William H. Block, Program Co-Chair, of Buck & Gordon LLP concentrates his practice on real estate acquisition and disposition, leasing, construction and municipal law. Previously he served as a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackman of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cynthia Thomas, Program Co-Chair, has recently co-founded Real Property Law Group, PLLC, which provides legal services exclusively in the area of real estate transactions. Ms. Thomas served for 17 years at Tousley Brain Stephens PLLC where her practice covered acquisitions, sales, leasing, financing, and development.

Jennifer Cobb, a Member with Jameson Babbitt Stites & Lombard, represents developers, owners, users, purchasers and lenders in all aspects of real estate transactions, including development, leasing, sales and acquisitions, entity formation and financing. She also represents multiple institutional lenders in connection with Fannie Mae and FHA multifamily financing.

Laura Bachman joined Lorig Associates, LLC in 2000 after a lengthy career in banking and finance. Previously, at Bank of America she managed a portfolio of major commercial real estate developers. Among other transactions, she negotiated the construction loan for the 1700 Seventh Avenue high-rise office tower, and the Valley Centre Corporate Park, a one million-square foot industrial development in Auburn, Washington.

Christopher I. Brain focuses his practice at Tousley Brain Stephens PLLC on real property and business litigation. He is author of “Commercial Litigation Posturing in Real Estate Cases” and “Procedure for Processing Judicial Foreclosures,” published by the Seattle-King County Bar Association.

Rodney L. Brown, Jr. helped found Brown, Reavis & Manning, PLLC. Before this he spent several years as a managing partner and member in the Land Use and Environmental Law Group at Morrison & Foerster LLP. Rod has worked on many of the major environmental cases in the Northwest, including most of the region’s Superfund cleanups, permitting of major industrial and municipal facilities, and development of significant “brownfield” properties. He was the principal author of Washington’s Superfund Law, the Model Toxics Control Act.

Randy Daniels is a Senior Vice President and Team Leader at Bank of America, where he is responsible for acquisition and development financing of commercial properties in the greater Seattle area.

Mary B. Foster is an attorney whose practice focuses on real estate taxation, partnership law, and estate planning. She is currently General Counsel to Section 1031 Services, Inc., a tax deferred exchange intermediary. She is also Of Counsel to the Real Property Law Group and Tousley Brain Stephens. She is co-author of Tax Free Exchanges under IRC § 1031, published by The West Group, and a contributing author to Matthew Bender’s Federal Tax Service, Merten’s Tax Guide, the Journal of Passthrough Entities, the New York University Tax Institute, and the Business Law Journal.

Curt Ghan is Senior Vice President and Partner at GVA Kidder Mathews, a Northwest commercial real estate services company. He has 25 years’ experience in real estate investment sales and leasing and has represented both buyers and sellers in the acquisition and disposition of numerous Puget Sound area investment properties.

Jim Harmon is Sr. Vice President – Investments with the Sabey Corporation where he is responsible for property acquisitions and sales, unusual lease transactions, non-real estate investments, and, in conjunction with Sabey’s leadership team, strategic planning.

Michael B. Lamb is President of Lamb Hanson Lamb Appraisal Associates, Inc., a full service real estate appraisal and consulting firm. He has had more than thirty years experience in appraising various types of property for financing, acquisition, economic studies, estate valuation, feasibility reports, Ad Valorem tax reevaluation, just compensation, and fair market value.

Anne DeVoe Lawler is the Managing Member in the Seattle law firm of Jameson Babbitt Stites & Lombard PLLC. Her practice focuses on commercial real estate transactions, hazardous waste, and land use.

Christopher Osborn joined Foster Pepper Shefelman as a partner in 2003, having begun his career at Short Cressman & Burgess in 1983, where he chaired the firm’s real estate practice group. Chris represents developers, buyers, sellers, and owners of real estate and parties to commercial disputes. He also has extensive litigation experience in all facets of real estate, construction and business transactions, and has successfully mediated more than 50 cases since 2000.

Click here for full bio and contact info for Christopher Osborn at Foster Pepper Shefelman.

Thomas W. Read is a partner at the Seattle law firm of Alston, Courtnage & Bassetti LLP, where his practice focuses on commercial real estate acquisitions and development, financing, and leasing.

Mike Ruhl is Sr. Director of Real Estate at Opus Northwest, LLC, with more than 17 years of expertise in commercial real estate, construction, development and marketing. His responsibilities include identifying building requirements with clients, creating strategies for successful project completion and value engineering to maximize economic feasibility of the project. Mike’s background is in development, leasing and asset management. Project experience includes office, retail, high-technology, industrial and residential projects.

Robert W. Sargeant is a vice president and underwriting counsel for Stewart Title Guaranty Company, and manages the company’s National Title Services office in Seattle. He is also the manager of the local commercial division of Stewart Title of Washington. He was a founding member of the Preg O’Donnell Sargeant & Gillett PLLC law firm, as well as a partner in the Oles, Morrison & Rinker Law firm in Seattle.

John Strait is a Professor at Seattle University School of Law. He also consults and lectures nationally in the fields of civil and criminal trial advocacy, legal and judicial ethics, and legal malpractice. He has served on the Washington Supreme Court’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, King County Bar Association Campaign Ethics Committee, the Seattle Port Authority Ethics Advisory Committee and WSBA Rules of Professional Conduct Committee. For the clinical component of his course in Professional Responsibility, the law school received the E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association.

Arthur Wahl is a Managing Director at CB Richard Ellis where he applies his 37 years of experience across the real estate environment from leasing and sales to development, both industrial and retail. He has been involved with a number of start up companies throughout the west and their national roll-outs, including Costco, Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, IKEA, Sur La Table, Eagle Hardware / Lowe’s. And he has been responsible for work in the greater Seattle area for Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, as well as the development of Krispy Kreme in the Northwest.

Kenneth J. Wälkky is the Vice President of Construction Lending at Viking Bank. Previously he was Vice President and Manager of the Income Property and Construction Department at First Mutual Bank.