John J Christianson

I hired John to help me understand and successfully execute my duties as trustee of my deceased father’s estate. There was a good deal of family conflict before I found John. He played an essential role to minimize the conflict and emotional stress for all the involved parties. John protected my b...est interest and at the same time made my legal/ethical responsibilities clear to me. John consistently showed such a high level of professionalism that I think he must be one of the very best Portland attorneys for doing estate work. (I had earlier experience with several other attorneys that didn’t work out.) In addition, he always dealt with me in a pleasant, considerate, and helpful manner.

We were introduced to John through a friend on an unrelated matter. That was a positive experience and we engaged John and his team for our long overdue estate planning needs. John takes the complex world of comprehensive estate planning and makes it easy to understand and navigate. John took the ...time to ask the right questions, answer our many questions and explain the legal-ese of wills, trusts, directives, etc. in layperson's terms. There is tremendous peace of mind knowing our family's estate is in order and we look forward to working with John for many years as the need arises.

We were overdue for estate planning. John prepared wills, powers of attorney and medical directives for my husband and me. He asked us questions to discover our circumstances and what we wanted to accomplish with the various legal instruments. We discussed trusts and taxes, and he answered all of ...our questions. He helped us make good decisions about how to manage the transfer of our large estate to our young adult children (who could potentially receive large bequests before they are mature enough to handle those responsibilities). He designed solutions that solved all the problems we were dealing with. We will be meeting again with John every couple of years to update our documents. We have complete trust in him and look forward to working with him in the future. And my husband is an attorney--he found John to be thoroughly competent and professional.

I met John Christianson in July, 2014 and he has been an integral part of handling my Dad's trust for the past year. After the death of my father and in crisis John helped guide me through the complicated process of negotiating the estate. John is a genuine, compassionate person and immediately likab...le. John is easily reachable and quick to respond to my questions. I would also find him to be a brilliant, tough lawyer who tirelessly represented me with passion, intelligence and integrity. It is as if he is made for this type of work! He will go very far in this career without a doubt.