About

 Whitefish lawyer Tom Tornow was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Mitchell, South Dakota. He completed his undergraduate degree in three years, graduating Magna Cum Laude with the highest grade point average in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado. Tom was a three time recipient of the Colorado Scholars Program scholarship; named four times to the Dean's List of Distinction; admitted to the University's Honor Society; President of the Pre-Law Society; on the Student Government Council; and a Student Supreme Court Justice. Before becoming an attorney in Whitefish Montana, Tom received his law degree from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, the nation’s oldest law school founded by Benjamin Franklin where Tom was a Morris Fellow and Graduate Fellow.  After graduation, Tom joined a large law firm in Denver as a complex real estate litigation lawyer; was subcommittee chairman of the Colorado Bar Association’s Ethics Committee; and served on the Denver Bar Association Legislative Affairs Committee. He later taught law at the University of Denver College of Law, the Denver Paralegal Institute and the Colorado Bar Association Annual Meeting. Tom left academia and Denver to advise in the formation of the government for the newly independent South Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands. Arriving in Whitefish Montana in 1991, Tom has become Montana’s preeminent attorney on affordable housing. He is admitted to the U.S. District Courts for Colorado and Montana, and the Ninth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal. He is a member of the American, Montana, Colorado, and Northwest Montana Bar Associations. He has served on the American Bar Association Affordable Housing Forum; the Montana Bar Legal Services Delivery Committee; and the Montana Bar Fee Arbitration Committee; as President of the Whitefish City/County Planning Board; on the Master Plan Revision Committee of the Whitefish Community Development Corporation; on the Whitefish Affordable Housing Committee; and as Sub-Judge for Whitefish and Columbia Falls, Montana. Tom is active in the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and is on its Government Affairs Committee and the Chamber's Affordable Housing Task Force.  He is on the Finance Committee of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and a Director of the Whitefish WAG Dog Park, which was recently named one of the top ten dog parks in the nation. In over 36 years as a lawyer, Tom has represented clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, real estate developers, large and small businesses, and disabled children. As a Whitefish attorney, Tom successfully developed Montana’s first Federal tax credit housing project, as well as numerous other tax credit housing projects in Montana and completed Montana’s first “reverse syndication” of tax credit interests. He is the lawyer for award winning affordable housing projects throughout Montana. Tom is versed in buying, selling and developing real estate acquisition, covenants, zoning, subdivision, condemnation, land use planning, community land trusts, HUD, USDA, HOME, CDGB and other affordable housing mechanisms. As a Whitefish attorney, his current emphasis is forming partnerships between for-profit and non-profit entities to build and acquire housing for low-income families and seniors; and buying and selling successful businesses. When Tom is out of his Whitefish law office, he enjoys bike touring, cross country skiing, back-packing, and cooking.

Practices Areas

Business

Real Estate

Language

English

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