2004, Kevin was a partner at Strumwasser & Woocher LLP, a Santa Monica law firm, where he successfully challenged the state of California’s distribution of funds for school construction, resulting in $600 million in state funding for LAUSD.  He previously spent six years as the managing attorney for the western regional office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., in Los Angeles.  Kevin received his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his B.A., with distinction, from the University of Virginia.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Assistant:
Brad Lowary
541-346-3043


Associate General Counsel
Practice Areas: Labor and Employment Law

*Missy primarily serves as the Senior Director of Employee and Labor Relations in Human Resources at the University of Oregon, but maintains a limited appointment as an Associate General Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel that enables her to provide legal advice on behalf of the instiution regarding employment and labor issues that arise during the course of performing her duties as Senior Director of Employee and Labor Relations.
 

Missy joined the general counsel’s office in July 2014. She came to the University of Oregon from Hershner Hunter LLP, where her practice focused on business litigation, higher education and government law, labor and employment, construction, real property, and contract law. Prior to working at Hershner Hunter, Missy worked in Nike’s Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C., in US Senator Ron Wyden’s office in Washington, D.C., and in the Oregon Department of Justice’s civil trial division. She has a BA in government relations from George Mason University and a JD from the University of Oregon, where she was Order of the Coif, the Orlando Hollis Scholar for Academic Excellence, and the articles editor for the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Assistant:
Mollie Peterson
541-346-2343


Senior Associate General Counsel
Practice Areas: Governance, Real Estate, Business Transactions, Procurement, Labor and Employment Law, Student Affairs

Ryan J. Hagemann joined the University of Oregon’s Office of the General Counsel as Senior Associate General Counsel in December 2022.  Prior to the UO, Ryan served Western Oregon University’s first Vice President & General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Trustees (2015-2022), held several positions with the Oregon University System, including Vice Chancellor and General Counsel (2004-2015), and worked for the Oregon Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General in both the Education and Labor & Employment Sections (2001-2004).

Ryan received his law degree from the University of Oregon in 2001 and his BA in Politics magna cum laude, with honors, from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 1994.  Ryan has worked in higher education for nearly thirty years.  He served Whitman as its Assistant Director of Speech and Debate and did two stints in the Office of Admission.  Between his time at the Whitman College Office of Admission, he worked for sociologist Dr. Amitai Etzioni at The George Washington University.  During law school, Ryan clerked for Melinda Grier, the UO General Counsel, served on the Oregon Law Review, where his note on race-conscious higher education decision-making was published in 2000, and worked in student conduct in the Office of Student Life as a Graduate Teaching Fellow (GTF).

Over the course of serving Oregon DOJ, OUS, and WOU, Ryan’s broad experience includes significant work in university governance, labor and employment, student affairs, intellectual property, complex business and real estate transactions, procurement, and policy development.  He was instrumental in drafting Senate Bill 242 in 2011, which successfully extended authority to the Oregon University System and member universities to hire their own legal counsel and create their own risk management enterprise separate from the state. 

Ryan’s volunteer activities include the High Desert Museum Board of Trustees in Bend, Oregon, including three years as Board Chair; the Whitman College Alumni Association Board of Directors, including time as its president; Basic Rights Oregon’s volunteer legal advisory team; and many opportunities with the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA).  Originally from eastern Oregon, he and his husband Roy live in Salem, Oregon.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Assistant:
Brad Lowary
541-346-3043