Zac Hostetter is the firm’s lead litigator. His practice focuses on disputes involving trusts, estates, contracts, and real property — matters that often arrive with deep personal stakes and long histories. He handles the full range of civil litigation, from depositions to jury trials, and also works on wills, property transactions, and personal injury matters. When a client has no other option but to stand before a jury, Zac prepares them well and stands with them. He counts those moments among the most meaningful of his career.

His approach to practice reflects his training in philosophy. “When you see a doctor,” he says, “you don’t want someone who guesses. You want someone who knows just what to do.” He holds himself to the same standard — and he won’t ask a client to spend money unless he’s confident he can solve their problem.

Zac came to law through philosophy. At Seattle Pacific University, one of his professors — an adjunct who also taught at the University of Washington School of Law — noticed his work and suggested he consider a legal career. The idea fit: law was philosophy with stakes, the same rigorous, critical thinking, now applied to real people with real problems. He enrolled at UW Law, graduated in 2006, and joined the King County Prosecutor’s Office in Seattle.

At the prosecutor’s office, the pace was fast and the work was serious. He prosecuted sexual assault, felony assault, drug felonies, and homicide and accompanied detectives into the field to provide real-time legal counsel during active investigations. But the cases he worked were for an anonymous public, and Zac had a young family, and a place he wanted to return to. He came home to Wallowa County. The community here has given his family a great deal over the years, and at Hostetter Law Group he found something the prosecutor’s office couldn’t offer: the chance to help specific people, by name, through the hardest moments of their lives. These were his neighbors. Their problems mattered.

“You’ll be more anxious if you don’t seek legal advice. The institution has come to call us ‘counselors,‘ and that’s what we are at our best. Seek out your counselor.”

Zac and his wife have six children, whom they homeschool. Zac and his wife and children enjoy running cattle, and all the outdoor activities Wallowa County offers.

EDUCATION

University of Washington School of Law, J.D., 2006

Seattle Pacific University, B.A., History and Philosophy, 2002

PUBLICATIONS

“When Small Technology Is a Big Deal: Legal Issues Arising from Business Use of RFID,” 2 Shidler J. L. Com. & Tech. 10 (2005)

BAR ADMISSIONS

Oregon

Washington

United States District Court, District of Oregon

United States District Courts, Eastern and Western Districts of Washington

United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon

United States Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Washington

United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Idaho

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Tribal Court for the Confederated Tribe of the Umatilla

Pro hac vice admissions: Idaho, New York, Pennsylvania