Meet Our Staff

Denise Winn Wright currently practices in Lassen, Modoc and Shasta Counties.  She focuses her practice primarily in the areas of family law, but has also worked in other areas of law, including Federal Indian Law, Tribal Law, eviction matters, and civil litigation.

Ms. Winn Wright currently represents clients in a variety of matters set for trial ranging from dissolution of marriage, domestic partnerships, paternity, domestic violence restraining orders, child custody, child and spousal support, child and adult adoptions, to Indian Child Welfare cases.  In one of her trials, Ms. Winn Wright obtained a judgment in favor of her client's claims of fraud, concealment and diversion of community property funds against his spouse.  While there are no winners in family law, she has also successfully settled many cases without going to trial.

Prior to opening her own law office, Denise provided family law services for Nichols, Catterton, Downing & Reed’s Fall River Mills, Lafayette and Oakland law offices.  Denise (a member of the federally recognized Pit River Tribe) also wrote grants to assist her tribe in the development of a tribal court system, and then served as legislative counsel for the Tribal and Family Court system.  In those capacities, she was directly involved in nearly every aspect of drafting family law codes for the Pit River Tribe.  

While in law school, Denise was a Pedrick Scholar and focused her studies and activities on areas of Indian law, family law, alternative dispute resolution, and earned a certificate in Federal Indian Law.  She was a student representative on the Indian Legal Program Advisory Council, the president of the National Native American Law Student Association (NNALSA), the president of ASU's NALSA chapter, and was a volunteer for the Indian Legal Assistance Program.  Denise completed summer internships with Hobbs, Straus, Dean and Walker in Washington, DC and with the Gila River Indian Community.  Denise was also a research assistant for Rebecca Tsosie and Robert Clinton's "American Indian Law: Native Nations and the Federal System" (5th edition) casebook. 

Ms. Winn Wright obtained her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Arizona State University, College of Law with a certificate in Federal Indian Law.  In 1999, Ms. Winn Wright also earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science, with a minor in American Indian Studies and a paralegal certificate from California State University, Chico.  She also earned an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree from College of the Redwoods in real estate in 1994.

Ms. Winn Wright was admitted to the California Bar in 2003.  She is admitted to practice in all California courts, the U.S. District Court for the State of California, Eastern and Northern Divisions, Redding Rancheria Tribal Court, Hoopa Valley Tribal Court and Yurok Tribal Court.  She is also a member of the Shasta-Trinity County Bar Association, California Law Association and California Indian Law Association.  Denise devotes all of her time outside of work to her family.  In their spare time, they enjoy traveling, white water rafting, pickleball, and spending time together.

Michael Wright joined the law firm in 2017 as the office administrator.  Mr. Wright is a Notary Public and comes to the office with over 30 years of experience as a small business owner and operator. Mr. Wright's  experience comes from formerly owning and operating a courier business (DHL in Redding and Eureka), providing courier services with FedEx, heavy equipment operations/services with CalTrans, fabrication and race car construction, and has considerable involvement in the local logging industry.  Mr. Wright's knowledge of vehicles, tools, and other mechanical assets are an essential part of valuing community estates in dissolution of marriage cases.