Trusts and Estates
Ca. Trs. & Estates Quarterly 2021, Volume 27, Issue 4
Content
- Chairs of Section Subcommittees
- Editorial Board
- Foreseeable Monetization of Michael Jackson's Assets After Death: How To Value Copyrights of Musical Compositions and Rights of Publicity
- From the Editor-in-chief
- Inside this Issue:
- Joint Representation and Advance Waivers
- King Lear and a Thousand Acres—Two Estate Planning Tragedies With Timeless Lessons For Modern Estate Planning Attorneys
- Litigation Alert
- Tax Alert
- Tips of the Trade: Real Property, Real Problems: a Practitioner's Guide To Dealing With Real Estate In a Probate
- To Protect and Serve - a Case To Abolish Attorney Work Product Protection As To Estate Planners' Files In Post-death Will or Trust Contests
- From the Chair
FROM THE CHAIR
By Matt McMurtrey, Esq.*
As the newly installed Chair of the Executive Committee of the Trusts and Estates Section (affectionately called "TEXCOM") ofthe California Lawyers Association ("CLA"), I struggled penning this piece. Looking at prior Chairs’ "From the Chair" openings, I reread Gena Lera’s, which completely captures my feelings.
During Gina’s time as Chair, the Legislature had decided to split the State Bar. Sections would be separated into a new entity—CLA. To say the least, those were challenging times.
Facing challenges as Chair was not unique to Gina. All the Chairs have faced challenges—some more daunting than others, but all are important, and all must be met. My immediate predecessor, Ellen McKissock, had Covid-19 restrictions looming during her year as Chair. She had to negotiate the perils of Zoom meetings, trying to keep some of the most distinguished minds in the trusts and estates field engaged discussing pressing legislation, while also instilling our core values into the new TEXCOM members. Ellen was masterful. I am so grateful to have been her Vice Chair. She showed me how a litigator (like me) could balance the demands of the office of Chair while trying not one case, but three, all during a world-wide pandemic. That is no mean feat. I hope that I am half the Chair that she was.