Overview
Rachel is a 2013, magna cum laude, graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School, where she earned a Dean’s Scholarship for academic merit and earned the Oregon State Bar Securities Section Scholarship. Rachel was voted outstanding associate editor of the Environmental Law Review and was a member of the Asian/Pacific American Student Union and the Business Law Society. As a law student, she worked as a summer associate at Tonkon Torp for two consecutive years.
Get To Know

After college, Rachel moved to Portland in the mid-aughts to immerse herself in its celebrated music scene. She met her now husband through the scene, and he helped her get a job that any melomaniac would covet – working first at Portland’s flagship Everyday Music store on Burnside and later at its Sandy location. During her five years at the store, Rachel built up a niche position as a vintage record curator, researching and purchasing vintage and rare imprints, and writing detailed histories and reviews for the store’s dedicated clientele. Though CDs were the dominant format in the ‘90s and ‘00s, Rachel always made a concerted effort to promote the vinyl format. “I’ve always been primarily a vinyl fan,” she shared. “I made sure the store’s collection was in top shape because during my time at the store, demand for vinyl creeped upward, and it’s really becoming popular again.”
During her time with Everyday Music, Rachel built her vinyl collection in earnest, enjoying the enviable perks of first dibs and employee discounts. “Because my husband and I both worked for Everyday Music, our collections became pretty impressive. We had some overlap but also a lot of differences, which makes our library eclectic. As music lovers, combining our collection and getting rid of the duplicates was one of our biggest relationship milestones, maybe even bigger than our wedding!”
Rachel enjoys being steeped in music, but eventually decided to end her journey at the record store to enroll at Lewis & Clark Law School, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2013. Now, as a Tonkon Torp partner with a thriving business law practice, and a mom with a busy young son, Rachel is more of a listener than a crate digger. Although not obsessively focused on adding albums to her family collection of over 2,500 records, she does still maintain a long want list. Currently near the top is Peilitalossa (In the House of Mirrors), a 1983 release by Finnish post-punk/goth band, Musta Paraati (“Black Parade” in English). The album has been reissued by specialty label Svart, but Rachel is waiting to get her hands on the original vinyl pressing.
Online music communities such as Discogs give Rachel avenues to search for obscure records, but she still loves the in-person hunt, observing that, “record stores are more like thrifting, and online lets me take more of a surgical approach. Visiting record stores is so fun, and, when there’s not a pandemic, we travel to shop at different stores and attend record shows. There is nothing like getting to see our friends in the community, and holding a record in person to make sure it’s fit for our collection.”
Rachel and her husband spend a lot of family time serving as DJ for their son, who, like his parents, has had an ear for music since his earliest days. And while letting him handle records is still in the future, they enjoy helping him soak up their catalog of music that has brought them so much joy.
Featured Representative Matters
International Sale of Interest in Dental Equipment Company
Complex Reverse Exchanges
Worked with the Tonkon Torp team in guiding the client through executing another complicated reverse exchange pursuant to Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended, and the Treasury Regulations promulgated thereunder, which involved the purchase of one real property interest far different than the rest of the client's real estate portfolio and the sale of one real property interest that the client owned for decades. These transactions also involved the client's exercise of a renegotiated put option under the controlling ground lease, the formation of a master tenant entity, a new property management agreement, the assumption of numerous leases, and the coordination of counter-parties and their counsel, two title companies, and the exchange accommodation titleholder/qualified intermediary company.
Eastern Oregon Wind Projects Acquisition
Acquisition of U.S. Solar Energy Development Portfolio
Featured Work
Portland’s First Living Building in the Heart of Downtown
On March 31, 2020, Owen Blank and Rachel Atchison helped their client close on the beginning of Portland’s first living building, which will be located at SW 1st Avenue and SW Pine Street. The “Living Building” will meet the world’s most stringent sustainability standards. It will have many amazing attributes, like use of filtered heat recovery ventilation and cross-laminated timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Tonkon Torp Helps Albina Head Start Purchase Property for Community Cornerstone
Attorneys from Tonkon Torp’s Real Estate & Land Use Practice Group are celebrating a successful real estate purchase for pro bono client Albina Head Start (AHS). For more than 40 years, AHS has leased space at a former church building in NE Portland for its Tina Clegg Center. The Center, a community pillar for one of Portland’s historic communities of color, houses both a Head Start program serving 60 low-income families and AHS administrative offices that coordinate and provide services for numerous additional families.
Tonkon Torp Attorneys Help Secure Portland’s First Five-Star Hotel Project
Tonkon Torp played a foundational role in paving the way for Oregon’s first five-star hotel development, the 35-story Ritz-Carlton hotel in downtown Portland. Attorneys from the Real Estate & Land Use Law Practice Group represented their client, the landowner, in negotiating an agreement to enter into a ground lease (AEGL) with BPM Real Estate Group, a Portland-based developer, assisting with the fulfillment of the AEGL’s conditions, and closing the transaction with the parties entering into the ground lease itself.
Guiding a Software Company Through a Successful Equity Sale
Tonkon Torp’s mergers and acquisitions team facilitated the successful equity sale of ShiftWise, a Portland software company that provides web-based healthcare workforce solutions, to AMN Healthcare Services, Inc., a publicly traded strategic buyer. Find details and more featured cases here.
Professional Memberships
Oregon Women Lawyers
Awards & Recognition
The Best Lawyers in America
2021, Ones to Watch – Real Estate Law
Recent News
Tonkon Torp Elects Four Attorneys to Partnership
Nine Rising Tonkon Torp Attorneys Included on 2021 “Ones to Watch” List
Rachel Atchison and Michael Millender Review Opportunity Zones for OSB Securities Regulation Section
Tonkon Torp Donates to Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls
Rock & Roll Camp Taps Atchison for Board Position
Tonkon Torp Welcomes New Associates
Recent Alerts
Cleaning Up Your Contracts – Property Owners Could Be Liable for Janitors’ Unpaid Wages
Publications & Presentations
“IRS Proposes New 1031 Regulations – Sculptures Are Real Property, Walls Are Not,” Ear to the Ground, July 2020
“Top Three Investor-Friendly Rules from the Newest IRS Opportunity Zone Notice,” Ear to the Ground, July 2020
“COVID-19 Relief for 1031 Exchanges: Deadlines Moved to July 15, 2020,” Ear to the Ground, April 2020
"Opportunity Zone Investments," Oregon State Bar Securities Regulation Section, October 2019
"Urban Growth Boundary Expansions on the Rise," Ear to the Ground, October 2018
"The Sparkle of Gresham's Enterprise Zone Attracts New Diamond Factory," Ear to the Ground, June 2018
"There's an Essential Oil for That — Ambient Scenting in Commercial Real Estate Spaces," Ear to the Ground, November 2017
"The Fair-Haired Dumbbell Regulation A+ Offering," Ear to the Ground, June 2017