About Sheila
Sheila Ridgway grew up in the Pacific Northwest and followed a straightforward course into law. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Washington’s Tacoma campus and went on to receive her J.D. from Gonzaga University. Those academic stops set the shape of a career centered on probate and trust matters in Oregon and Washington.
After law school Ridgway began practicing in the region and built a practice that moves between courtroom contests and negotiated settlements. Her work has included estate planning, probate administration, and contested trust and estate matters. She handles disputes that involve fiduciary duties, will and trust contests, and guardianship issues. The cases range from routine estate administrations to complex litigation over wealth transfer and control.
Ridgway has taken on roles outside the courtroom that reflect the procedural and ethical side of probate law. She edits The Codicil, a publication that tracks changes and practical points in trust and estate practice. She also participates in the Trust and Estates Dispute Resolution Act Subcommittee, where members study how dispute-resolution procedures apply to probate and trust litigation. On the continuing education front she chairs programs on probate litigation and ethics, organizing panels and seminars for other lawyers on practical skills and professional responsibility.
Her approach to cases is pragmatic. She prepares for litigation while testing settlement possibilities early. That means drafting clear pleadings, keeping discovery tight, and weighing mediation and arbitration options when they can resolve matters more quickly. In ethical disputes she focuses on the record and applicable rules, and she has experience briefing complex evidentiary and fiduciary questions to trial courts.
Colleagues say Ridgway brings an attention to procedure and evidence that serves clients in contested matters. Outside of litigation she drafts estate plans intended to reduce future disputes. She balances those planning tasks against the demands of active probate files, shifting from transactional drafting to litigating under the rules of civil procedure.
She practices from Ridgway Law Group, P.S., and maintains ties across Washington and Oregon through bar activities and continuing legal education. Her current practice centers on estate planning, probate administration, and trust and estate litigation.
