Sheppard Mullin Adds Leading Trusts & Estates Litigation Team in Silicon Valley

Business Wire

Three-Attorney Team Strengthens Firm’s Nationally Recognized Practice

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP is pleased to announce that a three-attorney litigation team has joined the firm’s Private Wealth and Fiduciary Litigation practice in Palo Alto, led by partner Steven Braccini and including senior associates Wendy Krog and Kendal Fletcher. The team joins Sheppard Mullin from Silicon Valley-based Hopkins Carley.

Private Wealth and Fiduciary Litigation Practice Group Leader Adam Streisand said, “Sheppard Mullin’s private wealth litigation practice is unparalleled, and with Steve, Wendy and Kendal, we continue to set ourselves apart as the leading trusts and estates litigation firm up and down the California coast and beyond.”

Commenting on Braccini’s joining, Robert Beall, Sheppard Mullin’s Co-Managing Partner, said, “Our Palo Alto office is growing and we’re thrilled to welcome Steve, Wendy and Kendal. Over the last year, we’ve added to our corporate and IP practices in Silicon Valley with the additions of partners John Booher and Harper Batts, respectively, and we expect to have more outstanding attorneys join us over the course of this year.”

Braccini’s practice focuses on trust, probate, fiduciary and conservatorship litigation, including will contests, trust contests, removal and surcharge actions, contested conservatorships, accounting disputes, financial elder abuse actions, reformation or modification actions, tax controversy and related civil claims. He is a fellow of the prestigious American College of Trusts & Estates Counsel (ACTEC) and is former Chair of the San Mateo County Bar Association, Estate Planning and Probate Section. He received his B.S. from Santa Clara University and his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law. Following law school, Braccini was a judicial extern for Magistrate Judge Edward A. Infante, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.

Sheppard Mullin has 38 attorneys based in its Palo Alto office and 15 attorneys in its Private Wealth and Fiduciary Litigation Practice.

About Sheppard Mullin’s Private Wealth and Fiduciary Litigation Practice

Sheppard Mullin’s Private Wealth and Fiduciary Litigation practice includes some of the most successful trial attorneys in the country in disputes over private wealth, most notably involving trusts, decedents’ estates and conservatorships or adult guardianships The group’s litigators represent clients in cases involving claims of breach of fiduciary duty, fiduciary misconduct and fraud, misfeasance and malfeasance in estate administration, investment mismanagement, financial elder abuse, and will and trust contests. Among the Private Wealth and Fiduciary litigators are the former Chair of the State Bar of California’s Trusts and Estates Executive Committee, former Editors of Trusts and Estates Quarterly magazine and some of the most sought-after and prolific lecturers and authors of scholarly works in the field. The team also counsels clients in strategies to avoid disputes both during the estate planning process and in the process of administering estates. They also help clients to stave off the threat of litigation and the expense involved by advising them at the outset on how early missteps can play out in court.

About Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

Sheppard Mullin is a full-service Global 100 firm with more than 850 attorneys in 16 offices located in the United States, Europe and Asia. Since 1927, industry-leading companies have turned to Sheppard Mullin to handle corporate and technology matters, high-stakes litigation and complex financial transactions. In the U.S., the firm's clients include more than half of the Fortune 100. For more information, please visit www.sheppardmullin.com.