The partners
Two names on the door. Both on your case.
Harbor & Vale was built deliberately small: two partners who’d rather know every file cold than run a caseload from a spreadsheet. Here’s who you’ll be working with.
Partner since 2011
Personal injury · trial practice
Rachel Harbor
Rachel spent her first six years defending insurance companies against injury claims — learning precisely how carriers value cases, which files they fear, and which they quietly write off. In 2011 she crossed the aisle and co-founded Harbor & Vale to put that playbook to work for injured people.
Since then she has resolved hundreds of injury claims for Pierce County families and tried cases to verdict when the offers didn’t match the harm. Her rule for every file: prepare it like the jury will see it, and the other side usually makes sure they never do.
Education
J.D., University of Washington School of Law · B.A., Gonzaga University
Bar admissions
Washington · Oregon · U.S. District Court, W.D. Washington
Focus
Vehicle collisions · premises liability · wrongful death
Community
Volunteer, Tacoma-Pierce County legal-aid clinics
Family law · estate planning
Jonah Vale
Jonah practices the two kinds of law where the client’s family is the whole point. He came up in a Tacoma family-law firm, co-founded Harbor & Vale in 2011, and has spent fifteen years helping people restructure their lives — through divorce and custody on the hard days, and through wills and trusts on the wise ones.
A trained mediator, Jonah settles most of his cases without a courtroom — and prepares every one as though he won’t. Clients describe the same experience: he told me the truth early, even when it wasn’t what I wanted to hear, and it saved me a fortune.
Education
J.D., Seattle University School of Law · B.A., Washington State University
Bar admissions
Washington
Focus
Divorce & parenting plans · wills, trusts & probate · mediation
Community
Youth soccer coach · estate-planning workshops at Tacoma libraries
Partner since 2011
Behind the partners
A small team, on purpose
The partners are supported by a paralegal team that has been with the firm for years — the people who keep records moving, deadlines calendared, and your calls returned the same business day. When you phone our office during business hours, a person answers.
How we practice
- Fewer cases, worked harder. We cap our caseload so every file gets partner attention.
- The truth, early. You’ll hear our honest read at the first meeting — not after a year of bills.
- Your decision, always. Settle, sign, or fight — we advise; you choose.
- Plain English. If we can’t explain the plan simply, we don’t understand it well enough yet.
Demonstration portraits, not real people — this is a website template and Harbor & Vale is a fictional firm. Replace both with photographs of your actual attorneys before launch; never publish an invented likeness on a law-firm profile.