J Thomas Eubank
Trust and Estate Administration
Our private clients lawyers regularly represent executors and trustees in the administration of substantial and complex estates and trusts. We have also represented beneficiaries on how to protect their interests in trusts and estates. Our work in this area ranges from helping clients achieve their estate planning objectives by structuring a transaction for a trustee or executor, to consulting with fiduciaries on sticky issues that arise in the course of administration, to litigating cases where a conflict has arisen. Our estate planning lawyers regularly prepare estate tax returns as part of estate administration work and can defend the positions taken on those returns with help from private clients lawyers who focus on tax litigation. We have also worked with clients in the administration of charitable trusts and private foundations.
Private Clients
Private clients lawyers at Baker Botts advise very-high-net-worth clients in estate planning and administration and in related tax and fiduciary litigation. We are particularly involved in either the most complicated situations or those where the most wealth is on the line.
On the planning and administration side of the practice, our lawyers and staff have developed nationally prominent experience in the areas of business structuring and restructuring, family limited partnerships and advanced asset transfer techniques whereby substantial estates can be passed on by our clients in a tax-efficient manner. Our lawyers creatively plan for and draft wills and trusts of all types, as well as corporate and partnership documents, buy-sell agreements, conveyancing documents and other documents related to a client's estate planning and estate or trust administration needs. We are also adept at creating and helping to administer charitable trusts and private foundations. Related to our planning practice, we represent executors and trustees in the administration of substantial and complex estates and trusts, including the implementation of sophisticated post-mortem planning techniques. Our estate planning team also regularly prepares gift tax returns and estate tax returns for clients and handles related IRS challenges with help from the private clients lawyers who focus on tax litigation.
On the litigation side of the practice, our lawyers defend not only the business and estate plans put in place by our estate planning lawyers, but also those put in place by other lawyers all across the country. We handle IRS audits from the outset of the audit through the internal IRS appeals process, to the lower courts (whether in the U. S. Tax Court, District Court or Court of Claims), and, if necessary, to the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Our litigators also represent clients in complex fiduciary litigation.
The lawyers on the planning and administration side of the private clients practice work together with those on the litigation side of the practice. Both take maximum advantage of the experience of the other. Our estate planners benefit greatly from the ability of our litigators to see first-hand the latest arguments made by the IRS in tax cases and those made by opposing counsel in fiduciary controversy situations. Likewise, our litigators benefit from the experience of our planners in business valuation issues and in reviewing estate plans that might have been put in place by other lawyers outside Baker Botts. Thus, while the two practices are somewhat distinct, the overlap is substantial and beneficial to our clients.
Fellow - American College of Trust & Estate Counsel
J Thomas Eubank
Baker Botts LLP
1 Shell Plaza
910 Louisiana St
Houston TX 77002-4995
Tel: 713 229-1234
Fax: 713 229-1522
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