Leslie Daff, JD, MBA, is a State Bar Certified Legal Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate & Trust Law, a designation earned by fewer than 1% of the attorneys in the state. Formerly with international law firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP and regional law firms 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, received 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.
Named for three consecutive years by OC Metro magazine as one of the region's top estate planning lawyers, and granted the highest rating of "10/10 Superb" by national independent attorney rating service Avvo, 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 co-editor of the book Estate Planning Strategies, Collective Wisdom, Proven Techniques, available on Amazon.com. She is also a regular columnist on tax and estate planning matters for The Journal of Financial Planning. Recent published articles include:
-
Selecting and Maintaining Appropriate Fiduciaries in an Estate Plan
-
Your Parents' Estate Plan
-
The Portable Exclusion and the Vanishing Bypass Trust
-
Protecting Your Child's Inheritance: The Beneficiary-Controlled Trust
-
Tax Ramifications and Opportunties Under the New HealthCare Act
-
Basic Estate Planning
-
Keeping the Vacation Home in the Family - Another Use for Limited Liability Companies
-
Are Your Client Files Clean?
-
Twelve Indicators You Need to Update Your Estate Plan
-
Right Strategies Can Maximize Your Charitable Gifts
-
Advanced Estate Planning
-
Planning Opportunities in the Government's Response to the Economic Downturn
-
Many Estate Planning Strategies Provide Benefits in Low-Interest-Rate Environment
-
Estate Planning Document Overview
-
Charitable Gift Annuities: A Way to Give and Receive
-
Estate Planning Considerations for Buy-Sell Agreements
-
Asset Protection Planning
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, Co-Chair of the Laguna Beach Community Foundation Professional Council, and a Fellow of the Orange County Bar Association Society of Fellows. She also serves as a pro bono legal advisor for Laguna Beach Seniors, Inc. and serves on the Board of Directors of the Laguna Beach Rotary Club Foundation. She 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
|