About Teresa
Teresa Keene began her academic journey at Eastern Washington University, where she studied creative writing and earned a B.A. in 1999. She returned to the classroom for legal training and received her Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law in 2003. Those years combined an interest in clear writing with formal legal education. The mix would resurface throughout her career.
After law school she moved into public and private roles that gave her a wide view of the criminal justice system. Her early legal work included a legal internship in 2006 with a private firm. In 2007 she served as a deputy prosecutor in Whitman County. The next year she joined the felony department as Lawyer 1 in the Spokane County Public Defender’s office. That experience put her inside felony dockets and courtroom calendars on a regular basis. In 2009 she entered private practice at Canyon Law Office and later established Keene Law in 2019.
Keene’s resume shows both sides of the courthouse aisle. She worked on behalf of the state as a prosecutor and then on behalf of defendants as a public defender. That sequence is uncommon but clarifying. It exposed her to charging decisions, plea negotiations, trial preparation and the constraints prosecutors face. It also gave her direct experience defending serious criminal matters in trial settings.
Her practice over the years has mixed litigation and client counseling. In private practice she handled cases that required courtroom presence as well as written work and client communication. The creative writing background informs how she prepares pleadings and statements. She has been a member of the Washington State Bar Association and the WSBA since 2005, and she holds membership in the Spokane County Bar Association beginning in 2019. She was also a member of the Whitman County Bar Association in 2013.
Colleagues and clients encounter an attorney who has spent substantial time on felony calendars and who understands the pressures of both prosecution and defense work. She has moved through municipal and county systems and into independent practice.
Keene now operates Keene Law in Washington. Her current practice concentrates on matters arising in Washington state courts, drawing on years spent in both public offices and private firms.
