Leslie Daff, JD, MBA, is a State Bar Certified Legal Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. Formerly with the law firms of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP, Best Best & Krieger LLP, and Palmieri, Tyler, Weiner, Wilhelm & Waldron LLP, she founded Estate Plan, Inc., a professional law corporation, in Laguna Beach and Irvine in 2005. In 2010, she added an Overland Park location in conjunction with Randy Gardner, JD, LLM, MBA, CPA.
Leslie received her BS degree in Finance from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and her MBA degree from the University of California, Irvine Paul Merage School of Business. Prior to law school, she worked as a financial analyst and as Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis at subsidiaries of the Coca-Cola Company and Baxter Healthcare, respectively. She received her JD degree from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where she served as an editor on the Loyola Law School Entertainment Law Review, received the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Legal Research and Writing, the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Ethical/Practical Lawyering, and was installed as a member of the St. Thomas More Law Honor Society. She also served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Sheila Prell Sonenshine, Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeal.
Leslie has been granted the highest rating of "10/10 Superb" by national independent attorney rating service Avvo, and she has been awarded the highest designation of "AV Preeminent 5 out of 5 Peer Review Rated" by legal directory Martindale Hubbell, which signifies her peers rank her at the highest level of professional excellence. She has been named by OC Metro Magazine as one of the region's top estate planning attorneys for three consecutive years.
Leslie is co-author of the Estate Planning Considerations chapter update for the State Bar of California Continuing Education of the Bar book Buy-Sell Agreements. She is also co-editor of the 2009 book Estate Planning Strategies, Collective Wisdom, Proven Techniques, available on Amazon.com. She is a regular columnist on tax and estate planning matters for The Journal of Financial Planning. Recent published articles include:
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Selecting and Maintaining Appropriate Fiduciaries in an Estate Plan
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The Portable Exclusion and the Vanishing Bypass Trust
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Protecting Your Child's Inheritance: The Beneficiary-Controlled Trust
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Tax Ramifications and Opportunties Under the New HealthCare Act
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Keeping the Vacation Home in the Family - Another Use for Limited Liability Companies
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Are Your Client Files Clean?
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Twelve Indicators You Need to Update Your Estate Plan
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Right Strategies Can Maximize Your Charitable Gifts
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Planning Opportunities in the Government's Response to the Economic Downturn
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Many Estate Planning Strategies Provide Benefits in Low-Interest-Rate Environment
Leslie serves on the Board of Directors of the South Orange County Bar Association. She is also a member of the Trusts & Estates Section of the State Bar of California, the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the American Bar Association, the Trusts & Estates Section of the Orange County Bar Association, and the Orange County Estate Planning Council.
She is involved with the Alumni Board of Directors for the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business – Orange County Chapter, a member of the Dean’s Leadership Circle of the University of California, Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, a Fellow of the Orange County Bar Foundation Society of Fellows, Co-Chair of the Laguna Beach Community Foundation Professional Advisory Council, and serves on the Board of Directors of non-profit organizations, Laguna Beach Seniors, Inc. and the Laguna Beach Rotary Club Foundation. She provides pro bono legal advice to seniors as the Susi Q Senior Center on a monthly basis. Leslie regularly speaks on estate planning topics for a variety of groups and organizations, including the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.
ABOUT RANDY GARDNER: RANDY GARDNER, JD, LLM, MBA, CPA, OF COUNSEL
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