Krista Mancuso
As long as I can remember I have felt a gravitational pull towards becoming (and then being) a lawyer. Growing up, I believed strongly in black and white. I was fascinated by the power of our legal system. It can bind. It can incarcerate. It can force things to happen. But it can release us and liberate us.
I will never forget the day I went from wanting to be an attorney to doing something about it. I was working as a Victim Advocate for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. At the end of sitting through my first trial I was left angry and furious as I watched the law fail to do what I thought it should do. Lady Justice had not appeared. There was no consequence for bad behavior. I knew that I wanted to be a part of a system that fought harder for justice and protected people when they needed it, not just when it was convenient for the system. I knew that I wanted to do better. When I started law school the following fall of 2007, I was excited, I was energized, and I was ready to do better.
Living in a black and white world can be hard. I wanted rules enforced. I wanted consequences for those that broke them. But I started to realize that life exists more in the grey than it does in the black and white. That good people do bad things. And bad people do good things. And the law can be less about punishment, and more about freedom.
Throughout my professional career I have found great joy in working closely with people to make their situation better, whatever that meant to that person at that particular time. There is power in relationships. There is power in making decisions. And there is power in using the law to make life better.
I am a family law lawyer because I believe families are the most important piece of who we are. I know mine is. I don't take the idea of divorce lightly, but I do believe in it. I believe that in order to have successful and healthy marriages they have to be a choice. In order to have healthy and happy family units a modification can be the best thing to do. Modifications can be risky, expensive, and exhausting, but there is also a chance that the end result will be something better for you or your family. I don't wish the stress or pain of a pending litigation on anyone, but know that if you find yourself going through one, I am ready to be your partner through it.
Background
I am a proud Oregonian, born and raised in the beautiful Umpqua Valley in Southern Oregon. I graduated from Linfield College in 2004 and immediately began working in non-profits and governmental organizations working with those whose voices weren't always heard: those struggling with homelessness, students with intellectual disabilities, and victims of domestic violence or sexual assault.
This work led me to law school where I graduated with a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law in 2010. After working in the Bay Area as an attorney focusing on Intellectual Property litigation and taking a break for my own expanding family, I opened my own family law practice in the Portland area in 2016. From 2017-2018 I worked for McKinley Irvin in Portland practicing exclusively family law until the pull to my having my own practice was so strong I returned to my solo practice in the fall of 2018 and have never left.
Bar Memberships
State Bar of California, 2010 - Present, inactive status State Bar of Oregon, 2014 - Present
Current Professional Memberships
Oregon Women’s Lawyers’ Society Multnomah County Bar Association Washington County Bar Association
Personal Life
I live in the Alameda neighborhood in NE Portland with my spouse and three very energetic kids who are all ten and under. If I am not working, you will find me busy doing laundry or cleaning soccer cleats, watering my plants, biking around town, and working on remodeling our 1915 colonial home that we bit off more than we can chew with.
I am also the VP of Fundraising for the Alameda Elementary PTA Board for 2023-2025, so if you are in need of poinsettias around December or hanging baskets in the spring, I’m your lady for that.