Sheppard Mullin

Sheppard Mullin has a wide range of experience in all aspects of estate planning, complex trust and estate administration, and fiduciary litigation. Our attorneys provide legal counsel ranging from developing a basic estate plan involving wills and revocable trusts to designing more sophisticated plans for the transfer of family wealth to younger generations and charities. Our clients include individuals, families, nonprofit organizations, and corporate fiduciaries.

Estate planning can include the use of wills, revocable living trusts, property agreements, one or more irrevocable trusts, charitable trusts, insurance trusts, private foundations, family limited partnerships, and limited liability companies, as well as durable powers of attorney for financial and healthcare matters. Sheppard Mullin's Trusts and Estates attorneys customize estate plans to minimize taxes, maximize wealth transfers, and ensure that the final distribution of the clients' assets is in accordance with their wishes. For multi-national families, our attorneys can work with advisors in other countries to plan transfers in light of U.S. tax rules.

For our clients involved with closely held businesses, we advise on various techniques for achieving wealth transfers between generations. We also use the expertise of the lawyers in our other practice areas to advise business owners on challenges such as selecting the legal structure for the business, the preparation of buy/sell agreements, and other management succession issues.

In the trust and estate administration area, our attorneys advise trustees, executors and beneficiaries on matters such as the interpretation of documents, tax issues (including the preparation of gift and estate tax returns), and disagreements between beneficiaries and fiduciaries. We also assist clients with probate administration and post death administration of living trusts.

If a dispute arises in a fiduciary context, Sheppard Mullin both prosecutes and defends disputes pertaining to breach of fiduciary duty/surcharge actions, interpretation issues, will/trust contests, entitlement claims, and other types of controversies, both in the court system and before alternative dispute resolution forums.

"As Sheppard Mullin continues to grow, it is important that we not lose sight of the need to recruit women, attorneys of color and others of diverse backgrounds."
-Guy Halgren, Chairman of the Executive Committee

At Sheppard Mullin, we make every effort to recruit the finest lawyers and nurture their talents. The firm recognizes the importance of diversity and the need to create a workplace of inclusion. We need ¿ and our clients demand ¿ a team of attorneys that is as diverse as our increasingly global client base. Achieving and maintaining diversity is key to great client service ¿ a core value of our firm. What distinguishes good intentions from results is a commitment by senior management to find the best attorneys possible coupled with the sincere belief that people with diverse backgrounds bring valuable attributes to the firm. At Sheppard Mullin, the Executive Committee, Diversity Committee, and the lawyers in each of our offices work hard to ensure that all attorneys who join our firm fit in seamlessly and are encouraged to succeed.

Members of our Diversity Committee include ethnically diverse attorneys and a representative from the firm's Executive Committee. Diversity Committee members have served on the Boards of the Anti-Defamation League, the Black Women Lawyers Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Charles Houston Bar Association (northern California). Women and minority attorneys participate on key committees of the Firm (Executive Committee; Compensation Committee; Diversity Committee; Recruiting Committee; Professional Personnel Committee; Associate Issues Committee). Four of the Firm's nine Office Administrative Partners are women, one of whom is African-American and another is multi-racial.

"Serving on the firm's Diversity Committee is one of the most important things I do. I firmly believe that we must be vigilant in our efforts to recruit talented women attorneys and attorneys of color. Our success in this area has a positive effect our firm's culture, practice and client relationships."
-Joan Story, Member Executive Committee and Diversity Committee

Below is a description of just some of our outreach efforts.

• The firm participates in and financially supports the California Minority Counsel Program and the ABA Minority Counsel Program, as well as several minority bar associations. These groups are dedicated to increasing access for and promoting and retaining minorities in the legal profession.
• The firm actively recruits law students of color, e.g., we participated in the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) of the Western Region job fair held at UCLA School of Law.
• Sheppard Mullin contributes to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association; California Women Lawyers; Queen's Bench; Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles; and the National Black Law Students Association, among others.
• We actively participate with other major Los Angeles law firms in the Diversity Directors Roundtable, a group that is committed to promoting diversity in the legal profession and in our firms.
• The firm received the Law Firm Award from the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Foundation for its strong commitment to the promotion of community and pro bono activities.
• Multicultural Law magazine named Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as one of "The 2011 Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity."
• Sheppard Mullin helped underwrite the production of a motion picture project entitled "Soul of Justice: The Life and Times of Thelton Henderson." The film chronicles the life of respected African-American jurist Thelton Henderson, a crusading civil rights litigator and role model.
• The firm signed the Bar Association of San Francisco's "No Glass Ceiling Initiative," BASF's "Minority Goals and Timetables," the New York County Lawyers' Association Diversity Statement, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Diversity Statement.

Much of our pro bono work relates to the diversity of the communities in which we practice; sample clients include:

• Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Domestic Violence Project, Los Angeles Bar Association
• Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
• Task Force for the Women's Resource Fair, City of San Diego
• Tolerance Through Education Program, Beverly Hills Barristers Associations
• Violence Against Women Act Program, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Awareness of diversity enables us to understand the value of differences. At Sheppard Mullin, we are committed to hiring top tier attorneys, without regard to race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.