Attorneys

The 2018 edition of Administering Trusts in Oregon is set to be released this month, and many of the authors are familiar. Of the prestigious group of contributors for this new edition, Samuels Yoelin Kantor was well represented. Attorneys Eric Wieland, Walker Clark, Caitlin Wong, and Valerie Sasaki were all contributing authors, and both Stephen Kantor and Jeffrey Cheyne, prior to his passing, were editors for this edition.

The new version of Administering Trusts in Oregon is a guide for lawyers in the areas of estate planning, elder law, family law, and general practice. This is the first update since the last edition was released in 2012.

Additionally, Michael Walker has also recently been exercising his writing and business skills. The new additions to Advising Oregon Businesses were published earlier this year. Michael authored the Partnerships chapter for the publication. The newly released volumes provide attorneys tools to better assist their business clients when choosing and organizing business entities. Both volumes 1 and 2 have been completely revised.

Administering Trusts in Oregon is now available for pre-order from the Oregon State Bar.

SYK Attorney Darlene Pasieczny receives Outstanding Service Award and is elected to PIABA Board of Directors.

Congratulations to SYK litigator Darlene Pasieczny. Darlene was recently awarded an Outstanding Service Award from the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) for 2017, as co-chair of the PIABA Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) Committee. As well as the award, Darlene was also elected to the PIABA Board of Directors, a position she will serve for a three year term.

PIABA is an international bar association, whose members represent investors in disputes with the securities industry. The SRO Committee reviews rule proposals and regulatory notices issued by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the SEC, and drafts comment letters that related to PIABA’s mission of promoting the interests of the public investor in securities arbitration. FINRA is the self-regulatory organization that regulates and licenses securities brokerage firms and individual brokers across the country. FINRA arbitration is the main forum in the securities industry for resolution of legal disputes between investors and these industry professionals.

Darlene is a sought-after speaker, moderator and panelist, and is praised for her unique ability to provide clear explanations about complex legal processes. Darlene’s practice at Samuels Yoelin Kantor focuses on all stages of corporate and securities law issues, securities litigation and FINRA arbitration, fiduciary litigation in trust and estate disputes, and complex civil litigation. Darlene’s practice also includes representing investors nationwide in investment disputes.

For more information on the types of securities disputes that Darlene and the SYK securities litigation team work on, visit www.investordefenders.com.

Congratulations to SYK attorney Victoria Blachly, who has been appointed by Governor Kate Brown to the Oregon Commission on Uniform State Laws. The Oregon Commission drafts uniform state laws in all states, for various fields of law. The members of the Commission appear before legislators, where they must explain and promote the passage of those laws. Blachly said, “It is an honor to be appointed, and I look forward to working with the bright and diligent Commissioners that works so hard to make the law easier to navigate.” Her term will run until 2020.

The Uniform Law Commission is a non-profit unincorporated association of the United States. The Oregon Commission on Uniform State Laws is the Oregon branch of this national association. There are only three commissioners appointed for the Oregon jurisdiction for each term. Those appointed to the commission are all attorneys, volunteering their time to a public service.

Victoria Blachly is a fiduciary litigator, trial attorney, and community leader. She represents individual and corporate trustees, beneficiaries, and personal representatives. Her cases often involve trust and estate litigation, will contests, trust disputes, undue influence, claims of fiduciary breach, financial elder abuse, and contested guardianship and conservatorships. She has found helping her clients through complex matters and giving them a voice to be the greatest reward of her career.

Samuels Yoelin Kantor attorney Bob Banks was featured again in the Oregonian this Sunday. The article, by Jeff Manning, focuses on the the ongoing Aequitas debacle. Also highlighted in the piece is latest case that Banks filed in Seattle last week for a group of investors who lost $11 million.

In the article, Manning states “Bob Banks, a Portland securities lawyer, is representing 18 investors in Washington and California who were clients of Strategic Capital and Private Advisory Group, investment advisors based in Gig Harbor and Redmond, Wash., respectively. Strategic Capital got into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2014. The company and its co-founder, Gary Price, were sanctioned by the agency for engaging in prohibited transactions….Bank’s 18 clients agreed to invest between them more than $11 million in Aequitas. They claim Aequitas’ ownership of Private Advisory Group was never disclosed to them.”

Banks is quoted, saying that “when our clients hired Private Advisory Group, they trusted that they were getting unbiased professional investment advice… In fact, PAG was secretly owned by Aequitas. Our clients had no idea that they were  actually being advised by Aequitas to invest in Aequitas.”

For more information on the SYK Investor Defenders team, see their website. And for more news on the ongoing Aequitas case, be sure to check out their Aequitas Investor Information Center.