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John J Tollefsen
John Tollefsen is an energetic entrepreneurial-oriented professional with over thirty-three years of business and legal experience. In addition to his legal and business career, he has maintained his ongoing education. This background makes him uniquely qualified to investigate, testify regarding, and litigate multiple varieties of financial fraud schemes. He is an experienced litigator and transaction lawyer.
International Legal Experience
John began his practice in Oregon in 1974 as a lawyer for small businesses. He focused on working with entrepreneurs who wanted to build a business and go public. His practice included helping his clients comply with the complexity of securities laws so they could raise money to fund their businesses. His work ranged from writing business plans to defending his business clients in court. Prior to 1986, he drafted several tax shelter private placements giving him in-depth tax law experience. Through the years he represented several real estate developers, a motel franchise chain, and businesses in many other industries. After experiencing a large financial loss through theft in 1997, he began to concentrate on financial fraud litigation. By 2007, his international legal work and experience caused him to obtain two international law LLM degrees. He now focuses his many years of training and experience helping clients wherever they may be.
Business Management
John’s home office
For six years, John Tollefsen was the Chief Executive Officer of IWBC.Net Corporation, a small international Internet Protocol telecommunications company with interests in the United States and several other countries primarily on the Pacific Rim. This provided him with technical insight into the Internet which has become a leading source of fraudulent activity. From 1968 to the present he has managed employees and businesses. His emphasis has been on the entrepreneurial and startup phase of business development including raising capital from private investors.
Business Strategy
Since 1970, he has been the key strategist and business planner for more than three hundred businesses. He has been sought out by businesses for consulting work including crisis management, turnaround planning, and drafting of business plans. This experience has given him valuable insights that help in negotiation of contracts and in complex litigation.
Legal Management
For over fifteen years, John Tollefsen hired, directed, and supervised a team of approximately twelve lawyers at a time in Oregon State and Washington State handling thousands of files for more than a thousand business clients. During that time, he gained experience in defense and plaintiffs work in a wide variety of business legal matters. He also demonstrated his abilities to remember and manage a myriad of details in separate matters at the same time. John has been the manager of a law firm for most of the time since he graduated from law school in 1974. He kept up with technology through each iteration and started developing web sites in 1995. He now is the manager of a “paperless” office using the cutting edge of law office management software and equipment.
Contract Negotiation and Litigation Settlement
Through his handling of many cases since 1974, John Tollefsen has proven his skill in cutting to the core of a matter and achieving resolution satisfactory to all sides. He has accomplished notable results in contract negotiation and litigation settlement regardless of whether he was representing a powerful or weak position. He has negotiated or worked on legal issues internationally in more than 20 countries.
Securities Law
For most of his career, John has worked on developing securities law expertise and knowledge. He has served and continues to serve on several securities laws committees of the American Bar Association Business Law and Litigation Sections. He has been a speaker at Continuing Legal Education seminars for lawyers on the subject. To further develop his knowledge, he obtained his NASD Series 27 (Financial Principal),Series 24 (General Principal), Series 7 and 63 NASD licenses and founded two securities broker dealers businesses. He also managed a Securities Exchange Commission licensed stock transfer agent. His practice included numerous private placements and several public offering registrations. He was privileged to make quasi-official visits with a team of ABA securities lawyers to ranking members of several international stock exchanges including some in China and the former Soviet Union and Soviet-Bloc countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. One delegation was headed by the Solicitor General of the SEC. He has been active in the SEC Small Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation since 1982. He continues to keep up with changes in the securities laws through CLE participation and his frequent writing on the subject.
International Connections
As a delegate on several missions led by the American Bar Association committee chairs and others, John J Tollefsen met government official in several countries including China and the former Soviet Block. He has traveled extensively and has many friends and contacts throughout the world. John has two post graduate degrees from European schools and two LLM degrees in international law. His legal studies in Budapest and Warsaw have given him a large number of international lawyer connections. Through LinkedIn and his activities in the International Law Section of the American Bar Association, John has made friends with and built a large number of connections with lawyers throughout the world.
Telecommunications
John once used equipment like this.
One of his passions is the revolution in telecommunications. He has studied and worked with communications law and management for over fifteen years. He is especially knowledgeable in United States deregulation law, Internet technology, and conversion from digital standards to normal traditional telephone technology. He has significant international connections in this field and has visited facilities and communication officials in several Pacific Rim countries.
Ethics
While not glossing over human faults, John Tollefsen has strived to project the highest ethics in his business dealings. As part of his ongoing education, he is working on a doctorate degree in theology. He has three masters degrees in Christian theology. He has been a hearing officer for the Disciplinary Section of the Washington State Bar Association. He is a firm believer in the necessity of leaving a lasting legacy of integrity.
Politics
While in his twenties, he ran for state and county offices in Oregon three times. These experiences enriched his life but cured him of political ambition. His experience led to some limited but successful state and federal lobbying work and has made him comfortable in political circles.
More Detail on John J Tollefsen
Curriculum Vitae – JJT-CV