Mike is a certified specialist, Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law, The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. He is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). His primary emphasis at all times has been in estate planning, probate law, trust administration, and federal and California gift tax, estate tax, income tax, and real property tax law.

Mike earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1966; served in the United States Army for three years, including a one year tour in Vietnam; and then earned his law degree (cum laude) from Loyola University School of Law in Los Angeles (1972).

Mike has always been active in professional organizations that educate lawyers, paralegals, and the general public about the many facets of estate planning. He has served as the chair (and in other leadership positions) of the Executive Committee of the California State Bar Association’s Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Section; the Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law Section of the Orange County Bar Association; and the Orange Coast Estate Planning Council. Mike also serves on the Advisory Board of the UCLA-CEB Estate Planning Institute, and on the Planning Committee of the University of Southern California Probate & Trust Conference. In 1991 he served as an adjunct professor of Estate and Gift Taxation at Golden Gate University Graduate School of Taxation in Irvine, California. Mike has been an author, speaker and panelist on more than sixty professional educational programs. Mike has assisted in the drafting of California Probate Code legislation, and has appeared before California legislative committees.

On the personal side, Mike enjoys traveling, playing the piano, and assisting with his wife’s charitable activities.