How Sacks Glazier is Shaping California Trust and Estate Law – Featured in Daily Journal
Sacks, Glazier, Franklin, Lodise, McMurtrey & Scheerer, LLP was profiled in Daily Journal discussing its evolution over the past 25 years from a small Los Angeles boutique into one of California’s most influential trust and estate litigation firms. Along the way, the firm has helped shape probate law through landmark appellate cases, bar leadership, judicial education and national policy work.
Prior to the firm launching in 2001, probate work had long been associated with estate planning and administration. But the lawyers who founded the firm – Robert Sacks, Kenneth Glazier, Terrence Franklin and Meg Lodise – recognized an opportunity driven by increasingly complex wealth transfers, aging populations, evolving family structures, and growing disputes over fiduciary duties, inheritance rights and elder abuse.
“Between nontraditional relationships, high levels of wealth, and a large retiree population, the Southland is never without a high-profile family feud,” Franklin commented.
The firm has handled several cases that have helped define California probate and fiduciary law as well as some of the state’s largest modern trust disputes. In 2025, Sacks and Partner John Scheerer led the successful defense of a $3 billion challenge to the Barron Hilton Trust and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. The attorneys secured dismissals and appellate victories in multiple related actions before prevailing in summary judgment weeks before trial in the final case.
But the firm’s influence extends well beyond courtroom victories as reflected in the attorneys’ countless leadership roles in nationwide organizations. As one example, Lodise and Managing Partner Matthew McMurtrey have chaired the California Lawyers Association’s Trusts and Estates Executive Committee (TEXCOM), which helps shape statewide probate legislation and policy discussions. Lodise also currently serves as President of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), and has become increasingly involved in efforts to preserve trust and estate education in law schools and on the NextGen bar exam.
“There’s just a huge amount of wealth being transferred,” Lodise said. “Not having that taught in law schools on a regular basis is a huge detriment to the public, we think.”
Sacks, Glazier, Franklin, Lodise, McMurtrey & Scheerer, LLP’s reputation has attracted clients beyond California, including Kevin Reed, general counsel at the University of Oregon, who turned to the firm when the university became involved in several California estate disputes as a beneficiary. Reed said the matters required a careful balance between protecting the university’s interests and controlling litigation costs when the value of potential recoveries remained uncertain.
Reed credited Franklin with staffing the matters efficiently by pairing younger attorneys with experienced supervision. “[Franklin] does a really good job of putting really smart younger attorneys and associates on matters, but stepping in when needed.”
Read the full Daily Journal profile here. (Subscription may be required)