Petra N. Ambrose is a Shareholder in Klinedinst’s Seattle and Las Vegas offices and a seasoned, multi-jurisdictional litigator licensed in Washington, Nevada, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia. She focuses her practice on complex professional liability, legal malpractice, and commercial litigation, with a primary emphasis on defending attorneys and law firms in legal malpractice actions. In addition, she advises attorneys and law firms on legal ethics and professional responsibility.
Ms. Ambrose represents a wide range of professionals and organizations, including attorneys, medical providers and nursing homes, accountants, real estate and insurance brokers/agents, directors and officers, and construction design professionals. She also handles cybersecurity and technology-related claims and high-exposure commercial disputes. The majority of her current practice is devoted to defending legal malpractice actions, where she brings a strategic approach focused on early resolution and minimizing client exposure.
Known for her creative and results-driven advocacy, Ms. Ambrose consistently positions cases for early and favorable resolution. Over the past eighteen months alone, she has obtained at least eight complete dismissals—at the motion to dismiss and summary judgment stages—on behalf of attorneys sued for legal malpractice in Washington and Nevada. She has also secured summary judgment dismissals for directors and officers, real estate professionals, general contractors, and accounting firms, and has obtained permanent injunctive relief on behalf of clients in high-stakes matters. In addition, she successfully tried a legal malpractice case to verdict, obtaining a directed verdict in favor of her client.
Ms. Ambrose works closely with insurers and claims professionals to develop efficient, cost-conscious litigation strategies, including early dispositive motion practice, targeted discovery planning, and coordinated defense approaches across jurisdictions. She is frequently engaged at the earliest stages of a claim to assess liability, evaluate exposure, and implement strategies designed to avoid litigation or resolve matters before significant costs are incurred.
Before joining Klinedinst, Ms. Ambrose spent nearly twenty years representing general contractors and construction design professionals in complex litigation, including construction defect and injury claims, products liability, personal injury, premises liability, and insurance bad faith matters. She has extensive experience litigating, mediating, and resolving cases in both state and federal courts in Washington and Nevada. This broad, cross-disciplinary background provides her with a practical and highly effective perspective in defending attorneys and other professionals facing complex claims.
Ms. Ambrose is a recognized leader in the professional liability community. She served as Chair of the Northwest Chapter of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society from 2019 through 2024 and regularly collaborates with insurers, claims professionals, and industry stakeholders on emerging risk issues, including professional liability exposure and legal ethics compliance. Earlier in her career, she served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Patrick J. Roma of the New Jersey Superior Court and as a Nevada Supreme Court-appointed mediator in the State of Nevada’s Foreclosure Mediation Program during the height of the housing crisis. While in law school, Ms. Ambrose served as Executive Articles Editor of the St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary.
Education
- St. John’s University School of Law (J.D., 2002)
- The George Washington University (B.A., 1999)
Languages
- Farsi
