Harris & Elkins

Focus and practice areas

Harris & Elkins works out of the Foster-Powell neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon. The firm covers real estate, probate and estate planning, civil litigation, family law, business matters and criminal defense. Clients include individuals, nonprofit organizations, and local, regional and national businesses.

Real estate work runs across agreements, land sale contracts, deeds, leases, foreclosures, forfeitures, boundary disputes, misrepresentation claims and landlord evictions. The estate side handles wills, powers of attorney, advance directives, transfer on death deeds, probate and small estates. Civil matters include personal injury, professional malpractice, car accidents, wrongful death, contract disputes and collections.

Criminal and DUII matters

The criminal side of the practice covers misdemeanors, felonies, DUII and juvenile delinquency. The firm also lists guardianships, conservatorships and juvenile dependency, which sit near that work in Oregon's court structure.

Oregon DUII cases move on two tracks at once. There is the criminal charge in circuit court, and there is a separate DMV licence suspension that starts on its own clock after an arrest. A driver has a short window to request a DMV hearing, and missing it closes that route regardless of what happens in the criminal case. Oregon also runs a diversion programme for eligible first-time DUII defendants, which carries its own petition, conditions and monitoring.

How the team is built

The attorney page names five lawyers: Tiffany A. Elkins, J. Michael Harris, Sarah Rissberger, Jennifer Kristiansen and H. Alison Burns. The home page describes the practice as four attorneys with legal experience in Oregon and Washington. In my opinion, the useful signal here is the spread of backgrounds across the group.

Tiffany A. Elkins has practised law for roughly 20 years. Her work covers real property, probate, guardianships and conservatorships, collections and litigation. She was an Assistant Attorney General at the Oregon Department of Justice before private practice, and she clerked for Judge Maureen McKnight.

J. Michael Harris is a partner and a trial attorney. He has taken more than 100 criminal and civil cases to trial as lead counsel, and he has represented clients in DUII and felony matters. Earlier in his career he worked as an attorney for children in court and DHS proceedings. His civil work covers family law, landlord representation, collections, real estate and litigation.

The rest of the group

Sarah Rissberger joined the Oregon State Bar in 2020. She previously worked at a local firm on workers' compensation matters in Oregon and Washington, along with employment law cases. At Harris & Elkins her civil work covers real estate, collections, contract negotiations and litigation.

Jennifer Kristiansen earned her JD in 2015. In law school she represented domestic violence survivors and low-income tenants through a legal clinic, and she assisted crime victims through NCVLI. She practised family law and represented domestic violence survivors before joining the firm.

H. Alison Burns has 10 years of litigation experience. Her matters include civil litigation, employment, franchise, regulatory compliance, civil rights, ADA, education and real estate law. She has handled ADA cases, worked as a prosecutor for the State of New Mexico, and was an education lawyer for the City of New York. She is admitted in Oregon, Georgia and Alabama, plus four federal courts.

What the firm's history shows

Both the home page and the attorney page state that Harris & Elkins was formerly known as Reeves, Kahn, Hennessy & Elkins. That name change tells a reader the firm carries forward an earlier Portland practice under new leadership. The site does not give a founding year.

A renamed firm usually keeps its client files, its court relationships and much of its working method. As a reviewer, I read the retained Elkins name as the thread between the two versions of the firm.

How the listed matters usually proceed

Some context helps a reader judge whether these practice areas match a problem they have. What follows describes how such matters generally work in Oregon, and not any claim about outcomes at this firm.

Probate and estates

An Oregon probate opens in circuit court with a petition and the original will, if one exists. The court appoints a personal representative, who then inventories assets, notifies heirs and creditors, pays valid claims and files an accounting before distribution. Small estates below statutory thresholds can use a simplified affidavit process, which skips much of the full administration. Transfer on death deeds and beneficiary designations move certain property outside probate entirely.

Evictions and landlord matters

Oregon residential evictions start with a written notice whose required length depends on the ground: nonpayment, for-cause and no-cause terminations each carry different timelines. If the tenant stays, the landlord files an FED case, and the court sets a first appearance within days. Many FED matters settle at that first appearance through a stipulated agreement. Portland adds local rules on top of state law, which is why landlord-side and tenant-side representation both tend to turn on notice technicalities.

Guardianships and conservatorships

A guardianship petition concerns decisions about a person, while a conservatorship concerns their money and property. Oregon courts appoint a visitor to interview the proposed protected person and report back. The court then weighs whether less restrictive alternatives, such as a power of attorney already in place, would do the job. Annual reports and accountings continue for as long as the appointment lasts.

Who this listing suits

A small firm with this range means one office handles a house sale dispute, a will, an eviction and a DUII charge. For a client whose legal problems cross those lines, and they often do, that matters practically.

The attorney biographies also carry work that reaches beyond Portland. Rissberger's workers' compensation experience spans Oregon and Washington. Burns holds admissions in Georgia and Alabama alongside Oregon, and she has practised in New Mexico and New York. Kristiansen's clinic and NCVLI experience points toward family matters involving domestic violence.

The site publishes education and practice histories for each of the five named attorneys, which lets a prospective client match a problem to a person before making contact.