Alterman Law Group PC

Last month Dean Alterman spoke at the 2025 annual meeting and conference of the Real Estate and Land Use section of the Oregon State Bar, known fondly to lawyers in the field as RELU, covering how lawyers can advise clients who own landlocked parcels. A parcel might be legally landlocked because, like the parcel in the illustration, it does not front on a public road and has no legal access to a public road. It might be factually landlocked because even though it fronts on a public road, a river or chasm might cut most of the parcel off from the public road. Or it might be legally but not factually landlocked: what if a private road runs through the parcel, but the owner of the parcel doesn’t have the legal right to use the road? Dean interleaved his discussion of the law with apposite quotations from Robert Frost. (Frost’s poetry includes many lines relevant to the real estate lawyer, particularly in Mending Wall and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. It’s hard to acquire a prescriptive easement to use old private roads if, to quote Frost, “No one has seen them made or heard them made.”)

Kyle J. Murphy is falsely claiming to be affiliated with Alterman Law Group. Mr. Murphy has no connection to our firm.

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Last week we joined our friends at Calbag Metals to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity Portland Region at its Foster Commons project in southeast Portland, where for a day we nailed in drywall, hung blinds, and installed anti-tipping safety devices for ranges - hands-on real estate experience for everyone in our firm. Kudos to firm attorney (and Habitat for Humanity - Portland Region director) Elizabeth English for connecting us with this fine organization.