Speaker: Jennifer L. Campbell
Moderator: Howard Alan Kipnis

Jennifer L. Campbell

For over 30 years, Ms. Campbell has concentrated her practice in the trusts and estates area, focusing on the administration of trusts and estates and estate planning. Ms. Campbell routinely advises and assists individuals and corporate fiduciaries with a myriad of matters including constructing estate plans, fiduciary legal risk management, trust funding, trust distributions, preparing estate and gift tax returns, and negotiating and drafting settlement agreements.  Ms. Campbell brings a unique insight to every matter she handles, reflecting her extensive practice both in law firms and in financial institutions’ legal departments. Most recently, she served as Assistant General Counsel of MUFG Union Bank, where she served as Union Bank’s sole fiduciary lawyer, and as Managing Counsel, Wealth Management at BNY Mellon/The Bank of New York Mellon.  Before joining BNY Mellon’s in-house department, Ms. Campbell practiced at Hoffman, Sabban & Watenmaker in Los Angeles.  Ms. Campbell is a past co-chair of the Beverly Hills Bar Association Trusts and Estates Executive Committee. Ms. Campbell has received Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer-reviewed rating for professional excellence (“A-V Preeminent”). and professional achievement (“Distinguished”) for 20 years.

Howard Alan Kipnis, Moderator

Mr. Kipnis has over 38 years of experience representing corporate fiduciaries, financial institutions, broker-dealers and brokerage companies, as well as small businesses and individuals, in dispute resolution and litigation arising from banking, brokerage and probate and trust services. For 22 years Mr. Kipnis has received Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer-reviewed rating for professional excellence (“A-V Preeminent”). and professional achievement (“Distinguished”). In the last four years he has also been honored as one of San Diego Magazine’s “Top Lawyers” in both Banking and Probate and Trust Litigation, and selected by “San Diego Super Lawyers” in those fields as well.

Mr. Kipnis has represented clients to judgment (or award) in over 50 jury trials, bench trials, or arbitrations, and has successfully represented banks, institutional and familial fiduciaries and individuals in numerous appeals. 

Mr. Kipnis has co-authored an attorney practice guide and, over the years, has been a featured speaker at several seminars and trade conferences, including state-wide CEB programs, on topics such as trust and probate administration and litigation practice, HIPAA, Financial Elder Abuse, fiduciary and FINRA disputes, and claims resolution and avoidance. He has also testified as an expert witness in several cases involving issues arising from probate/trust litigation/administration, or banking and fiduciary services.

From 1984 to 1993, Mr. Kipnis practiced at Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego. Thereafter, until 1995, he served as Assistant General Counsel at San Diego Trust & Savings Bank, where he handled that bank’s litigation and claims portfolio, and was lead counsel for its Trusts & Estates Department. 

Mr. Kipnis now serves on the Trust and Estates Executive Committee of the California Lawyers Association (formerly the State Bar of California) (TEXCOM), where he currently chairs or vice chairs several of TEXCOM’s Subcommittees, including Litigation and Educating Seniors. Mr. Kipnis was the lead author of an Amicus Brief filed on behalf of TEXCOM in the case of Barefoot v. Jennings (2020) 8 Cal.5th 822, where he successfully advocated on behalf of TEXCOM before the California Supreme Court to reverse a court of appeal opinion that prevented former trust beneficiaries from contesting trust instruments that resulted in their disinheritance in probate court. He has also previously served as a managing editor of the California Trust and Estates Quarterly (the Official Publication of the Trust and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association), and a member of TEXCOM’s Ethics Committee, where he has authored several articles, most recently in 2019 (Vol. 25, Issue 4), entitled, “Barefoot v. Jennings: A Disinherited Trust Beneficiary’s Standing to Bring a Trust Contest in Probate Court Now Teeters Before the California Supreme Court”, and was among several acknowledged contributors to TEXCOM’s Ethics Guide, entitled, “Guide to the California Rules of Professional Conduct for Estate Planners, Trust & Probate Counsel (4th Ed.).”  Mr. Kipnis has been an acknowledged lead counsel in several published opinions, most recently in Haggerty v. Thornton (2021) 68 Cal.App.5th 1003, where the Fourth District Court of Appeal recognized the right of a settlor to amend their trust using the available procedures for revocation where the language of the trust did not expressly prohibit it.