Executive Committee

Diane C. Cady (2022 Chair)

Diane Cady, owner of Trillium Law PC is a native Oregonian. She grew up in Bend and attended college at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon. Ms. Cady studied law at Willamette University with an emphasis on employment and also served as executive editor of the Willamette Law Review.

Ms. Cady has experience in several different areas of practice, including discrimination in employment, claims for unpaid wages and unemployment benefit hearings and appeals, family law, drafting and reviewing contracts, and drafting wills, trusts and other estate planning documents. She spends her spare time with her family, reading, and enjoying the outdoors.

Dona Marie Hippert (2022 Chair Elect)

Dona Marie Hippert currently has a solo practice in Southwest Portland, focused on estate planning and consumer and elder law. In that capacity, she very much enjoys volunteering every month with Legal Aid’s Senior Law Project. She spent her first 10 years after law school as a pro bono advocate for pesticide and chemicals policy reform.

Born in NYC, she then spent a quarter century in Texas, ending up with a botany degree and first career as an ornamental horticulturist (gardener). After landing in Oregon, where she’s now lived longer than anywhere else, she stumbled into her legal career. While searching the Willamette valley to find suitable land to start an organic farm, Dona was called up for jury duty and fell in love with the law. After attending Lewis and Clark Law School on a Dean’s Fellowship, she started practicing law in 2004. She still enjoys gardening, along with cooking, hiking, and travel.

David James Robinson (2022 Secretary)

David is a solo and cloud-based attorney in the Portland metropolitan area, brick-and-mortar as Of Counsel in the office of Paul B. Osterlund Law, serving Toledo, OR and the Central Oregon Coast. Practice areas include estate planning for taxable and nontaxable estates, business law, including entity formation, buyer and seller business acquisitions, commercial lease negotiation, and employment/independent contractor agreements, tax, nonprofit law and board governance, municipal and taxing districts, real estate, and family law.

Arnold H. Wuhrman (2022 Treasurer)

Since 1985, Arnie Wuhrman has been on the front lines of the battle for financial security for his clients. After receiving a B.S. in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, and a J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles, Arnie embarked upon a career in financially-related legal services. Arnie’s experience includes representing thousands of taxpayers in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service and state taxing agencies, as well as handling thousands of bankruptcy cases, from small consumer cases to reorganizations of companies worth tens of millions of dollars, and representing virtually all possible sides to bankruptcy cases – debtors, creditors and trustees. A member of the Bar in California, Illinois (currently inactive), Indiana (currently inactive), Oklahoma, and Oregon, Arnie currently practices out of an office in Lake Oswego.

John C. Koch (2022 Past Chair)

John Koch is a solo practitioner and founder of Koch Law, LLC. He lives and works in Lake Oswego, and serves clients primarily in the Portland metro area. His practice focuses on estate planning and administration, guardianships and conservatorships, elder law, and closely-held/family businesses. He earned his J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School, where he served as an editor of the Lewis & Clark Law Review, and his B.A. from Rice University. He regularly volunteers with the Senior Law Project of Legal Aid Services of Oregon, and in 2018 was named Volunteer of the Year. John joined the SSF Section because he sees the value in solo and small firm attorneys uniting to address their practice issues together. He enjoys tennis (playing), basketball (watching), and exploring Oregon.

Christopher J. Graves (2021 Member-at-Large)

Graves & Swanson LLC partner Christopher “C.J.” Graves invests himself in each and every case he handles, and has a passion for helping his clients resolve their legal matters and move forward with their lives. He has spent his career as a litigator and a trial attorney, and is more comfortable in a court room than in an office. C.J. has served as first chair in numerous trials, including high-conflict cases relating to dissolution, domestic violence, parenting time, custody, and division of property. He has handled legal issues involving jurisdictional challenges, high asset divorces, tax implications, and complex matters involving marital estate finance, including but not limited to the separation of businesses, retirement accounts, pensions, and spousal support.

Ekua A. Hackman (2022 Member-at-Large)

Ekua is a Fellow Attorney with The Commons Law Center, practicing in estate planning and probate. Born and raised in Stockton, California, Ekua received her bachelors in Sociology from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles in 2011. She realized she wanted to combine her desire to serve the community with the practice of law, so she attended Willamette University, College of Law in Salem, Oregon, and graduated in 2015. Her hobbies include reading and watching fantasy and science fiction, baking, and avidly listening to music.

Emily LeBlanc (2022 Member-at-Large)

Emily LeBlanc is the associate with Kent Anderson Law Office in Eugene, Oregon. Emily’s practice involves representing taxpayers in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service, and state taxing agencies as well as representing debtors in bankruptcy. Emily graduated magna cum laude from Lamar University with a B.S. in Political Science. Emily graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law with two concentrations: Tax Law and Transactional Business Law. Prior to helping clients with their finances, Emily was a black-jack dealer in Louisiana. Her hobbies include baking, reading, skiing, golf, and spending time with her family.

James Mills (2022 Member-at-Large)

James Mills is a solo practitioner licensed in Oregon, Washington, and California. He helps clients navigate through the difficulties that modern life presents, guiding them to solutions for legal conflicts that involve family members, business partners, or third parties. He also advises entrepreneurs in starting and running their businesses, and helps clients address issues related to real estate transactions and estate planning. As a trial lawyer, James’ practice includes advocating for clients in employment, intellectual property, personal injury, and business litigation cases.

James was raised in a military family, growing up in Korea, Japan, Kentucky and California. He was exposed at an early age to life’s complexities in the diverse communities where he lived. James earned his law degree from the University of Texas, Austin, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University.

Jorden Piraino (2022 Member at Large)

Jorden is the Owner of the Oregon Legal Center, a small law firm located in West Linn, Oregon. His practice area focuses on Estate Planning, Probate, and Trust Administration. Born and raised in Southern California, Jorden received his bachelors in Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies from Cal State University San Marcos in 2008. It was during this time that he discovered his passion for the law, consequently, he attended Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego California and received his Juris Doctor in 2013. Jorden moved to the Portland area in 2015 to build his practice and support his family.

Laura Eckstein (2022 Member-at-Large)

Laura Eckstein Law

Rob Hofmann (2022 Member-at-Large)

Rob is principal of the Hofmann Legal Group and represents business clients in the structuring, negotiation, and implementation of a wide range of complex business and real estate transactions, including commercial leases, intricate real and personal property acquisitions and sales, commercial development projects, commercial loan and lease workouts, specialized land use permitting and alcoholic beverage licensing matters (California), and property tax exemptions and appeals. He advises clients on a broad array of entity formation and business restructuring issues, corporate governance (including non-profits), employment law matters, and represents clients in various permitting and regulatory compliance controversies and appeals. In addition to his law degree, Rob has a Master of Science degree in Taxation (MST) from San Jose State University and a Master of Business (MBA) degree from the University of California at Davis. Rob is also licensed to practice law in California.

Stefyni Allen (2022 Member-at-large)

Stefyni is a solo attorney in Salem at Allen Law LLC, focusing her practice primarily on Family Law. She largely works with low income clientele through the Modest Means Program of the Oregon State Bar. Stefyni received her J.D. from the Willamette University College of Law and her B.A. from UC Davis, where she studied sociology.

Sunny S. Kakwani (2022 Member-at-Large)

As Your Counsel’s founder and principal attorney, Sunny provides a disruptive voice in an industry stagnated by convention. He established AYC’s model of personalized legal services + strategic business counseling after more than 10 years (and 10,000 hours) practicing on both coasts. AYC is a boutique business law practice dedicated to providing best-in-class representation across all of its focus areas through its unwavering subscription to its core values: empathy, integrity, caliber and community.

Sunny, born in New Delhi and raised in New York, discovered his passion for policy and advocacy early in life, which led him to Washington, DC in pursuit of his undergraduate degree in Business, Economics and Public Policy at George Washington University. That reverence evolved into practice while he studied law in Boston, MA at Suffolk University. In his free time Sunny enjoys pro bono work, mentoring, traveling, biking, yoga, meditation, coaching, playing basketball, golf and snowboarding.

Caitlin Wong (Sub-Committee Chair, Legal Lunchbox)

Caitlin Wong focuses her practice on taxation, estate planning, trust and estate administration, business formation and transactions, tax controversy, business succession planning and wealth preservation, and trust and estate (fiduciary) litigation. She helps families prepare and plan for the future when they need to pass money, property, and business interests, all while avoiding unnecessary taxes and disputes between family members after the death of a loved one. She also represents companies seeking to navigate their tax and business legal risks through practical solutions. Caitlin has an LL.M. in Taxation and is admitted to practice law in Oregon (since 2009) and Washington (since 2013).

Stacey McCormack (Associate Member)

Stacey is the CEO of Musimack Marketing, a full-service digital marketing agency in Tigard. With over 20 years’ experience in media and advertising, her background includes marketing roles at Entercom Radio, Tribune Broadcasting, Comcast Spotlight, and The Oregonian. She is passionate about helping professional service providers shine online through website design, SEO, social media and digital advertising.