2020-2021 NEWLY ELECTED BOARD MEMBER STATEMENTS
Get to know the Returning and New Board Members!
Grant Boland presently serves on the Board of Directors and is a member of the Membership Committee. He seeks reelection to the Board and hopes to continue to provide opportunities to the current membership as well as provide energy and support to the expansion of the membership base into the future.
Grant is a tax and estate planning attorney whom focuses his practice in the areas of trust and estate planning, business planning and tax representation. Grant's practice emphasizes the design, implementation and defense of advanced strategies to transfer ownership of family businesses and legacy properties from one generation to the next, or to charity.
Grant is an avid community leader and volunteer working and assisting numerous organizations including the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Simone Foundation, Wills For Heroes, the Disabled American Veterans Legal Clinic, and the Executive Council for the Tax Section of the State Bar of Arizona.
Ryan Cummings is an owner of the R&R Law Group, a criminal defense firm, located just North of Old Town Scottsdale. He has been practicing criminal defense the entire 9 years he has been licensed. The firm has been featured in the Arizona Republic and made appearances on Let Joe Know with ABC 15 for their work in the State. They are dedicated to helping good people who have found themselves wrapped in the criminal justice system.
Ryan has enjoyed his last 2 years on the Board of Directors. Most recently, Ryan has held the Secretary position on the Executive Board. This leadership position has helped Ryan form friendships with other members that are invaluable. Ryan hopes to continue to serve the Scottsdale Bar Association for many years to come. If re-elected to another term, he will seek to move up in the Executive Committee.
Ryan, and his firm, have also enjoyed the many extracurricular activities that the SBA puts on. His firm has sponsored the Spring Training CLE and enjoys getting to meet new and current members of the SBA. Ryan has high hopes for the continuation of the Scottsdale Bar and will continue to sponsor events.
Wendy Anderson offers knowledgeable legal counsel regarding business, employment and advertising law. Her firm supports business owners in anticipating, preventing, and overcoming legal issues. As outside counsel, she strives to deeply understand her clients’ businesses so that they can feel secure knowing that their attorney is more of a partner and is only a phone call away.
Wendy has over 20 years’ experience as a marketing and advertising executive at both public and private corporations, bringing broad understanding and knowledge as a business counselor to her law practice. Her business strengths include strategic planning, budget management and skillful negotiation for agreements of all types.
Wendy graduated summa cum laude and as valedictorian from Arizona Summit Law School, earning her J.D. in December 2014 and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania (many years ago). She was recently named as a 2020 Rising Star by Superlawyers. She has been a member of the Scottsdale Bar Association since 2013 while in law school, has volunteered her time at the Paiute Legal Clinic each year of her membership, and served on the Board of Directors in 2017.
Wendy seeks election back to the Board so she can continue to contribute to this community whose members have been so supportive – both as friends and mentors – since the first meeting she attended.
For most of his adult life, Mark Lasee has lived in Scottsdale, but he still enjoys discovering new things about this amazing community. Mark recently joined Class 34 of Scottsdale Leadership, where he has learned about Scottsdale’s history, city government, its outlook for the future and how such information can impact the decision-making of its future leaders. As a member of the Scottsdale Bar Association Board, Mark would draw upon the foundation provided by Scottsdale Leadership as well as his prior experience as a board member with the Arizona Sailing Foundation and Metrocenter Kiwanis.
Mark graduated with a B.S. in business administration from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay and a J.D. from Hamline University Law School in St. Paul, Minnesota. After spending most of his formative years in rural Wisconsin and Minnesota, like so many from the northern Midwest, after law school Mark and his wife, Jean, decided to make the move to Arizona.
Mark is a partner at Kutak Rock LLP, where he has practiced in the corporate real estate group for more than 15 years. A Certified Real Estate Specialist with the Arizona State Bar, he dedicates a significant amount of his practice to alternative investments, commercial real estate and business transactions. Mark is currently representing developers in the acquisition of properties for solar energy projects across the United States. He also advises public pension plans, having placed well over $1 billion of their assets in domestic and offshore private equity, real estate and hedge fund investments.
An avid hiker and cyclist, Mark spends his leisure time hiking and biking in the McDowell Sonoran Mountain Preserve. In 2019 he spent a couple weeks cycling in the Italian Dolomites, after hiking the South Kaibab to Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon.
Mark and Jean live less than a mile away from the Mountain Preserve in North Scottsdale with their three cats, Taiji, Kikkou and Buddha.
Katrina Vitale is an estate planning attorney with Frazer, Ryan, Goldberg & Arnold, LLP. With over two decades of experience, Katrina’s practice is focused on estate planning, probate and trust administration, and guardianships. Katrina is a member of the Probate and Trust Section of the State Bar of Arizona, Central Arizona Estate Planning Council, the Estate Planning, Probate & Trust Section of the Maricopa County Bar Association, and the Scottsdale Bar Association.
A Philadelphia native, Katrina earned her law degree from Rutgers Law School and is pursuing her L.L.M. in Taxation. Katrina served on the Ethics Committee for the Supreme Court of New Jersey from 2011 until 2019, and she served on various boards throughout the State of New Jersey, including President of the Gloucester County Bar Association and District Representative for the New Jersey State Bar Association Young Lawyers Committee, prior to her relocation in 2018.
She is rated superb with AVVO and preeminent with Martindale-Hubbell. A Scottsdale resident, Katrina spends her leisure time hiking, biking and volunteering with the Arabian Horse Association and the Hunkapi Horse Program in Scottsdale.
Katrina's firm has offices in Scottsdale and Phoenix. Her email address uses the main (Phoenix) office currently.