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Education
- Seattle University School of Law, J.D, 2006, summa cum laude
- Editor, Seattle University Law Review
- DePaul University, B.A. 2000, with Honors
Awards & Affiliations
- Tom Chambers Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, 2024
- Washington State Bar Association
- Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association
- Kitsap County Bar Association
- Washington State Association for Justice
- Oregon State Bar Association
- Multnomah Bar Association
- Oregon Trial Lawyers Association
- American Association for Justice
Biography Overview
Vanessa J. Firnhaber Oslund is a partner at the firm. She has been fighting for justice for asbestos victims for over a decade. Vanessa takes equal pride in her zealous advocacy in the courtroom and her compassion for her clients. She takes a special interest in helping victims of “take-home” asbestos exposure who were exposed to asbestos through their parents’ or spouse’s work clothes.
Over her career, she has represented hundreds of mesothelioma victims and their families, achieving many victories for her clients, including many multi-million-dollar settlements and verdicts. She is passionate about obtaining justice for her clients in the legal system and holding corporations responsible for putting profits over people. She understands that bringing an asbestos claim is often her clients’ first contact with the legal system and can be intimidating. Accordingly, she takes special care to keep her clients informed and to ensure their interests are protected every step of the way. Prior to representing asbestos victims, Vanessa served as counsel to the Washington State Senate advising senators on law and policy regarding consumer protection and insurance issues.
In addition to asbestos victims, Vanessa represents survivors of sexual abuse. She understands the incredible toll sexual abuse can take on survivors’ spirits and life trajectories. Vanessa relishes standing up for survivors and holding the abusers and the institutions that enabled the abuse accountable. She recently lobbied for the Washington legislature to pass a law that would allow sexual abuse survivors to bring claims no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.
Vanessa spends most of her time outside work with her husband and two young daughters biking, watching ballet recitals, road-tripping, and cooking.
Representative Matters
$30 Million jury verdict for an Oregon widow of a 67 year-old deceased mesothelioma victim against Ameron Corporation for four months of asbestos exposures at Ameron’s Bondstrand factory in Brea, California in the 1970s. (Multnomah County, OR, 2022)
$13 Million jury verdict for a victim of medical malpractice. A patient of Dr. Kristine Brecht at Aesthetic Rejuvenation & Spa in Burien, WA was a victim of botched cosmetic surgeries due to the lack of Brecht’s proper credentials, training, and skills.
$11 Million dollars in Settlements to a 74 year old union Boilermaker with mesothelioma exposed to asbestos at various paper mills, including Weyerhaeuser, Longview, Simpson Tacoma, Georgia Pacific Bellingham, Crown Zellerbach, and Potlatch. They also worked at shipyards such as Todd and Lockheed, oil refineries such as Shell, Texaco Anacortes, ARCO, and power plants like Hanford and Centralia Steam, all located in the Pacific Northwest.
$10 Million jury verdict for 79 year-old mesothelioma victim and his wife against a distributor of asbestos insulation in a Covid “Zoom” trial. The victim’s father worked at Harbor Island Shipyards in Seattle during World War II, unwittingly exposing his infant son to asbestos through contaminated work clothes. (King County, WA, 2021)
$6.9 Million in settlements for a 38-year-old mesothelioma victim exposed to asbestos through the work clothing of her father, a telephone repair worker, during childhood.
$4.25 Million jury verdict for an 81 year-old electrician and his wife against an asbestos product distributor. He was exposed to asbestos insulation while working at shipyards in Seattle in the 1960s and 70s. (King County, WA, 2019)
$3.9 Million in settlements for a husband and wife suffering from asbestosis and mesothelioma respectively. The husband was exposed to asbestos during his work as a machinist at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and his wife was exposed when she washed her husband’s asbestos-laden work clothes.
$3.5 Million in settlements for a 69-year-old Navy machinist mate who, in addition to suffering asbestos exposure in the Navy, was exposed through the work clothes of his father, a Puget Sound Naval Shipyard worker, and while working as a boiler tender at a plywood mill.
$2.2 Million in settlements for an 89-year-old career electrician who worked at a Longview paper mill.
$1.45 Million jury verdict for an 84 year-old merchant mariner in a Jones Act case with one month of asbestos exposure against Sea-Land. (King County, WA, 2011)
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