Tess Hand-Bender is a litigation associate with Reilly Pozner LLP. Tess focuses her practice on complex civil litigation. Prior to joining Reilly Pozner, she was a law clerk to the Hon. Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The previous year, she served as law clerk to the Hon. Philip A. Brimmer of the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado. In these clerkships, Tess gained valuable research and writing experience – as well as exposure to diverse areas of civil and criminal law. Tess earned her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she often received the highest or second-highest grades in her courses and was a member of Order of the Coif, which recognizes scholarship. She was a research assistant to two professors and submissions editor for the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. Tess holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa and departmental honors, from Stanford University. Between college and law school, Tess was a legal assistant in a solo criminal defense office in San Francisco. After this experience, she knew she wanted to become the kind of litigator who uses her skills to excel in the courtroom.