Attorney spotlight: rob farris-Olsen
Rob is one of the firm’s newest partners. He was born and raised in Helena, Montana, graduating from Central Elementary School, Helena Middle School and Helena High School in 2002. After high school, Rob attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington on a debate scholarship, and he earned a degree in 2006 in Environmental Studies - Chemistry. His lab work, and thesis, involved evaluating pollutant fate and transport in the environment. Upon graduation, Rob coached the Whitman Parliamentary Debate team for two years before returning to Montana to obtain his law degree at the University of Montana School of Law.
He graduated from the University of Montana School of Law, with honors, in 2011 and a certificate in Natural Resources and Environmental Law. He competed on UM Law’s National Moot Court Team with colleague Scott Peterson, and their team won both first place brief and first place overall for the Northwest Region. Rob individually won best oral advocate. After graduating, he returned to Helena and served as a law clerk to Justice Michael Wheat of the Montana Supreme Court, and worked for Montana Legal Services Association to help Montanans. He joined Morrison, Sherwood, Wilson & Deola in 2013.
In private practice, Rob focuses on protecting Montana consumers and Montanans’ constitutional rights. His consumer practice involves consumer bankruptcies, mortgage and foreclosure issues, improper credit reporting, illegal debt collection and automobile fraud. His civil rights work is dedicated to protecting Montanans from violations of their State and Federal constitutional rights.
In his time at the firm, Rob has successfully litigated cases at administrative hearings, district court, and the Montana Supreme Court. His work earned him the First Judicial District Pro Bono Award in 2014 for establishing the right to counsel for indigent parents in private adoption proceedings. In 2020, he was awarded the Montana Trial Lawyers award for best Trial Attorney based on his work with Andree Larose on behalf of a student with disabilities. And in 2021, Rob was awarded the best Appellate Advocacy Award by the Montana Trial Lawyers.
Since joining the firm, Rob also started his political career. In 2015, he was elected to the Helena City Commission, where he found a way to fund Helena’s infrastructure needs by fairly charging those entities that use them the most. Three years later, in 2018, Rob was elected to Represent House District 79 in the Montana House of Representatives. In his first term, he co-sponsored the Medicaid Expansion bill, fought to protect Montana survivors of sexual abuse, and joined a bipartisan effort to fund Montana state parks, trails, and aquatic invasive species prevention. In his second term, Rob championed reworking the violent offender registry and ensuring that people with court ordered rehabilitation have their treatment counted as time served.
In his free time, Rob enjoys spending time with his partner Erin, and their two children in Montana’s great outdoors.