Kimberlee Stafford

After nearly 30 years of perseverance, Portland’s James Beard Public Market is finally getting set to open—thanks to a coalition of dedicated Portlanders, including Tonkon Torp, which has been part of the journey from day one.

Tonkon Torp guided client Herbert Malarkey Roofing Company through a successful $1.35 billion stock sale to Switzerland-based Holcim Group, one of the world’s largest building products companies. The deal secured a place as one of Oregon’s largest M&A transactions in 2021.

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 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.

When Albina Head Start learned it was awarded a Blue Sky Fund grant to install a rooftop solar array on one of its buildings, it turned to its long-time pro bono legal partner, Tonkon Torp. The nonprofit organization knew that it would need legal guidance to ensure that it could meet the terms laid out in the grant’s detailed and binding Memo of Understanding.

In late 2014, Tonkon Torp represented a privately held heavy industrial equipment manufacturer in a complex transaction that included selling business assets and real property, and leasing other related business property. The selling company is a long-term client of the firm.

Tonkon Torp real estate and tax lawyers were instrumental in the complex, $40 million sale of the historic U.S. Bank Block in downtown Portland to real estate investment firm ScanlanKemperBard. Read more here.

Albina Head Start, Inc. (AHS), which serves more than 1,000 low-income children and their families in North, Northeast and Southeast Portland, faces the future in a stronger financial position thanks to a significant pro bono effort by Tonkon Torp. Find details and more featured cases here.

In one of the quickest and most successful conclusions of a grocery chain bankruptcy proceeding, Tonkon Torp secured court approval of a reorganization plan for C&K Market, Inc., to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy just seven months after filing.

Tonkon Torp’s timely and experienced loan defeasance work permitted a shopping center owner to realize the profitable sale of that real estate in a transaction that initially appeared to be financially infeasible. Find details and more featured cases here.

On September 25, nearly 200 Tonkon Torp attorneys, staff, alumni, and friends gathered to celebrate the firm’s grand re-opening at the Wells Fargo Center. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson was in attendance to aid in the festivities. Andrew Hoan, President & CEO of the Portland Metro Chamber, presided over a ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremony led by Tonkon torp Managing Partner Anna Sortun, immediate past Managing Partner Kurt Ruttum, and Tonkon Torp partners Jeff Bradford and Kimberlee Stafford, all who played key roles in managing the firm’s move.

Forty-seven Tonkon Torp lawyers representing 37 practice areas have been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2026. 

Chambers USA has recognized 28 Tonkon Torp attorneys in eight practice areas in its 2025 Guide. Chambers USA is the world’s leading legal data and analytics provider, highlighting the top lawyers and law firms across the USA for over two decades.

After nearly 30 years of perseverance, Portland’s James Beard Public Market is finally getting set to open—thanks to a coalition of dedicated Portlanders, including Tonkon Torp, which has been part of the journey from day one.

Forty-six Tonkon Torp lawyers representing 36 practice areas have been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2025. Forty-five of the attorneys have been previously named to the peer-review list, and most have been listed for more than 10 years.

By Kimberlee Stafford – On May 28, 2025, Governor Kotek signed SB 179 into law, to be effective January 1, 2026.  SB 179 makes permanent the temporary changes made to the Oregon recreational immunity law by SB 1576 in 2024, set to sunset on January 2, 2026. 

In her new Ear to the Ground video, the second of a two-part series on lease work letters, attorney Kimberlee Stafford, Chair of our Real Estate & Land Use Practice Group, discusses key work letter issues and situations when the tenant is doing the work. A work letter is the part of the lease that discusses the initial tenant improvements to the premises before the tenant’s occupancy of the premises.

In her new Ear to the Ground video, the first of a two-part series on lease work letters, Kimberlee Stafford, Chair of our Real Estate & Land Use Practice Group, discusses key work letter issues and situations when the landlord is doing the work. A work letter is the part of the lease that discusses the initial tenant improvements to the premises before the tenant’s occupancy of the premises.

By Kimberlee Stafford – As predicted, the Oregon Legislature took action this past session to crack down on landowners who lease their land to illegal cannabis growers. Governor Kotek signed SB 326 into law last month, and its emergency clause makes it effective immediately.

By Kimberlee Stafford – Last April, I wrote about office to residential conversions, and the various challenges in making such projects work. On October 11, 2022 the Oregon NAIOP Chapter hosted a panel to discuss how we might make such conversions projects economically viable in Portland.