PERSON: Kristen Waggoner

Senior Counsel

Kristen K. Waggoner, Esq., has extensive experience in civil litigation, employment, education, non-profit, and constitutional law. She serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom in Seattle, Wash., where she plays a key role on the Alliance Coordination Team. Waggoner joined Alliance Defending Freedom in 2013 to support the nearly 2,300 attorneys allied with Alliance Defending Freedom in their efforts to preserve religious freedom. Her focus is on training allied attorneys and organizations on religious liberty issues and rights of conscience. She also provides allies with legal support on cases pertaining to life, marriage, and family.

Since 1998, Waggoner has been an accomplished attorney at Ellis, Li & McKinstry PLLC and was promoted to partner in 2004. She has participated as counsel and prevailed in several high profile constitutional cases, including Andersen v. King County (same-sex marriage), Stormans v. Selecky (pharmacist conscience rights), and State v. Hamlin (clergy-penitent privilege).

Waggoner served as outside general counsel to private schools and universities, churches, and other non-profit organizations. She has also defended individuals in a variety of areas, including breach of contract, negligence, wrongful termination, statutory claims, and family disputes. She remains “of counsel” at Ellis, Li & McKinstry. A pastor’s daughter, Waggoner knew even as a pre-teen that she was called to defend religious liberty and pursue a career in law. She believes religious freedom is the cornerstone of all human rights and that the Constitution protects Christians from being coerced to violate their deeply held religious convictions.

Since 2000, Waggoner has served as an adjunct faculty member at Northwest University and currently is on the board of directors. She also served on the Washington State Bar Association’s Judicial Recommendation Committee from 2003-2004, and clerked for Justice Richard B. Sanders of the Washington Supreme Court in 1997.

Waggoner is a Martindale-Hubbell AV© peer-review rated attorney. She has been named a “Rising Star” for many years by Washington Law & Politics and is a sought-after national speaker at seminars and events on legal and cultural issues. She also has numerous media appearances, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Washington Times, The Seattle Times, BBC News, and the Associated Press.

Waggoner earned her J.D. from Regent University School of Law, graduating magna cum laude in 1997. She is admitted to the state bars in Washington, Florida, and Oregon. She is also admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 1st and 9th Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington. She currently resides in Seattle, Wash., with her husband and three children.

— clsnet.org