Dorothy Nash Holmes is an attorney with the law firm of Fahrendorf, Viloria, Oliphant & Oster L.L.P. She practices civil litigation and family law and provides elder law services to Nevada’s senior citizens. Dorothy has spent a majority of her career in public service, both as a trial attorney and an administrator. She served seven years as the Deputy Director of Corrections for the State of Nevada, responsible for treatment, training, rehabilitation and educational programs for all inmates in Nevada. She has also performed services as Special Counsel and Special Prosecutor for the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline.
Dorothy started her law career in the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office, serving in the Civil Division and Juvenile Division before going on to become a trial deputy and eventually Chief Deputy in the Criminal Division. She also served in the Nevada Attorney General’s Special Prosecution Unit, litigating post-conviction habeas corpus and appellate cases, and prosecuting inmate and state employee crime.
Dorothy left prosecution briefly to serve as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department and lived in Paris, France and Kuwait. Returning to America in 1985, Dorothy was hired to the elite President’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, serving in the San Francisco and Reno offices of the United States Attorney. There she was lead counsel for a multi-agency task force investigating and prosecuting international narcotics traffickers. For her efforts, she won commendations from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice for prosecutions that spanned multiple jurisdictions in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Thailand and Colombia.
In 1990, Dorothy was elected as the District Attorney of Washoe County. Serving from 1991-1994, she has the distinction of being the only female ever elected to that position. Dorothy introduced numerous innovations to the office including the Death Penalty Review Board, Early Case Resolution, computer automation for lawyers, and television advertising of “deadbeat parents” for the Family Support Division. She partnered with the Second Judicial District Court to sponsor Nevada’s first treatment-in-lieu of prosecution program for pregnant addicts and she co-founded the Gang Alternatives Partnership (GAP), Inc. to offer community programs to divert youngsters from criminal gangs.
In civil practice, Dorothy has worked with law firms in San Francisco and Reno, representing plaintiffs, defendants and insurance companies. She also operated her own private practice handling administrative, transactional and litigation matters in the areas of construction law, commercial law, personal injury, employment law and family law. She has also handled bankruptcy matters, workers compensation cases and disability issues.
Dorothy is a native Nevadan. She attended Syracuse University and the University of Nevada Reno, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. She attended McGeorge School of Law at University of the Pacific in Sacramento, CA where she excelled in Moot Court, winning class competitions and a spot on the Moot Court Honors Board. She served on McGeorge’s first team to participate in the National Moot Court Competition. Her team won Best Team and Best Brief, and she won individual honors in the Western Regional Competition, before going on to the National Finals in New York City, where her team won awards for oral argument and brief-writing.
Admitted to the Nevada Bar in 1977, Dorothy was the 75th woman to be licensed as an attorney in Nevada. She was a founding member of Northern Nevada Women Lawyers and twice served as its Secretary. She is a member of the Nevada, California and District of Columbia Bar Associations, and is admitted to practice in state and federal courts there. She is a member of the Washoe County Bar Association, Soroptimist International of Truckee Meadows and numerous Boards of Directors for non-profits and service organizations in Reno. Dorothy has taught law and “best practices” to police officers, investigators, civilians and treatment professionals for three decades. She is also an instructor in the Justice Management Master’s Degree Program at the University of Nevada and at the University of Phoenix.
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