Washington Estate Litigation Attorneys | Elder Law | Fiduciary Services | Mediation Services | Adoption
The law office of Ridgway and Gafken, P.S., is committed to providing clients with highly personalized client service, legal guidance and skillful advocacy. Our firm emphasizes finding practical solutions, while leveraging every advantage in our clients' favor when legal problems threaten our clients' well-being and their world.
We are a boutique law firm with deep experience in the areas of estate, trust and probate litigation, guardianships, the protection of vulnerable adults and adoption. Clients call on us to resolve everything from claims against fiduciaries to complex, multiproperty estate disputes.
The firm also offers a number of professional services to attorneys and other individuals that emphasize and draw on our knowledge and experience in our core legal practice areas. These services include serving as a trustee, personal representative or as a special master and acting as a mediator in resolving estate and trust disputes as well as guardianship and elder cases.
Our adoption practice includes representing birth parents and adoptive parents across a broad spectrum of adoption legal matters, including adult adoption, agency adoption and open adoption.
Our Client Service Commitment
Should you retain our firm, we will evaluate your legal situation thoroughly, accurately and swiftly, presenting you with the options that you may take to effectively resolve your legal concern. We will take the time to answer your questions and address your concerns, because we know how important it is for you to have the reassurance that highly responsive, attentive and accessible service provides.
Our Founders
The firm was founded by Sheila Ridgway and Lisa Gafken in 2008. Sheila Ridgway is widely known throughout Washington for her knowledge of and background in estate and trust litigation, including the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques such as mediation and arbitration. She was named a Top Lawyer in the July 2010 issue of Seattle Met Magazine as well as a top Seattle wealth manager by Seattle Magazine in 2010. Sheila has practiced in the areas of trust, estate and elder litigation since 1996. Prior to that, her practice included general civil litigation.
Sheila Ridgway has served on the Litigation Subcommittee of the Washington State Bar Association's Real Property, Probate and Trust Section since its inception. The subcommittee focuses on updating and improving "TEDRA," Washington's Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act, that governs estate, trust and guardianship litigation matters.
Lisa Gafken has practiced in the area of trust and estate litigation since 2005. She is frequently invited to speak at CLE seminars on probate issues and is committed to providing effective representation for her clients. She has recently expanded her practice to include adoption representation. As a mother of two, she understands the high emotions that surround adoption matters, and she provides steady representation to her adoption clients.
Both attorneys are experienced trial lawyers capable of presenting your case effectively in court. At the same time, however, each is committed to finding ways to resolve your case on favorable terms through faster and less expensive approaches whenever possible.
Contact a Trust and Estate Lawyer
Whether you need legal advice about a will contest, the performance of a trustee, a guardianship, probate, the protection of a vulnerable adult or adopting a child, or you seek fiduciary or mediation professional services, we can help you. Contact Ridgway and Gafken, P.S., to learn about your options: 206-973-3479. Feel free to email us to schedule a meeting a conference or with your questions. All consultations are of course confidential.
