Mary F. Gillick

Of counsel | San Diego

Mary is counsel in the trust and estate litigation team

She focuses on fiduciary litigation and pre-litigation counseling, with particular emphasis on trust and estate disputes as well as elder abuse matters, conservatorships and related protective proceedings and strategies.

She has been listed in the San Diego Business Journal Best of the Bar, Top 50 San Diego Super Lawyers, Top 25 Women San Diego Super Lawyers, The Daily Transcript: San Diego County Top Attorneys, Best Lawyers in America® and has achieved a Martindale-Hubbell® AV Rating.

Full profile

Focus areas

Elderly and vulnerable people

Families and family offices

Beneficiaries and heirs

High-net-worth individuals

Trustees, executors and fiduciaries

Track record

Admissions

Publications

Memberships

Talks

Representing the charitable beneficiaries of a trust which was changed in favor of the settlor’s estate planning attorney, by his friend, the real estate litigator. At trial, Jeremy and Mary were able to prove the settlor was delusional about her estate planning attorney, seeing him as a god-like figure, and suffered from mental illness complicated by the loss of both her adult children to melanoma.

Successfully unwound estate plan which was the result of undue influence and elder abuse.

Defended numerous estate plans challenged on the basis of undue influence, lack of capacity, elder abuse, fraud and other grounds.

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State of California, 1984

‘Fly on the Wall - Discovery of Attorney Fee Statements’, California Trusts and Estates Quarterly, Volume 23, Issue 4 - 2017

‘Attorney-Client Privilege and Invoices’, WealthManagement.com - December 2015

‘Actions By and Against Representative’, California Decedent Estate Practice, 2nd Edition, Chapter 23, Probate

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American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Fiduciary Litigation Committee

Estate Planning - Trusts and Probate Bench Bar Liaison Committee

San Diego County Bar Association

Estate Planning and Probate Law Subcommittee of the San Diego County Bar

Estate Planning Council of San Diego – 2009 – present

Probate Attorneys of San Diego - 2012 - present

‘Wine Not? California’s New Decanting Act,’ First American Trust – January 29 and February 1, 2019

‘Fall 2013 Litigation Training Program’, Probate Attorneys of San Diego - 10 September 2013

‘Conflicts of Interest in Multiple Fiduciary Roles’, San Diego County Bar Association, Probate and Trust Section - April 2013

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Me in a minute

Creating a beneficial outcome for an elder is particularly satisfying

As our population has matured, the need to protect our elders has grown exponentially. Although this is not the majority of my focus, creating a beneficial outcome for an elder (i.e., protecting them from those who would separate them from their assets) is particularly satisfying personally. The ways in which family and non-family members, including even the professionals hired to assist them with their estate plan and wealth management, scam elders is limited only by wild imagination. ‘You can’t make this up’ is a refrain describing many of my cases in every aspect, and particularly in the area of elder abuse. One shouldn’t omit sibling rivalry, or the tentacles of the second or third or fourth spouse in this description, or any number of other situations falling into this category of truth is stranger than fiction.

Education

University of Maryland, B.S.
University of San Diego School of Law, magna cum laude, J.D.

Languages

  • English

Dates

Joined

2015

Recognition

San Diego

101 West Broadway,

Suite 1000,

CA 92101

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Regularly works with...

Insight

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