Fiduciary Neutrality: When to Join the Fight. The Ethics, Law and Practice of Neutrality – Part I

Ms. Boehmer has been in practice over 15 years, serving as the President of the Professional Fiduciaries Association of California (PFAC) from 2011 to 2013. She is also a certified mediator through the Los Angeles County Bar Association. She has been an outstanding advocate and backer of legislation aimed at improving the fiduciary profession and standards in California. Ms. Boehmer, who is also a licensed tax preparer, has owned and operated Norine Boehmer Management, Inc. since 1990.

The Honorable Judge David J. Cowan is Supervising Judge of the Probate and Mental Health Depts. of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. In that capacity, he oversees sixteen courtrooms and works with the other judges, Court management and justice partners on the operations of the Court for these disciplines. He serves on the Court’s Operations and Executive Committees. Since March 2018, he has been sitting in Dept. 3 of the Mosk Courthouse – focused solely on long or complex Probate trials and settlement conferences. Previously, he spent five years handling a Probate calendar and trial assignment; managing and deciding decedent estates, trusts, guardianships and conservatorship cases.

Lauriann Wright is an experienced probate litigator and estate planner. For over 25 years, she has been practicing all phases of probate law and litigation, including conservatorships, guardianships, trusts, and probate estates, throughout Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside Counties. The focus of her practice is the representation of professional fiduciaries, with particular success in helping fiduciaries maintain neutrality in the midst of litigation among family members. She also represents select private clients in trust and estate litigation matters, like will and trust contests.

For 2019, she has been named as one of the Top 50 Women Super Lawyers in Southern California. For the 8 consecutive years of 2012 through 2019, she was named as a Southern California Super Lawyer in Trust and Estate Litigation. For 2016 through 2019, she is also listed as one of “The Best Lawyers in America” in Litigation/ Probate by Best Lawyer and her law firm has been named a Best Law Firm by U.S. News & World Report as well. And she has been named as a member of the National Advocates: Top 100 of Wills, Trust and Estates Lawyers. She is a regular speaker on probate law topics.

Yevgeny L. Belous is a partner at Nielsen & Rogers LLP, an Elder Law firm located in Woodland Hills, California. Mr. Belous practices exclusively in the areas of trusts and estates, conservatorships, guardianships, estate planning and probate litigation. A large portion of Mr. Belous’ practice is devoted to representing professional fiduciaries in court proceedings and private trusts.

Yevgeny L. Belous was born in 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine. He is fluent in Russian and graduated in 2005 from the University of California Santa Cruz, majoring in Economics and Business Management. Mr. Belous completed his J.D. from Thomas Cooley Law School in 2009 and was admitted to the State Bar if California in 2009. In law school, he was a senior intern at the Sixty Plus Elder Law Clinic, which exposed him to a wide variety of legal issues facing the elderly. Since becoming an attorney, he has continued upon this path practicing exclusively in the areas of trusts and estates, conservatorships, guardianships, and probate litigation.