Member

Representative Matters

• Assisted family with design and implementation of business and tax sensitive plan to transfer management and ownership of 50+ operating companies between generations; provide counsel to several families with issues of a similar nature and scope.
• Routinely design plans to transition wealth and ideals to future generations while minimizing impact of gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes.
• Frequently provide counsel to surviving spouses and surviving children relating to administration of estates, transition of property to beneficiaries, and (with the assistance of family financial advisors) structures for diversification of portfolios to fit the intended disposition.
• Serve as lead estate counsel on litigation matters relating to definition of estate and trust terms, division of trust assets among disputing beneficiaries, appointment and discharge of fiduciaries, and reformation of estates and trusts to minimize unintended transfer tax consequences.
• Obtain numerous Guardianships and Conservatorships in contested and uncontested proceedings, counseling families on implementation and upkeep of structures to assist minors and incapacitated individuals.

Professional Activities

• Member, Denver Estate Planning Council and Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council
• Board Member, Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council, 2007-present
• Co-Chairman, Colorado Bar Association Trust and Estate Section Statutory Revisions Subcommittee, 2010-2011
• President, Friends of Arts Street, An arts-based workplace development program for Denver youth, 2003 - 2005
• Mentor, Byrne Foundation, mentoring program for at-risk high school students, 2001 - 2005

Publications and Presentations

• Co-Author with Douglas M. Cain, New Planning Opportunities for Distributions from Qualified Plans and IRAs, The Colorado Lawyer, June 2001.
• Co-Author with Jessica L. Broderick and Taylor M. Dix, Decanting in Colorado:  Nothing to Wine About, CBA Trust and Estate Member Newsletter -- June 15, 2009.
• Speaker, CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) 2003 Annual Conference
• Speaker, Kaiser Permanente Seminar
• Speaker, Trust Company and Financial Management Seminars
• Speaker, Colorado Society of CPAs CPE Courses
• Speaker, Denver Trust Officers' Association

Education

• Juris Doctor, with high distinction, University of Iowa College of Law, 1998
  • Articles and Book Review Editor, Iowa Law Review
• Master of Business Administration, University of Iowa, 1998
• Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Economy, magna cum laude, Washington University, 1994

Honors and Awards

• Listed in Best Lawyers in America for Trusts and Estates