Snell & Wilmer Adds Oregon DOJ Veteran Michael Kron as Counsel in Portland

PORTLAND – Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce that Michael Kron has joined the firm’s Portland office as counsel in the Special Litigation & Compliance practice group.

Kron previously spent more than a decade at the Oregon Department of Justice as special counsel to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. As a core member of the Oregon attorney general’s executive team, Kron worked on matters of statewide and national significance, devising successful litigation strategies and winning arguments for a range of complex and high-stakes cases involving state policies and investigations.

“Michael is a tremendous lawyer who has dedicated his career to government service,” said Brett Johnson, chair of the Special Litigation & Compliance Practice Group. “His deep experience in state attorneys general offices and advising government agencies will be a tremendous asset to our clients navigating highly complex state and multi-state investigations and the regulatory mindset of those agencies.”

While with the Department of Justice, Kron’s specific work has included defending Oregon’s emergency COVID response measures, defending voter-enacted gun safety laws, defeating federal attempts to undermine Oregon’s immigration sanctuary laws, and defeating challenges to legislative attendance requirements.

After serving as special counsel to Rosenblum, Kron worked in the office of Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez. Earlier in his career he served as an assistant attorney general in the Oregon Department of Justice, Office of the Chief General Counsel.

“It has been an honor to serve the public for nearly two decades,” said Kron. “Snell & Wilmer has brought on a deep bench of some of the best lawyers in the state since opening in Portland five years ago, I am excited to join them for the next phase of my career.”

Kron has been recognized with a First Freedom Award from the Oregon Society of Professional Journalists and has served on several state advisory and policy bodies, including the Oregon Sunshine Committee, the Oregon Public Records Advisory Council, the Oregon Task Force on Community Safety and Firearm Suicide Prevention, and the Attorney General’s Public Records Law Reform Task Force, which he chaired.

Kron earned his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Hamilton Fellow and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, his M.A. in English Literature from New York University, and his B.A. from the University of Oregon, where he graduated magna cum laude. He has been a member of the Oregon State Bar since 2007 and the Hawai’i State Bar since 2025.