Rylee Sommers-Flanagan lives in Helena, MT, with her dog and a whole lot of plants. Although she lives in Helena now, Rylee grew up in Missoula, lived and worked in Billings after law school, and has spent month-long stretches of time in Absarokee, where her family homesteaded in the early 1900s.
In early 2021, Rylee founded Upper Seven Law, a 501(c)(3) non-profit law firm based in Montana and dedicated to holding the powerful accountable. In the last two years, Upper Seven has permanently enjoined four state laws that restricted the right to vote, effected redistricting of an unconstitutional map, and strengthened the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Montana Constitution. Upper Seven is currently litigating cases related to abhorrent conditions of confinement, legalized sex discrimination, and excessive fees in violation of the Eighth Amendment, among other issues.
Prior to founding Upper Seven, Rylee served as Montana Governor Steve Bullock’s deputy chief legal counsel, as a fellow for the nationally renowned class action firm, Cohen Milstein, and as the Supreme Court Assistance Project Fellow for the Public Citizen Litigation Group. Before that, she clerked for the Honorable Sidney R. Thomas, Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit, and for Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle and Judge Thomas Hogan, of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. She graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in International Studies and from the University of St. Andrews with an M.Litt in Creative Writing.