Rossi, Hamerslough, Reischl & Chuck

Focus and practice areas

The firm works with individuals and businesses in San Jose on two connected fields: real estate and business. Its practice areas include litigation, commercial real estate transactions, residential real estate, business, real estate development, real estate brokers, finance and lending, and title and escrow. The site also names a category it calls specialized areas. In my opinion the pairing of real estate and business runs through most of what the firm describes, and the two overlap often in the work it lists.

The real estate side spans several transaction types. It handles leasing, purchasing, and selling property, along with land use, financial structuring, and entity formation. Joint ventures and construction and development also fall under this heading. That range lets one firm handle a project across the purchase and the entity that will own it.

Business matters run next to the property work. The firm names finance and lending as its own area, which fits the developers and investors it lists as clients. Title and escrow complete the transactional set.

How the team is built

Seven attorneys appear on the site, six of them shareholders, supported by six staff members. Paulina Li rounds out the group as an attorney. This is a compact roster for the breadth of work described, and it points to attorneys who each carry more than one practice area.

The shareholders named in the firm's title

Ronald R. Rossi is a shareholder and a founding member of the firm, and he practices real estate and business litigation. He holds a B.S. from San Jose State University and a J.D. from Hastings College of Law at the University of California. He later earned an M.A. in History from San Jose State.

David Hamerslough is a shareholder who concentrates on real estate law and serves clients across Santa Clara County. He has litigated and arbitrated residential and commercial real estate disputes for brokers, agents, buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants. He also works as a mediator and arbitrator, which places him on both sides of the dispute process.

Samuel A. Chuck is a named partner and the firm's managing partner. He holds a B.S. from California Polytechnic State University and a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law Center. His practice covers real estate and business law, based in Santa Clara County and reaching clients across California.

Shareholders across real estate and business

Richard B. Gullen is a shareholder in real estate and business law who handles both transactions and litigation. He earned a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and a B.M. from the University of the Pacific. His clients include investors, developers, and builders.

Eric A. Gravink is a shareholder and a California native whose work covers real estate litigation and transactional matters. He handles the leasing and purchase of commercial property, land use and land development, entity formation, and corporate governance. Secured transactions and foreclosures are part of his practice.

Missy M. Cornejo is a shareholder focused on commercial and residential real estate. She holds an undergraduate degree in political science from Santa Clara University and a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law. She joined the firm in 2016 and became a shareholder in 2021.

The transactional side of the work

Real estate transactions carry many moving parts, and the firm's list reflects that. Leasing a commercial space, buying or selling a parcel, structuring the financing, and forming the entity that holds title are separate tasks that often meet in one deal. Handling them under one roof can keep the parties and the paperwork aligned.

Land use deserves its own note. Development projects usually pass through zoning rules and municipal approvals before construction starts, and those steps involve public agencies and set timelines. The firm names land use and real estate development among its areas, and it lists public agencies among its clients, which fits work that touches local government.

Joint ventures and entity formation point to the ownership side of a deal. When investors pool money for a project, the structure they choose shapes their liability and their returns. As a reviewer, I read the firm's inclusion of these areas as a sign that it advises on how a deal is structured and owned, alongside the property work itself.

Disputes, litigation, and arbitration

Litigation appears first on the firm's practice list, and several of its attorneys carry it. Real estate disputes reach courts and arbitration panels over boundaries, contracts, broker duties, and construction defects, among other issues. Attorneys who both litigate and arbitrate can follow a matter that starts as a contract review and later becomes a contested proceeding.

David Hamerslough's work as a mediator and arbitrator adds a second angle. Mediation and arbitration resolve disputes outside a full trial, often faster and in private. An attorney who has handled the neutral role in those settings has seen how such cases get decided, which can inform how he advises a client on the other side of the table.

How real estate disputes tend to proceed

A real estate dispute often starts with a demand letter and a review of the contract and title records. If it does not settle, the parties may enter mediation or arbitration, where a neutral hears the facts and either guides a settlement or issues a decision. A case that goes to court moves through pleadings, discovery, and possibly trial. This general path shows why a firm that spans transactions and litigation can help when a deal turns into a disagreement.

Clients and projects the firm names

The firm lists a wide client base for its size. It names commercial and housing developers, technology companies, franchises and corporations, and construction companies. It also names individual buyers and sellers, investors, real estate brokers and agents, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations. The list covers single homeowners, private companies, and public bodies alike.

The project list gives a sense of scale. The firm points to mixed-use developments, office buildings, apartments, and industrial and warehouse facilities. It also names hotels, shopping centers, restaurants, condominium projects, and private residences. Those categories cover much of what gets built in a metropolitan area.

The firm states that its attorneys have served the Bay Area's real estate and business needs for over 50 years. The site does not list a founding year. Five decades of work in one region suggests long familiarity with local property markets and the agencies that govern them.

What the listing shows overall

Read together, the firm's own materials describe a real estate and business practice built around a small group of shareholders. Most of them carry both transactional and litigation work, and their profiles name the same two fields the firm names first. The client list and the practice areas point the same way, toward property and the businesses that own and develop it.

In my opinion the clearest signal in this listing is consistency across the pages. A prospective client with a real estate matter in Santa Clara County will find attorneys who state that focus in their own profiles. Their listed degrees come from California schools, including San Jose State, Santa Clara, Hastings, and USC.