Adam W. Heaton
Direct Dial St. Paul, MN Portland, OR Primary Fax Email to		(651) 967-7290 (651) 528-7118, ext. 101 (503) 343-9400, ext. 101 (651) 917-1709 Adam W. Heaton

Academia

William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota
  Adjunct Professor, Legal Practicum:  Business Practice

Education

Willamette University, Salem, Oregon 
   Doctor of Jurisprudence 
   Master of Business Administration 
      for Business, Government, & Not-for-Profit Management
Minnesota State University, Mankato 
     Bachelor of Science 
       Political Science and English: Technical Communication

Licensure

United States District Court, District of Minnesota
Supreme Court of the State of Minnesota
Supreme Court of the State of Oregon
Supreme Court of the State of Washington (inactive status)

Community Involvement

Former Instructor, White Bear Lake Area Schools
Former Commissioner, White Bear Township Planning Commission
Former Member, Woodbury Infrastructure / Telecommunications Committee 

As an attorney, Heaton has experience in both civil and criminal matters; in the public sector, and the private. In the public sector he has worked in the Washington D.C. office of a U.S. Representative, the capitol office of a state representative, the administrative hearings division of the Public Utility Commission of Oregon (where he assisted the administrative law judges), and the chamber of a circuit court judge (where he worked on both criminal and civil matters before the court). In 2001, approximately a month before receiving his MBA, he was offered an appointment as a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow and with fellowship opportunities in the U.S. Department of Defense, the IRS, and the FBI, to name a few.

In the private sector Heaton has worked for a Fortune 500 international corporation, where at first he worked in the human resources department, and then later with the licensing group of the legal department. When Heaton and his wife relocated from Oregon to Minnesota, he worked with a firm in downtown White Bear Lake before taking a position with a firm in Minneapolis.

More recently, during the past six years or so, Heaton has almost exclusively represented and counseled clients who strive to create value through the product or service they have to offer; anything from assisting a client with the purchase of a franchise, to starting their own business from scratch, to a significant land development project, or litigation involving any of these and more ...some more obvious than others, but nonetheless, most of the legal matters Heaton has handled have involved entrepreneurs. 

Whether preparing a contract for the client, or zealously representing their interests before the court when another one of their amazing opportunities turned out to be not so amazing, Heaton makes a point to always present the client with more than just the “legal” options.  He reviews with each client the more “practical” factors that must be considered just as seriously as the legal ones.