Jacy Arnold

Firm Founder, Trial Attorney

Jacy specializes in complex divorce matters, often involving closely-held corporations, considerable assets, and structured spousal support awards.  She handles high-conflict custody cases, modification actions, and third-party adoptions.  She is also experienced with Department of Human Services and handles voluntary service agreements, juvenile court dependency matters, and termination of parental rights trials.  

Career Honors  

• Ranked one of the best attorneys under the age of 40 by “Super Lawyers”
• Oregon Rising Star in Family Law for three years in a row (only up to 2.5% of Oregon attorneys are given the honor)
• Recognition by the National Academy of Family Law Attorneys’ (NAFLA) for being one of the Oregon’s most premier family law Attorneys
• Rated in the “top 10” of Oregon family law attorneys for several years
• Eugene’s 20 under 40 Rising Business Star Award
• Perfect 10 Avvo Rating.  

She credits her honors and recognition to her close relationships with clients that carry forward beyond the case completion.  

Attorney Practice Philosophy

Jacy focuses her family law practice on client needs and goals.  She listens to her clients.  She works harder than the opposition in case preparation.  She has a consistent and proven trial record.  She has a stellar reputation with judges across the state for her professionalism, skilled case planning, powerful client advocacy in the courtroom, and command of the facts.  She knows that having the most accurate knowledge of the case means having the upper hand on being able to be credible and persuasive.

Education and Background

Jacy grew up on a farm outside of the town of Trenton in northcentral Missouri. She grew up surrounded by cattle, hogs, crops, and gardens.  Her favorite childhood memories involved playing with farm kittens, catching crawdads and catfish from the farm ponds, nighttime raccoon hunting with her Dad and Grandpa, white-tail deer hunting since she was old enough to hold a rifle safely (Jacy held a record for the second largest buck taken from the State of Missouri when she was 12 years old and was a member of the MO Show-Me Big Bucks Club and Boone & Crockett Club), and the smell of the family’s seasonal horse-powered sorghum mill as the juice was cooked down for hours to black molasses.  She knew in high school that she wanted to be a lawyer.  She shadowed a local lawyer during career days and Jacy even convinced her mother to let her miss school and take her to watch several days of a murder trial of Ray Copeland, being held in Chillicothe, Missouri in 1991.  Although she didn’t need any other convincing that the courtroom is where she wanted to spend her life after watching that trial, she embarked on an extra-curricular path that included high school speech, oratory and debate classes and tournaments that landed her scholarships for college.  She left her hometown to attend Truman State University, a small state college, about an hour away from her home.  She graduated college early with honors, magna cum laude, with a B.A. in political science and a minor in international studies in December 1997.  She then worked as a substitute teacher in rural schools in the surrounding counties in Missouri to save money to move to Oregon to start Fall classes at the University of Oregon School of Law in 1998.  She graduated from Oregon in 2001.   

Employment History

During her first year of law school, Jacy felt the need to break from University edicts about not working the first year of law school and secured a clerking job with a small firm in Cottage Grove.  She quickly fell in love with the daily practice of law and client interaction and eagerly anticipated the end of law school. At times she worked for two firms, one of which had a contract for Cottage Grove city prosecution. There she got her first taste of trial, prosecuting a DUII case, under the third-year student practice certificate rules. She has been at home in the courtroom ever since. After graduating from law school in 2001, she was offered an associate position with a small family law firm in Eugene.  She quickly learned that in order to get more courtroom experience she had to be the lead trial attorney on the case. Her impatience led her to establish Arnold Law in 2002. She quickly became the recipient of high-conflict custody cases that other attorneys referred to her for trial when they couldn’t settle. Her first year as founder of Arnold Law, she worked a break-neck litigation schedule, having multiple hearings and trials for weeks on end throughout the year.  She credits her very successful trial record with luck; however, it really comes down to her ability to value a case. She has an uncanny knack for sizing up clients, opposing parties, and witnesses and can usually predict the outcome of a case with a higher-than-average degree of certainty. This allows her to counsel clients on the risks of trial and encourage settlement when appropriate. If she advises a client that a position is meritorious and trial is the only solution, then her legendary work ethic and hard-driven trial preparation kicks in. Her stellar reputation with the judges and other seasoned trial attorneys is due to her being the most knowledgeable and most prepared person in the courtroom. That’s what sets her practice apart. It’s not fancy trial tactics but hard work, compassion for her clients and their children, and her powerful advocacy in the courtroom that wins cases.  

Professional Organizations & Activities

• Junior League of Eugene (President 2008-2009; President Elect 2007-2008; Sustainer 2009-present)
• Oregon State Bar Family Law Executive Committee – 2009-2012
• Public Defenders Services of Lane County Board Member – 2007-2018
• Lane County Bar Association Board Member – 2006-2009
• Family Law Committee, Lane County Bar Association – 2003-2004 Chair
• Program Committee, Lane County Bar Association – 2004-2006 Chair
• Roland K. Rodman American Inn of Court – Secretary – 2002-2008
• Oregon Trial Lawyers Association
• Oregon State Bar
• Lane County Bar Association
• Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
• Creswell Clubhouse Board Member, 2018-present

Hobbies and Interests

You will undoubtedly hear Jacy say that she doesn’t think her job is work because “if you love what you do, it is not actually work”.  However, aside from the practice of law that consumes her, every minute not practicing law is spent with her children, a daughter and a son. Jacy enjoys teaching the kids to engage in gardening, canning, beekeeping (she has an apiary), hunting, fishing and farming.  They have a small farm with Dexter cows, too many chickens, ducks, and turkeys to count, several barn cats, three farm dogs, and two house fish!  They have an established apple, pear, cherry, and plum orchard planted by Jacy over 15 years ago as well as several varieties of established grapes.