2019 Up & Coming Attorneys: Holley Horrell

Holley Horrell’s first day in court came while she was still in law school. As a student-lawyer at Stanford Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic, Horrell argued a procedural motion during an on-campus special session of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Horrell contended that her client’s case was not barred by a previous matter. “Unfortunately, the court found that it was,” she said.

But Horrell’s argument was “still a great experience,” she said — an auspicious start to an already impressive career, and an early entrée into the world of litigation.

Following a stint in private practice in Los Angeles and a clerkship for Judge Joan N. Ericksen of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, Horrell landed at Greene Espel’s Minneapolis office, where she practices trademark and business dispute litigation.

Notable recent wins for Greene Espel clients include a summary judgment for a client’s counterclaim in a multimillion-dollar breach-of-contract suit, full recovery of unpaid license fees for a past licensee of a well-known sports team, and victory in a key motion to exclude a foreign law expert from a case.

Despite a grueling litigation calendar, Horrell finds time to give back. Before moving to Minnesota, she did pro bono work on behalf of homeless women veterans at the Inner City Law Center in Los Angeles. Two achievements stand out from her time at the center: She prevailed upon the Army Discharge Review Board to upgrade a client’s discharge status from less than honorable to honorable, and she helped secure disability benefits worth $160,000 for a second client.

Of her time at the Inner City Law Center, she said: “This was a really rewarding practice. These are women who served their country, put it all out there, and in various ways lost everything and found themselves in pretty difficult circumstances.”

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