Dispute & Debt Resolution Workshop

Entrepreneur, Housing Provider, and RHAWA Treasurer

Sharon Cunnington is a real estate investor, business operator, and private lender who has been the buyer / seller in dozens of real estate transactions totaling over $5 million in the last 15 years. As a licensed real estate broker, Sharon specializes in helping fellow investors find positive cash flow investment properties – she hangs her license with Wilson Management, Inc. Sharon’s portfolio consists of single and multi-family properties located predominately in the Pacific NW and Midwest. Locally, she is a Board member of RHAWA and a member of the Women’s Business Exchange. As a software industry veteran, Sharon has over 23 years' experience leading large scale international technology businesses. Her expertise ranges from product development and business strategy, to operations efficiency and project management. She is a graduate of Washington State University with graduate courses from Harvard and Kellogg School of Business.

Attorney, Housing Provider and RHAWA Vice President

Christopher is known as a tireless advocate for housing providers.  He has been practicing residential and commercial landlord-tenant law, judgment enforcement, and appeals since 2009.  He is a six-time "Rising Star" attorney in Super Lawyers magazine and holds a perfect 10.0 rating from Avvo.com.  Before going into private practice, Christopher served as a law clerk to Judge Marywave Van Deren at the Washington Court of Appeals.

Christopher currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Rental Housing Association of Washington, is the 2021 Vice President of the organization, and is the Co-Chairman of their Legislative Committee.  Christopher works with numerous housing provider's groups to provide input on state and local legislation; he has testified on landlord-tenant relations and law before the Tacoma City Council and the Washington Legislature.

Christopher is also committed to education.  He is a frequent presenter at legal education courses hosted by state and local bar associations and private groups and is a licensed clock hours instructor for Washington Real Estate Brokers.  Christopher has also been the author or co-author of housing provider's official responses to several legal and legislative actions.

Housing Justice Project Managing Attorney

Mediation Counsel, Rincon Resolutions, LLC

An innovator and recognized leader in his field, Roger designed Conflict Intervention Service, a ground-breaking program in San Francisco that prevents homelessness and helps small businesses resolve rental conflict. A past chairman of the board of the Association for Dispute Resolution of Northern California, Roger serves as Vice Chair of the ADR Section executive committee for the Washington State Bar.

A thirty-year career in commercial real estate informs Roger’s practice. He has worked in many negotiation roles, including corporate executive, lobbyist, attorney, broker. Known for strategic insight and getting things done, people have sought Roger’s counsel in addressing complex disputes in a variety of contexts, from Honolulu to Manhattan.

Roger graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley, where he studied medieval history and spun vinyl at the legendary KALX FM. A graduate of UC Hastings College of the Law, Roger is an active member of the California and Washington State Bar Associations.

Consultant, Conflict Intervention Service (CIS), San Francisco

Esmail Rahimian, PhD is an entrepreneur, peacemaker, an educator, and certified Tai Chi instructor. Learning, teaching, and helping others succeed energizes him. After leading his own business for over 30 years, his passion took him back to the university where he has taught management, marketing, communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution at the graduate school of business for the past 26 years. With a doctorate in Management, he has learned the best way to help others is to pay special attention to their narrative, their interests, and be responsive rather than imposing his own narrative on them.

As a peacemaker, he has practiced conflict resolution for over thirty years, and alternate dispute resolution for the last five years. As a professional mediator, he has mediated a variety of cases in Civil Harassment, Community, Landlord Tenant, and Juvenile Offender for County of Santa Clara, Superior Court of California, and Project Sentinel. He has served as a consultant at the Conflict Intervention Service of the Bar Association of San Francisco for the last two years. As a Reflective Practitioner he strives to improve professional practice that involves three qualities: a commitment to life-long learning, a willingness to learn from experience, and an appreciation of the connection between theory and practice.

RHAWA Director of Government Affairs

As a contract lobbyist working at the Washington State Legislature Kyle has spent over a decade working both in opposition and in concert with local governments, state agencies, and a variety of special interest groups to negotiate many impactful policy issues relating to land use and the operation of small businesses. Kyle has represented manufactured housing communities, marinas, public utility districts, pharmaceutical companies, assisted living and home care companies, retail businesses, commercial properties and many other groups, but his chief focus is the vast and complex housing policy debate and its effects on property owners and taxpayers alike. After many years representing the Rental Housing Association under contract, Kyle joined the organization as in-house Government Affairs Director in 2020. Kyle grew up in University Place, lives in West Seattle, and manages various types of income property in the Puget Sound region with his family.