Estate Planning & Probate Lawyers in New Orleans
620 verified estate planning attorneys in New Orleans. An estate planning attorney prepares wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives to protect your family and pass on your assets.
Andrew Rinker, Jr is a lawyer practicing business, tax, estate planning and 4 other areas of law. Andrew received a B.S. degree from Louisiana State U...
Andre Brian Burvant is a lawyer practicing state & local tax, state & local tax resource center, tax & estates and 5 other areas of law. Andre receive...
Jeanne Andry Landry is a lawyer practicing personal injury, premises liability, automobile claims and 8 other areas of law. Jeanne has been licensed f...
Jonathan Ryan Katz is a lawyer practicing estate planning & administration, state & local tax, state & local tax resource center and 4 other areas of ...
Mr. Fred Sherman Boughton, Jr is a lawyer practicing class action defense, collections, commercial litigation and 14 other areas of law.
Ms. Anne Elizabeth Raymond is a lawyer practicing business law, civil practice, commercial law and 13 other areas of law.
Amanda Jeanne Butler is a lawyer practicing business formation, limited liability companies, c corporations and 12 other areas of law. Amanda received...
Agent: First American Title Insurance Co.
Patrick Bruce Sanders is a lawyer practicing appeals, contracts & agreements, probate and 11 other areas of law. Patrick received a degree from LSU La...
Leon Hirsch Rittenberg III is a lawyer practicing business, mergers & acquisitions, real estate and 7 other areas of law. Leon received a B.S.E. degre...
Max S Ciolino is a lawyer practicing business law, business formation, limited liability company law and 12 other areas of law. Max received a B.A. de...
W. Christopher Beary is a lawyer practicing business law, commercial litigation, commercial transactions and 6 other areas of law.
Gillian Bruna Gibbs is a lawyer practicing construction law, contracts, debtor and creditor and 8 other areas of law. Gillian has been licensed for 12...
Atty. Ashley L Belleau is a lawyer practicing alternative dispute resolution, banks and banking, commercial litigation and 9 other areas of law.
Mr. Marx David Sterbcow is a lawyer practicing federal regulation, class action, financial markets and services and 9 other areas of law.
Harry R Holladay is a lawyer practicing real property, oil and gas, bankruptcy law and 3 other areas of law. Harry received a degree from University o...
Presenter: "Direct Action Statutes and Defense Implications," National Forum for Environmental and Toxic Tort Issues (FETTI), October 1-2, 2009; "Emer...
Paul M Haygood is a lawyer practicing mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, securities law and 2 other areas of law. Paul received a A.B. degree fr...
David F Edwards is a lawyer practicing estate planning & administration, tax & estates, tax & fiduciary litigation and 3 other areas of law. David rec...
John Fielding Shreves is a lawyer practicing taxation, business and estate planning, corporate law and 3 other areas of law. John received a M.A.T. de...
Steven Elliott Bain is a lawyer practicing trusts, elder law, wills and 14 other areas of law. Steven received a B.A. degree from University of New Or...
Ms. Maria I.
Timothy D Scandurro is a lawyer practicing commercial litigation, personal injury, employment litigation and 2 other areas of law. Timothy received a ...
Delta Theta Phi. Member, Council of Louisiana State Law Institute, 1972-1976.
Charlene L Smith is a lawyer practicing personal injury, estate planning, family and 1 other area of law. Charlene has been licensed for 10 years.
Ronald Warner is a lawyer practicing capital markets, corporate, corporate trust and 10 other areas of law. Ronald received a B.A. degree from Tulane ...
Morgan Sears Daniels is a lawyer practicing family, wills & living wills, probate. Morgan received a B.A. degree from Loyola University, and has been ...
Mr. Michael Raudon Phillips is a lawyer practicing antitrust, appeals, business disputes and litigation and 11 other areas of law.
Ms. Laura Walker Plunkett is a lawyer practicing wills & living wills, trusts, corporate & incorporation and 2 other areas of law.
H. Slayton "Slate" Dabney, Jr. is a lawyer practicing chapter 11 trustee or examiner, expert witness, litigation or liquidation trustee and 3 other ar...
William H Langenstein III is a lawyer practicing corporate law, taxation, mergers and acquisitions and 6 other areas of law. William received a B.S. d...
Mark Andrew Hill is a lawyer practicing maritime law, commercial litigation, corporate law and 17 other areas of law. Mark received a B.A. degree from...
Mr. Joel Arthur Mendler is a lawyer practicing taxation law, estate planning, trust law and 2 other areas of law.
James Arthur Brown is a lawyer practicing probate, probate administration, ancillary probate and 15 other areas of law. James received a B.S. degree f...
Brian Wesley Hoffman is a lawyer practicing estate planning, business law, commercial real estate and 6 other areas of law. Brian received a B.S. degr...
Cynthia Anne Wegmann is a lawyer practicing admiralty, wills, insurance defense and 2 other areas of law. Cynthia received a B.F.A. degree from H.
Lynn Goldberg Wolf is a lawyer practicing oil and gas transactions, oil and gas title opinions, energy and environmental law and 18 other areas of law...
George Wogan Bernard is a lawyer practicing commercial real estate, business law, real estate and 6 other areas of law. George received a degree from ...
Beverly Klundt Baudouin is a lawyer practicing business, probate. Beverly received a B.A. degree from Loyola University in 1978, and has been licensed...
Katherine Osborne Hannan is a lawyer practicing probate, mass torts, insurance coverage and 1 other area of law. Katherine received a B.A. degree from...
Mr. Robert Moise Steeg is a lawyer practicing real estate law, secured transactions, landlord and tenant law and 7 other areas of law.
Laura Junge Carman is a lawyer practicing probate, trusts and estates, successions. Laura received a B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1974, a...
Ellen M Chapin is a lawyer practicing probate, estate planning and trusts, taxation (federal and state), real estate. Ellen received a degree from Uni...
William M Lucas, Jr is a lawyer practicing corporate law, estate planning, health and hospital law and 1 other area of law. William received a B.B.A. ...
Mr. Ralph R Alexis III is a lawyer practicing estate planning, wills, trusts and estates and 6 other areas of law.
Mr. Guy B Scoggin is a lawyer practicing probate, oil and gas, corporate law.
Martin E Landrieu is a lawyer practicing business litigation, real estate contracts, real estate litigation and 4 other areas of law. Martin received ...
Fred Lee Butler is a lawyer practicing estate planning, litigation, casualty and coverage and 9 other areas of law. Fred received a B.A. degree from L...
Jacob S Capraro is a lawyer practicing taxation, tax exempt finance, corporate trust. Jacob received a B.S. degree from University of New Orleans in 1...
Robert P Charbonnet, Jr is a lawyer practicing personal injury, wills, successions and 10 other areas of law. Robert received a B.A. degree from Unive...
Dorothea Manning Suthon is a lawyer practicing probate, commercial litigation. Dorothea received a A.B. degree from Duke University in 1982, and has b...
The firm's founder, David W. Nance, was born 1966 in El Paso, Texas.
Michael Thomas Elias is a lawyer practicing commercial law, business law, wills and 3 other areas of law. Michael received a B.A. degree from Tulane U...
John J Weiler is a lawyer practicing taxation, state and federal tax matters, tax litigation and 10 other areas of law. John received a B.A. degree fr...
Patrick J Browne is a lawyer practicing real estate, banking, finance and 9 other areas of law. Patrick received a A.B. degree from Loyola University,...
Glenn B Adams is a lawyer practicing products liability, health insurance, insurance defense and 4 other areas of law. Glenn received a B.A. degree fr...
Morton H Katz is a lawyer practicing personal injury, maritime law, construction litigation and 5 other areas of law. Morton received a B.A. degree fr...
Susan J Burkenstock is a lawyer practicing estate planning, probate, real estate and 4 other areas of law. Susan received a B.S. degree from St.
Marshall J. Favret is a lawyer practicing real estate law, probate law, finance law.
Fred Bronfin is a lawyer practicing real estate law, estate planning law, trusts and estates and 4 other areas of law. Fred received a B.A. degree fro...
What is Estate Planning?
Estate Planning is the branch of law that governs the rights, obligations, and disputes that arise within its subject matter. In the United States, estate planning sits at the intersection of statutes enacted by Congress, the regulations issued by federal agencies, the laws passed by all fifty state legislatures, and the body of judge-made decisions known as the common law. Because every state writes its own version of the rules, the way estate planning works in one jurisdiction can look noticeably different from how it works in another, and that is one of the main reasons attorneys in this area focus their practice geographically — to stay fluent in the local statutes, court rules, and judicial preferences that shape outcomes.
At a practical level, Estate Planning attorneys spend their time on three categories of work. The first is advice and prevention: counselling clients on how to structure transactions, draft documents, and conduct business so that legal risk is minimised before a dispute ever begins. The second is transactional execution: producing the contracts, filings, notices, and registrations that the law actually requires to make a decision legally binding. The third is contested representation: defending or pursuing a client's interests when a dispute escalates to negotiation, regulatory enforcement, arbitration, or litigation in court.
The clients who hire Estate Planning lawyers range from individuals navigating a single life event to multinational corporations with complex regulatory exposure. What unifies them is the need for an experienced lawyer who knows the relevant code sections, has appeared in the relevant courts, and can translate the strategic options into language a client can act on. AttorneyQnA currently lists 620 verified estate planning attorneys across the United States, each with a public profile showing their bar admissions, years in practice, and the kinds of matters they have handled — with the deepest concentration of practitioners in California.
When do you need an Estate Planning attorney?
Most people contact an estate planning lawyer for one of two reasons: something is about to happen that they want done correctly the first time, or something has gone wrong and they need it fixed before it gets worse. The earlier you involve counsel, the more options you usually have, and the lower the cost of getting to a resolution tends to be. The scenarios below are the ones we see most often on AttorneyQnA from prospective clients searching for estate planning representation.
Once your signature is on a contract, settlement, lease, or release, your bargaining leverage drops sharply. A short pre-signature review by an estate planning lawyer is the cheapest insurance you can buy.
Cease-and-desist letters, regulatory notices, and demand letters all start clocks. Missing the response window can convert a manageable problem into a default judgment or formal enforcement action.
Statutes of limitations, filing windows, and appeal periods are jurisdictional — courts cannot extend them as a favour. If you can identify a date that matters, you need a lawyer before that date arrives.
The moment opposing counsel appears, the conversation moves out of normal English and into procedural language. Continuing unrepresented usually means losing ground you cannot recover later.
Forming an entity, choosing a venue, structuring a deal, or selecting a remedy each has long-term consequences. A consultation at the planning stage is far cheaper than redoing it after the fact.
Multi-state matters bring conflict-of-laws questions that change which statutes apply and which court has authority. An attorney licensed in the right jurisdiction is not optional.
If any of the situations above describes where you are right now, the next step is a focused consultation. Use the Ask a Lawyer tool for short written questions, or browse the 620 estate planning attorneys listed above to book a paid consultation directly.
How to choose an Estate Planning attorney
The single biggest factor in choosing an estate planning lawyer is fit with your specific matter. A lawyer with twenty years of estate planning experience but no exposure to your particular sub-issue can easily be a worse choice than a five-year associate who has handled the same problem repeatedly. We recommend running every prospective lawyer through the same five-step checklist before signing an engagement letter.
- Bar admission in the correct jurisdiction. Confirm the lawyer is admitted in the state — and where relevant, the federal district — where your matter sits. The lawyer's profile on AttorneyQnA shows every bar admission on file, and the underlying state bar's "lawyer lookup" tool will confirm active standing in under a minute.
- Direct experience with your fact pattern. Ask plainly: "How many matters like mine have you handled in the last three years, and how did they resolve?" An honest answer reveals more than years-in-practice alone.
- A written fee agreement. Whether hourly, flat fee, contingent, or hybrid, the engagement letter should specify what is included, what triggers additional charges, and how disputes are handled. Avoid lawyers who resist writing the terms down.
- Communication cadence. Decide upfront how often you expect updates, who your day-to-day contact will be, and what response time is reasonable. The number-one complaint filed with state bar grievance committees is not malpractice — it is non-communication.
- Conflict check + reputation pulse. Make sure the lawyer has run a formal conflict check, then spend ten minutes reading independent reviews and any public disciplinary history. The state bar's website is authoritative for the second; the lawyer's AttorneyQnA profile collects the first.
Once you have a shortlist, schedule consultations with two or three. Lawyers vary widely in temperament, and the right strategic match for your case is sometimes the second or third lawyer you meet — not the first.
How much does an Estate Planning lawyer cost?
Legal fees in the United States are not regulated by a uniform schedule, so what you pay an estate planning lawyer depends on the billing model the lawyer offers, the complexity of your matter, and the local market. There are four billing structures used in this practice area; most engagements use one, but hybrid arrangements are increasingly common.
1. Hourly billing
The default model for most non-contingent matters. Rates for estate planning attorneys in the U.S. typically range from $150–$250/hour in smaller markets to $400–$700/hour in major metropolitan areas, with senior partners at large firms commanding $900/hour and above. Hourly billing is fairest when the scope of work is genuinely unpredictable, but it creates an incentive structure that the client has to monitor.
2. Flat fee
Increasingly used for well-defined transactions — incorporations, will drafting, single-issue filings, uncontested matters. A flat fee tells you exactly what the deliverable will cost, and the lawyer absorbs the risk of unexpected complexity. Ask whether the flat fee includes filing fees, third-party costs, and any post-filing follow-up.
3. Contingency
Where it is permitted by the rules of professional conduct — most often in plaintiff-side estate planning work involving monetary recovery — the lawyer is paid a percentage of the proceeds, typically 33% before suit is filed and 40% after. The client pays nothing if there is no recovery. Contingency fees align the lawyer's economics with yours, but the percentage compounds across time, so very strong cases sometimes do better on hourly billing.
4. Retainer / subscription
A monthly fee that buys a defined block of access or hours. This is common for businesses with ongoing estate planning needs — contract review, employee questions, regulatory check-ins. A subscription smooths out spending and gives the lawyer a reason to know your operation in depth.
Whichever model you choose, ask for an itemised written estimate before the engagement begins, and ask explicitly what is not covered. Surprise expenses are the most common source of attorney-client friction.
Frequently asked questions about estate planning
How quickly can an estate planning lawyer review my matter?
Most lawyers can schedule an initial consultation within 1–3 business days. Urgent matters — pending deadlines, time-sensitive notices, court-ordered hearings — should be flagged in your first message; many lawyers reserve emergency consultation slots for that reason. If you need a written answer faster, the Ask a Lawyer tool typically returns answers in under 24 hours.
Do I need a estate planning lawyer in my exact city, or anywhere in my state?
Bar admission is the controlling rule: any attorney licensed in your state can represent you in that state's courts and agencies, regardless of which city they're based in. Practical proximity still matters for in-person meetings, local court familiarity, and access to the local bench and bar. For state-level filings and remote-friendly matters, an attorney elsewhere in the same state often works fine.
Will an initial consultation cost me anything?
Many estate planning attorneys offer a free 15- to 30-minute initial consultation; others charge a flat consultation fee that may be credited against the engagement if you hire them. The lawyer's profile lists the consultation policy. Free does not always mean better — a fee-based consultation is sometimes the sign of a lawyer who treats their time, and yours, seriously.
What documents should I bring to the first meeting?
Bring every contract, notice, letter, filing, or written communication connected to the matter; a written timeline of events with dates; the names and contact details of every other party involved; and any deadlines or hearing dates you are already aware of. Even an incomplete file is more useful than a verbal summary alone.
Can I change lawyers if I am not happy with mine?
Yes. Clients can discharge their lawyer at any time, for any reason, by written notice. Your case file belongs to you and must be transferred to your new counsel. Any unpaid fees through the date of discharge remain owed; any unearned advance must be refunded. If you are mid-litigation, the court typically must approve the substitution, but approval is routine.
How long does an typical estate planning matter take?
It depends almost entirely on whether the matter is transactional or contested. A transactional matter — a contract, a filing, a single-step transaction — can resolve in days to weeks. A contested matter — anything involving disputed facts, court intervention, or regulatory action — typically takes months at minimum, and complex cases can run multiple years. Your lawyer should give you a realistic outside estimate at intake.
Are estate planning lawyer fees tax-deductible?
It depends on the nature of the matter and current tax law. Fees connected to producing or collecting taxable income, managing investment property, or operating a business are often deductible; fees for personal matters generally are not. Because rules change, confirm deductibility with a tax professional for the year in which the fees are paid.
What is the difference between estate planning and the related practice areas?
Estate Planning overlaps with several adjacent areas — see the related-practice-area grid below for direct links. Choosing the right lawyer often means picking the one whose primary focus matches the heart of your problem, even if multiple labels could technically apply. When you are unsure, list your situation in your own words to two lawyers from neighbouring areas and ask which one of them is the better fit; honest lawyers will tell you.
Find estate planning attorneys by state
Each state link below opens the estate planning roster for that jurisdiction, with the local statute of limitations, court-system overview, and verified attorneys.
Estate Planning Law Firms
Main Law Firm
Winter Park
Walton Law Firm
San Marcos
Bruner Law Firm
Fort Walton Beach
J&Y Law Firm
Los Angeles
West Law Firm
Charleston
John T. Floyd Law Firm
Houston
Estate Planning by State
All states →Find estate planning attorneys in every US state. Each state link opens a hub with verified attorneys, the state filing deadline, and a free attorney match.