Search PillsburyLaw.com
  • All
  • Lawyers
  • Capabilities
  • Insights

Service

Litigation – Trusts, Estates and High Net Worth

Contacts

Jennifer Jordan McCall
Partner, Silicon Valley
T: +1.650.233.4020
David G. Keyko
Partner, New York
T: +1.212.858.1604
See All Professionals

Pillsbury’s Litigation – Trusts, Estates and HNW Individuals team successfully resolves disputes, in trial and out of court, at home and in jurisdictions around the globe. Pillsbury’s team focuses on the various litigation-related needs of high-net-worth individuals, families and family offices bringing a seamless and holistic legal approach to resolving disputes, each of which is unique, and creating tailored solutions for our clients.

Pillsbury’s team consists of experienced litigators and Trust & Estates attorneys who manage complex disputes involving multigenerational families with significant assets. These range from lawsuits and arbitration to out-of-court negotiations and settlements.

Our sophisticated and sensitive approach to dispute resolution results in positive outcomes for our clients, while minimizing expensive litigation. Where litigation is unavoidable, our highly skilled attorneys excel at achieving our client’s desired outcome. We proactively advise our clients and structure their interests in ways that mitigate conflict to resolve disputes efficiently, delicately and favorably. When disputes arise, we advocate for our clients with sophisticated and careful determination, taking into account relevant tax considerations, recognizing that the optimal outcome often includes a negotiated resolution as promptly as possible, without sacrificing financial benefits.

View More

Our team offers guidance on litigation and dispute resolution in a host of private client-focused areas, including artwork and collectibles, wine and wineries, foundations and philanthropy, direct investment, campaign finance, residency, real estate and international tax advice.

We also represent clients in fiduciary disputes, including will and trust contests, and disputes regarding the administration of trusts and estates.

Our experience spans the globe, with skilled practitioners who are licensed in multiple jurisdictions. We are where you need us, whether it be New York, California, Florida, Texas, the District of Columbia, London, Hong Kong, or elsewhere.

We approach each client holistically, serving as trusted advisors and developing multigenerational relationships with our clients—who are some of the world’s most well-respected individuals, families and privately held businesses—using a comprehensive risk-assessment approach to the law.

We develop solutions for each client, based upon a comprehensive understanding of needs, expectations and objectives, whether the client is an investor, entrepreneur, family or private business, charitable foundation, trustee, sports and entertainment professional, investment fund manager or corporate executive. We also understand the nuanced relationships between business and family, which are often subtle yet complex.

Representative Experience

We have successfully represented numerous clients in dispute resolution and litigation matters including:

Litigation Advisory and Dispute Resolution

  • Advised on trust aspects of a major dispute in the UK between the beneficiary of trust and the spouse, resolving the case amicably. We testified in UK court concerning the primary beneficiary. After the extensive testimony, the judge included within his decree specific praise for Pillsbury for the high quality of our work as a trustee in the numerous extensive trusts.
  • Advised on a dispute involving evaluation of a large Texas oil and gas property, intensive negotiation regarding purchase of stock and royalty interests and bequests under the will.
  • Represented the spouse of a co-owner of a major real estate business who owned large amounts of real property and a major real estate company. Coordinated with Pillsbury’s Real Estate lawyers, outside real estate advisors, the surviving co-owner of the business, and opposing counsel, to reach a positive, successful outcome for the client.
  • Advised executor regarding dispute concerning the valuation and sale of fine art.

View More

Litigation

  • Successfully represented the cousin (and her sons) of a co-founder of a Fortune 100 technology company (“co-founder”), in contesting the validity of a holographic will, which was allegedly written and signed in 2013. Co-founder left an estate worth approximately $1.1 billion, and because he was presumed to have died intestate, our client, as heir-at-law to his estate, was due to inherit approximately $70 million in pre-tax dollars.
  • Successfully represented beneficiaries of a trust in a litigation against defendant trustee who was a one-time family friend, with possible damages under consideration. At the end of the three-day bench trial, the court granted an expansive interim order, finding for our clients, the descendants of a family that founded a major agricultural and energy conglomerate, and holding that the defendant breached his fiduciary duties. The judge ordered his immediate removal and appointed an interim trustee.
  • Represented client in a proposed conservatorship and related elder abuse case, brought against our client without merit, in addition to coordinating a divorce action. The matter involved unwinding steps taken by our client’s husband to divest our client of her family fortune and recovering our client’s assets that had been transferred to her husband’s accounts. We argued motions analyzing various intricacies of the Probate Code and marshalled an array of supporting evidence. Our efforts resulted in a total victory, beating back petitions for temporary and general conservatorship, and causing the other side to withdraw the elder abuse petitions and pay attorneys’ fees in the process.
  • Successfully represented an adopted daughter in her claims to her mother’s billion-dollar estate involving challenges to the will, promises of support and interpretation of trust agreements.
  • Successfully defended a financial institution that was one of several executors against charges by the decedent’s wife and children that it mismanaged a complicated estate that included extensive real estate and securities holdings and obtained sanctions.
  • Represented a charitable institution in connection with litigation in the U.S., Europe and Central American seeking recovery of $200 million looted from an estate.
  • Represented a family member in litigation with client’s siblings over a multi-billion family business owned by family trusts, involving access to books and records, trust accountings, rights of first refusal and the proper interpretation of a multimillion-dollar bequest.
  • Successfully represented an adoptee in pursuing claims to family trusts of client’s adopted mother, who was a member of a prominent family.
  • Won summary judgment on behalf of a charitable institution which was the principal beneficiary under the decedent’s will in a challenge to the will and pre-nuptial agreement brought by the decedent’s husband.
  • Led trial team in a complete defense victory for a trust company in a highly publicized lawsuit brought by members of a prominent family who sought millions of dollars in damages and removal of the trustee.
  • Prevailed in litigations and dispute resolutions involving substantial assets in a family with dozens of trusts and multiple parties in the context of a bitterly litigated divorce and post-nuptial disputes, obtaining extremely favorable results for clients and preserving trust assets without any reduction of the assets in the various settlements, involving the law in London and New York.
  • Served as lead counsel in a major personal income tax appeal, involving contentious residency and sourcing-of-income issues and successfully abated a multimillion-dollar assessment.
  • Served as lead counsel for high-net-worth individuals in a residency case that was resolved at the protest level, resulting in a 90 percent decrease in proposed personal income tax assessments, saving our client millions of dollars.
  • Served as lead counsel in a high-net-worth residency case that was resolved at audit level, resulting in a 95 percent reduction of a potentially large assessment.
  • Negotiated a sizeable settlement on behalf of a surviving spouse who had been omitted from the will of client’s ultra-high-net-worth husband.
  • Represented children in claims to multimillion-dollar estates and trusts.
  • Represented one of a famous actor’s heirs in trust litigation with client’s siblings over valuable memorabilia, successfully resolving the matter through a confidential settlement. 
  • Defending U.S. executors from claims that they acted in violation of law in connection with an estate that was probated overseas.
  • Defended fiduciaries in challenge by beneficiaries of the estate of a wealthy Middle East investor in litigation in the U.S., Canada and Middle East.

Practice Area Highlights

  • Pillsbury is recognized as among the most feared law firms for litigation by BTI Consulting Group.
  • Leading recognition for 13 litigation practice specialties as listed in Chambers USA, The Legal 500 U.S. and U.S. News – Best Lawyers.
  • Team lawyers received recognition in Chambers’ High Net Worth Guide since the creation of the guide (2016 – present).

- Family Offices & Funds Structuring (Nationwide) – Band 2

- Private Wealth Law (Florida) – Band 3

View More

  • Recognized Nationally as Tier 1 in Trusts & Estates Law in U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” survey (2019 – 2021). The ETTP group was also named Tier 1 in New York City and San Jose (2019 – 2021). ETTP lawyers have ranked annually since 2003.

Resources

Case Study

A Major Win for a Family Trust

Related Insights

View More
View All