Page Tag: Attorneys

Chris Costantino is committed to helping clients navigate the complex and emotionally challenging territory of family law in their personal lives and family businesses.

Her trademark philosophy “love your children, protect your assets, and preserve your legacy” guides her law practice as she helps clients with a number of legal issues including divorce and dissolution of domestic partnerships; prenuptial and domestic partner agreements; Marital settlement agreements, contested custody, child and spousal support; grandparents’ rights; Father’s rights, and trust litigation.

Chris is a leader in our legal community.  She was President of the Oregon State Bar in 2019 and served as Past President of the OSB in 2020.  Chris was a member of the Oregon State Bar Board of Governors from 2016 through 2020.  She is a member of Oregon State Bar, Washington State Bar, and the American Bar Association.  She currently serves on the American Bar Association Standing Committee for Bar Services. Chris serves as Chair of the firm’s Family Law Practice Group.

Chris is a founder and Chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee which seeks to promote the firm’s values for diversity, equity, and inclusion within our firm, our communities and our justice system.  Chris is also a member of Oregon Minority Lawyers Association (OMLA), Oregon Gay and Lesbian Lawyer’s Association (OGALLA) and Oregon Women Lawyers (OWLs).

Chris volunteers as a Mentor for the OSB’s New Lawyer Mentorship Program, St. Andrew’s Legal Clinic and the Civics Learning Project. She is also a member of the Board of the Civics Learning Project.

Chris grew up in Rhode Island and worked as a litigation paralegal in Boston and Washington D.C. before moving to Oregon. She graduated from Willamette University College of Law in 2001. Prior to joining Samuels Yoelin Kantor LLP, she was a shareholder and Family Law attorney at Buckley Law, PC in Lake Oswego.

While earning a B.A. from the University of Vermont, Chris lived for a year in Avignon, France, studying French language, history and culture at the Centre D’Etudes Francaises. An entrepreneur at heart, when not practicing law, Chris enjoys cooking, playing the occasional round of golf, and assisting her wife as co-owner of Couture Cocktails, Inc., a Portland based producer of high quality bottled classic cocktails.

Denise Gorrell draws upon her extensive knowledge of restaurants and the wine industry to inform her real property and commercial law practice. Having spent 11 years on the Seattle hospitality scene — including stints at the award-winning Wild Ginger restaurant and wine retailer Esquin — Denise understands the unique challenges that food and beverage entrepreneurs face when planning, launching and running their businesses. She helps hospitality industry clients navigate complex, important issues such as business formation, real estate agreements, trademarks, OLCC rules and other governmental regulations.

In addition to being Chair of the SYK Real Estate department, Denise also maintains a successful business practice. She frequently represents clients on real estate transactions and disputes.

A Seattle native, she received a B.A. from the University of Washington, and went on to earn her J.D. from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College.

She currently serves as President on the Campaign for Equal Justice’s (CEJ) Executive Board, and believes that being actively involved in the community is important. Oregon lawyers established the CEJ in 1991, with the mission of making equal access to justice a reality for all Oregonians and is the support organization for Oregon’s statewide legal aid programs. Denise previously served on the Roseway Neighborhood Association Board, where she was the Land Use Chair and on the Oregon State Bar Real Estate Land Use CLE Committee. From the very beginning of her career, in the summer after completing her first year of law school, she volunteered with the Immigrant Refugee Community Organization to help resolve landlord/tenant disputes and domestic violence issues. The Multnomah Bar Association Young Lawyer Section awarded her the Award of Merit for her efforts to inspire other attorneys to perform pro bono work.

Denise likes spending free time with her husband, who works in the specialty food industry, their two children, and their family dogs. Her favorite outdoor activities include hiking and exploring the natural wonders of Oregon and the surrounding states.

Valerie Sasaki is a seasoned attorney specializing in tax, business, and estate planning at Samuels Yoelin Kantor, LLP, where she is Partner and Chair of the Taxation Practice.  She is admitted to practice in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona.

Valerie’s expertise extends to multi-jurisdictional tax compliance, audit, and appeal, as well as private business transactional work and high net worth estate planning. In her practice, she represents a diverse clientele, including private companies, individuals, foundations, and government agencies, including the Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund.

Ms. Sasaki serves as a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and the American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel. She is a member and has served as chair of the Portland Tax Forum, and the Oregon State Bar Taxation and Business Law Sections. In 2022, the Oregon State Bar appointed her to serve as a commissioner of the Oregon Law Commission. Her fellow Commissioners elected her to serve as chair of the Oregon Law Commission. In 2023 She received the Oregon State Bar’s Membership Service Award. She regularly speaks to attorney and accountant professional groups on estate planning, nonprofit, and tax topics.

Valerie is deeply committed to legal education, serving as an Adjunct Professor at several prestigious institutions, including the University of Oregon, Portland State University and Northwestern School of Law, and Lewis & Clark College. Her teaching portfolio encompasses a range of topics, including business law, taxation, estate planning, and state and local taxation. She co-authored Oregon Estate Planning with Forms, published by LexisNexis in 2023. She and her co-author are working on the second edition, which should be released in late 2024.

Having grown up in Lake Oswego, Ms. Sasaki is also passionate about giving back to her local community. She has been involved with several great charities in the area, including Junior Achievement, Portland Taiko and the Japanese Garden Foundation, and is a volunteer board member with Portland Center Stage.

Prior to her current role, Valerie honed her skills at Miller Nash LLP and KPMG LLP, where she gained valuable professional experience. She holds an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Washington School of Law, a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law, and a B.A. magna cum laude from Newcomb College of Tulane University.  In her spare time, Ms. Sasaki enjoys travelling off the beaten path as well as reading and writing speculative fiction.

A civil litigator with an impressive local and international history, Timothy Resch helps employers and small businesses find success in federal and state court litigation matters.

Mr. Resch’s practice emphasizes employment law advice and litigation, primarily for small businesses. He has experience litigating cases involving the Americans with Disabilities Act, sexual harassment under Title VII, as well as state law wrongful discharge cases. He also advises clients on responses to claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Resch routinely deals with non-competition agreements and trade secrets matters for employers.

Tim spent four and a half years working for the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. During his most recent service, he spent six months at the Tribunal where he was part of the team preparing for trial in the Radovan Karadžic case. Prior to that, he served four-years as a legal officer for the Tribunal where he conducted in-court direct examinations in international war crimes trials, and traveled extensively throughout the former Yugoslavia investigating serious violations of international humanitarian law. Tim’s experience has been included in articles in the Oregon State Bar Bulletin and Lewis & Clark’s alumni magazine.

Tim was a special prosecutor with the Multnomah County District Attorney, representing the State of Oregon in misdemeanor criminal trials. Before that, he worked as a clerk to the Yamhill County District Attorney and as special judicial clerk to Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge William J. Keys.

The former managing editor of Environmental Law Review, Tim graduated from the University of Oregon and Northwestern School of Law. He volunteers as a regional judge for the Classroom Law Project.

Van M. White III has more than 20 years of experience as a lawyer in Oregon and Washington. Van has been a partner at Samuels Yoelin Kantor since 2001 and has served on the firm’s management committee since 2010.

Van’s practice emphasizes construction, real estate, and business litigation. His legal work regularly includes the drafting, review, and negotiation of construction and real estate contracts; construction liens and collections; the prosecution and defense of claims relating to construction projects; business disputes; bond claims; and general counsel to construction contractors, material suppliers, property owners, landlords, and business owners.

Van’s clients include contractors (including general contractors, subcontractors, remodeling and restoration contractors), material suppliers, property owners, small to mid-size business owners, landlords, and developers involved in residential, commercial and public works construction and real estate projects. He has also represented commercial lenders, title insurance companies, and investors in foreclosure and priority disputes.

Significant matters recently handled include the successful defense of a national contractor in one of the Oregon Construction Contractors Board’s largest enforcement actions; successful defense and dismissal of a construction lien foreclosure action related to a fire restoration project; collection of past due amounts owed for construction defect repairs at a local condominium complex; defense of apartment developers in multiple lien foreclosure cases; successful defense of a real estate investment company and one of its shareholders in a lawsuit brought by another shareholder; the representation of a national lender in a lien foreclosure case (priority dispute involving major Central Oregon resort); obtaining insurance coverage for a contractor sued for performing defective construction work; and, the foreclosure of an Oregon Coast property being developed as a resort.

Because Van understands that legal fees can add up quickly, he strongly advocates upfront risk management and due diligence so that issues can be identified and addressed before a dispute develops. He often employs a cost-benefit analysis when helping clients make decisions, especially those involving payment disputes. He prides himself on being very hands-on, a good communicator, and promptly responding to calls and e-mails from clients. By working with clients in a prompt, decisive manner, Van establishes solid channels of communication that allow clients to get the most out of his representation.

In 2024, he was appointed to the Oregon Construction Contractors Board (CCB) by the Governor and confirmed by the Oregon Senate. The CCB’s nine-member board that sets policy, oversees the administrator, adopts rules and considers appeals to proposed enforcement orders. He also currently serves as President of the Building Material Dealers Association.

Through the CCB’s education initiatives, Van has been teaching CCB classes since 1992, instructing classes for contractors and material suppliers in areas related to contract law, lien law, and collections. He has instructed hundreds of CCB education classes to thousands of contractors in a variety of areas, including contract law, construction lien law, the CCB, and business practices. Early in his career, Van was a hearings advocate and law clerk at the CCB from 1990 to 1992, while he attended Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. While at the CCB, Van prosecuted numerous enforcement cases on behalf of the State of Oregon for issues such as working as a contractor without a license; having employees while not maintaining workers’ compensation insurance; and, contractors acting fraudulently or dishonestly.

Van has delivered numerous speeches to construction companies, lawyers, and at trade shows including: Construction Liens and Collections at the 2016 JLC LIVE Residential Construction Show; Oregon and Washington Lien Law Seminar for the Building Material Dealers Association; and, a Construction Lien Law instructional video for the Oregon Home Builder’s Association.  Van has authored a number of articles on construction law for regional and national publications and has also actively participated in construction trade associations through the years, regularly giving speeches and contributing articles relating to construction law issues

Van is a graduate of Washington State University and a huge Cougar fan.

Michael D. Walker has over 30 years of experience advising businesses and individuals in a broad range of business, tax, and estate planning issues.

In his business practice, Michael has worked with individuals and small to medium-sized businesses in many different industries, including real estate, hotels, manufacturing and distribution companies, healthcare, and agriculture.  Michael advises clients in all aspects of the life cycle of a business, including:

• Business formations, including selecting the entity that best fits the client’s needs and objectives;
• Business agreements, including limited liability operating agreements and buy-sell agreements;
• Tax planning;
• Business financing arrangements, including debt and mortgage transactions;
• Real estate transactions, including purchases, sales, leases and subleases;
• Section 1031 like-kind exchanges of real estate;
• Purchases and sales of businesses, mergers, conversions, and reorganizations;
• Business succession planning, including family wealth-planning transfers of business interests; and
• Formation and operations of nonprofit organizations.

In his estate planning practice, Michael has worked with clients of varied backgrounds and wealth profiles.  Michael’s approach to estate planning focuses on carefully listening to clients in order to understand the unique circumstances of each client’s personal and family situation, as well as their distinct asset mix, then educating clients on the options that best fit their needs. Michael has experience in many different types of estate planning documents, including:

• Wills;
• Trusts, including revocable living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), spousal lifetime access trust (SLATs); and charitable remainder trusts (CRTs);
• Powers of Attorney;
• Healthcare directives, including Oregon’s Advance Directive;
• Documents for family business succession planning, integrated with the estate plans of the business owner;
• Documenting estate planning gifts, including gifting of closely held business interests; and
• Complex planning relating to estate and gift taxes.

Michael graduated magna cum laude from both Northwestern School of Law and The College of Idaho. He is licensed to practice law in both Oregon and Washington, and is also admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court.

Authoring articles, conducting seminars, and speaking for organizations and businesses, Michael covers such topics as business and estate planning, limited liability companies, taxation, digital assets, and 1031 exchanges.

An active member of the many professional and community organizations, Michael serves on a number of nonprofit boards and committees.