Phillip C. Querin

Phillip Cosley Querin’s legal practice in Portland, Oregon spans over 40 years.  Before starting his solo real estate practice in 2010 he had spent 25 years as a partner at the international law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, one of the largest firms in the country.  During 15 of those years, he co-chaired the firm-wide Real Estate Litigation Practice Group and was chair of the Real Estate Practice Group for the Portland office. Currently, Phil's main office is located in Portland, Oregon, and he has a home office in beautiful Bend, Oregon.

Phil graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oregon, and went on to graduate from the University’s School of Law.  His practice is limited exclusively to real estate litigation/mediation/arbitration and transactional matters.  He has taught Real Estate Licensing Law and Real Estate Practices for several years at Portland Community College and other private licensing schools.  He has also served as an adjunct professor in Business Law at Portland State University.  

Phil has authored and co-authored several real estate chapters in the Oregon State Bar’s Continuing Education Publications (“CLE”), as well as chapters for private continuing education real estate publishers.  He has instructed on Oregon real estate matters for the Oregon State Bar and its Professional Liability Fund ("PLF").

He is a member of the Bar’s Real Estate and Land Use Section, its Litigation Section, and its Alternative Dispute Resolution Sections.  Phil is intimately involved in Oregon real estate, having served over 20 years as legal counsel for the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors® (“PMAR”) and one of its predecessor organizations, the Washington County Association of Realtors®.  He continuously served on PMAR’s Risk Management Committee since its inception and has spoken frequently on current and critical real estate issues facing the industry.  He served on PMAR’s Forms Committee since its inception and in 1997, following the creation of Oregon Real Estate Forms, LLC (“OREF”) the statewide Realtor® forms provider, he served as legal counsel to its Forms Committee for 20 years.  In this capacity, Phil was responsible for the drafting and review of all real estate forms used by all residential Realtors® throughout Oregon. He is a frequently requested speaker at many professional organizations including PMAR, its Million Dollar Club, its Owners and Managers Forums, the Women’s Council of Realtors®, the Central Oregon Association of Realtors®, the Yamhill County Association of Realtors®, the Eugene Association of Realtors® and the Douglas County Association of Realtors®.  He has also made presentations to the Oregon Real Estate Agency addressing OREF forms changes.  

For over 30 years Phil has authored periodic real estate articles that are widely read throughout the industry and frequently used as instructional material for brokerage company training.  Together with PMAR, he reviewed the industry's legislative initiatives in an effort to advance and improve real estate laws for consumers and the brokerage community.   Phil has been a widely quoted expert in local newspapers, including the Portland Business Journal, The Oregonian, The Bend Bulletin, and The Daily Journal of Commerce.  He has testified as an expert witness in court on standards of care, as well as other real estate issues in court and arbitrations.  

As an important corollary to his real estate practice, Phil represents the Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon (“MHCO”), the statewide industry association for manufactured housing communities.  Over the past 25 years he has participated in authoring legislation for landlords and owners of manufactured housing communities, and is responsible for the drafting all of MHCO’s landlord/tenant forms used by community landlords throughout the State.  He has testified before the Oregon Legislature on manufactured housing issues and has represented and advised community owners and managers on risk management issues and the Oregon Landlord-Tenant law.  He has also written and spoken extensively on all aspects of this frequently complex and little understood area of law, including the Federal Fair Housing Laws.  He has litigated numerous cases on behalf of landlords and many manufactured housing communities across the state.

On his website, www.Q-Law.com, can be found many real estate articles on current real estate issues affecting homeowners and Realtors today.  

As a real estate trial lawyer, Phil’s experience is unsurpassed.  He has litigated, arbitrated or mediated a wide range of real estate disputes, from adverse possession, to trespass, rescission, specific performance, fraud, and virtually every other type of real estate dispute arising in the industry.  Similarly, on the transactional side, he’s drafted a multitude of real estate transactional forms, both for residential and commerical. As a result, Phil is a frequent resource to other attorneys statewide regarding the purpose, intent, and effect of many real estate forms provisions, legislation, and court and arbitration issues.  In short, over his 40+ years of practice, if it deals with real estate, be it residential, commercial, or landlord/tenant, Phil’s probably done it.  It is for this reason that he has been nominated by his peers as a real estate  “SuperLawyer” continuously since 2007 to the present. Significantly, he is the only solo attorney exlusively practicing real estate law in the Portland-Metro area.

Phil has been awarded an “AV” rating by Martindale-Hubble[1], which is given only for very high to preeminent legal ability (“A”) and very high ethical standards (“V”).   [1] The primary law directory for consumers and lawyers.  For over 140 years, it has assisted those selecting legal counsel to learn the credentials, legal ability and legal ethics of American and foreign lawyers and law firms.