Lauren’s collaborative approach and technical experience make her a unique advisor for individuals, families and businesses facing estate transitions and succession issues.
Overview
Lauren works with individuals and families 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 and closely held businesses 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
News
Publications
- "Cultivating Farmers’ Rights: Reconciling Food Security, Indigenous Agriculture, and TRIPS," 43 Vand J. Transnat’l L. 223, 2010
Recognitions
Recognitions
Named to the 2023 Best Lawyers in America© "Ones to Watch" list in the field of Trusts and Estates
Recognized as an "Up & Coming Attorney" for 2019 by Minnesota Lawyer
Professional & Civic Activities
Professional & Civic Activities
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
Practices & Industries
Admissions
- Florida
- Minnesota
Education
Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D., 2010
- Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Executive Student Writing Editor, 2009-2010
- Winner of the Grace Wilson Sims Prize for Excellence in Student Writing in Transnational Law
University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.A., Political Science and Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies, with honors