Michelle Ostrye

Michelle Ostrye was born and raised in central Montana, graduating with 16 classmates from Hobson High School. Michelle began her college career at Montana State University where she played flute in the Spirit of the West marching band for two years. In pursuit of her liberal arts degree, Michelle transferred to the University of Montana where she received her B.A. in English (with honors) and a minor in French.
After graduating, Michelle moved to Amarillo, Texas where she worked in economic development for a large electric utility company. She decided to further her education and attended Texas Tech University School of Law where she was the Law Review Student Writing Editor, brief writer for the national moot court team, and was a finalist in the intra-school moot court competition. She began her law practice in Amarillo, then moved to New Mexico for 14 years. Michelle practiced in the areas of business and commercial litigation and bankruptcy and collections/creditors rights, and civil appeals and was elected shareholder in a 50-attorney firm in Albuquerque. One of the highlights of her career was being selected by the 10th Circuit Merit Selection Panel to the short list of best qualified applicants for a federal bankruptcy judge position in New Mexico.
Michelle then moved to Corpus Christi, Texas where she participated in mega bankruptcy cases involving billions of dollars in assets and debts, Wall Street attorneys, and highly complex chapter 11 issues. She began to long for Montana, however, and the arrival of Covid provided the opportunity to move back home. Michelle moved to Fort Benton where her father had a home and she opened her own law firm. After a couple of successful years there, Michelle and her family found an opportunity live in France for a year. They lived near Toulouse, France, in the beautiful southern part of the country about 2 hours from the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean and 2 hours from the Mediterranean. The year was one of the best experiences of their lives and flew by quickly. Upon returning to Montana in June of 2024, Michelle and her family moved to Bozeman.
Michelle is married and has twin daughters who are 11 years old. She also has a Dalmatian and a sweet gray cat. Michelle is grateful to be back in her home state and is excited to bring her 27 years of experience as a lawyer to assist fellow Montanans with any and all legal issues.