Lauren uses a collaborative approach and technical expertise to advise individuals, families, and businesses on tax planning and succession issues.

Overview

Lauren works with individuals, families, and closely-held businesses to identify their estate planning goals and craft plans that best serve their interests. She works with clients on tax planning, charitable giving, business succession planning, prenuptial agreements, estate administration and disputed probate and trust matters.

Lauren’s training as a qualified mediator informs her approach to resolving probate, trust, and family business disputes, and her practice with individuals and families in estate planning. Her understanding of human dynamics, along with her technical skills, helps her guide individuals and families through some of life's most challenging events.

Experience

Advises multi-generation, high net-worth families, closely-held businesses, and start-up founders on estate planning, assisting with orderly, tax-advantaged wealth transfer and stewardship of family-owned businesses.

Advises on complex charitable giving.

Supports, advises, and advocates for clients in disputed probate and trust administration matters, as well as IRS examinations and audits. She advises on a wide range of estate-related tax compliance issues.

Advises on determination of heirship, valuation issues, and estate tax reporting. She served as counsel to the Special Administrator of one of the largest and most notable intestate estates in recent history.

Counsels nonprofit organizations, including public charities, private foundations, and community foundations, on creation, tax exemption, governance, gift acceptance policies, and receipt and administration of planned and complex charitable gifts.

Lauren is deeply committed to pro bono work. She volunteers with the Minnesota Council for Veterans Legal Clinic, assisting veterans with estate planning, and provides immigration counsel and guardianship assistance to the local immigrant community through the firm’s Deinard Legal Clinic.

News & Insights

Speaking Engagements

"Probate A to Z: Closing and Distribution," Minnesota CLE, February 2024

"2023 Large Estates Panel: Planning in Uncertain Economic Times," 2023 Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, June 2023

"Planning Techniques and Opportunities to Help Your Clients Navigate Their Jurisdiction-Hopping Lifestyle: A Scenario-Based Discussion," Estate Planning Across Borders, October 2022

"T&E 101: Trust and Estates for the Donor Advisor," Minnesota Planned Giving Council Annual Conference, October 2018

Publications

"Single-Member LLCs: Planning for Incapacity and Death," Hennepin Lawyer, March/April 2016

"Cultivating Farmers’ Rights: Reconciling Food Security, Indigenous Agriculture, and TRIPS," 43 Vand J. Transnat’l L. 223, 2010 – Winner of the Grace Wilson Sims Prize for Excellence in Student Writing in Transnational Law

Recognitions

Recognitions

Named to the Best Lawyers in America© "Ones to Watch" list in the field of Trusts and Estates, 2023-2024

Recognized as an "Up & Coming Attorney" for 2019 by Minnesota Lawyer

Professional & Civic Activities

Professional & Civic Activities

Minnesota Orchestra Board Member, 2024 – present

Hennepin County Probate Court's ADR Project, Volunteer Mediator

Youth Farm, former Treasurer and Board Member

Fourth Generation Fund - The Minneapolis Foundation, former Advisory Board Member

Hennepin County Bar Association, former Probate and Trust Law Section Program Chair and Co-Vice Chair, 2013 - 2015

Stinson Minneapolis Pro Bono Committee

American Bar Association

Minnesota State Bar Association

Florida Bar Association

Admissions

  • Florida
  • Minnesota

Education

Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D.

University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.A., Political Science and Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies, with honors

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