Tessa practices in the areas of commercial real estate, estate planning, and estate administration. Her commercial real estate practice involves representing developers of multi-family residential projects, office developments, and retail developments. Tessa works with developers and their lenders through all phases of a project and on all aspects of a project, including acquisition, construction, leasing, permanent financing, and sale. Tessa also serves as title and escrow agent for some of the large title companies.
Tessa handles estate planning for clients with small to medium size estates and particularly enjoys custom will drafting for individuals with unusual bequests. Tessa handles administration of testate and intestate estates of all sizes for decedents who were residents of Guilford County. Tessa also handles ancillary administrations for non-resident decedents who owned real property in Guilford County.
Tessa grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. Her family moved to Cashiers, North Carolina when she was fifteen. Tessa received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree with a major in Accounting from Western Carolina University in 1988. She met her husband Bryan while at Western and the two were married in 1989. After a few years of working as an accountant, her sons were born and she became a full time mother. Tessa decided to go to law school when her boys were in elementary school. She received her J.D. from Wake Forest University Law School in 2006.
Tessa was admitted to practice in North Carolina in 2006. She is admitted to practice in the United States District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina. Tessa was admitted to practice at the United States Supreme Court in 2009. She is a member of the American Bar Association, North Carolina Bar Association and Greensboro Bar Association.
Tessa is active in the Piedmont Triad chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW), serving as the chapter's website and newsletter manager. Tessa is a member of the Law Related Education Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association and contributed to the committee's publication of "The North Carolina Constitution Explained," a text book for North Carolina high school students. Tessa is a graduate of Leadership Greensboro (2009). Tessa is active in her church, St. Francis Episcopal in Greensboro, serving on the Vestry from 2009-2011 and as Senior Warden in 2011.
