
Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP

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Firm Details
Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP
calfee.com
888 CALFEE1
Managing Partner: Brent D Ballard
Chairman: Douglas A Neary
Firm Administrative Partner: Arthur C. Hall III
Firm General Counsel: Maura L. Hughes
Number of partners: 74
Number of other lawyers: 75
Firm Overview
Founded in 1903, Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP is a full-service, corporate law firm. As a founding member of Lex Mundi, the firm offers international representation through a network of independent law firms with 22,000 attorneys in 125 countries.
Main Areas of Practice
- Charitable Giving Law
- Corporate Succession Planning
- Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Law
- Estate and Trust Administration
- Executive Compensation Law
- Family Office Law
- General Corporate Law
- Personal Estate Planning
- Private Equity Law
- Probate Litigation
- Tax Law
- Wealth Management Law
Estate and Succession Planning and Administration
The attorneys with Calfee’s Estate and Succession Planning and Administration practice group assist clients in developing and implementing comprehensive estate plans that carefully balance personal goals with tax and administrative concerns. The group also provides comprehensive probate and trust administration, litigation services, and asset protection planning counsel.
Calfee attorneys are keenly focused on the issues surrounding efficient wealth transition and helping clients arrange their affairs to reflect unique family values and situations. As part of a full-service law firm, Calfee's Estate Planning attorneys work closely with other members of the firm to develop effective business transition strategies focused on orderly management transition as well as efficient wealth transfer. Calfee's Estate Planning attorneys have specific experience in the following areas:
Personal Estate Planning
- Wills and living trusts
- Powers of attorney (financial and healthcare)
- Lifetime gifts
- Irrevocable insurance trusts
- Minors’ education trusts
- Family gift trusts
- Generation-skipping trusts
- Grantor retained interest trusts
- Intentionally defective grantor trusts
- Ohio Legacy Trust/asset protection planning
- Ohio private family trust companies
- Domicile planning
- Judicial and nonjudicial trust modifications
- Private settlement agreements
- Trust decanting
- Probate avoidance
- Guardianship matters
Charitable Planning
- Charitable lead and remainder trusts
- Gift annuities
- Private foundations
- Pooled income funds
Corporate Succession Planning
- Ownership control and management of closely held businesses
- Analysis/implementation of gift or sale of closely held stock
- Family limited partnerships/limited liability companies
- Subchapter S trusts
Estate and Trust Administration
- Post-mortem income and estate tax planning
- Probate court filings
- Estate tax return preparation
- Estate accounting and bookkeeping
- Fiduciary income tax returns
- Asset transfers
Probate Litigation
- Individual and corporate fiduciaries
- Beneficiaries
Contact: Joseph M. Mentrek, Partner and Practice Chair
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +1 216.622.8866
Wealth Management Law
Calfee's Wealth Management Law practice takes a multidisciplinary approach to financial planning by calling upon the collaborative expertise of attorneys from the Estate and Succession Planning and Administration, Corporate and Finance, Private Equity, and Tax Law practices to work closely with clients, their family offices, and other outside service providers to offer practical legal solutions to complex issues created by complicated business and family structures. The expertise of Calfee's Partnership Law, Tax Law and Securities Law attorneys is critical when navigating the challenges posed by family-operating business, partnership, or limited liability company entities formed to manage complex investment structures as well as the unique challenges faced by direct or indirect investments in private equity or venture capital vehicles. While Calfee attorneys frequently work with family office personnel, they also are experienced at analyzing the pros and cons of engaging the services of a multifamily office or the formation of a single-family office.
Contact: Brent M. Pietrafese, Partner and Practice Leader
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +1 216.622.8623
Practice Areas and Offices
- Antitrust
- Aviation Law
- Business Restructuring and Insolvency
- Compliance/Regulatory Services
- Construction Law
- Corporate and Finance
- Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
- Energy and Utilities Law
- Environmental Law
- Estate and Succession Planning and Administration
- Franchise Law
- Government Relations and Legislation
- Health Care Regulation
- Information Technology Law
- Insurance Coverage
- Intellectual Property
- Labor and Employment
- Litigation
- Privacy and Data Security
- Public Law
- Real Estate Law
- Tax Law
- Wealth Management Law
Offices
USA
CINCINNATI, OHIO: 2800 First Financial Center, 255 E. 5th St., Cincinnati, OH 45202
Tel: 513.693.4880
Fax: 513.842.7028
Email: [email protected]
CLEVELAND, OHIO: The Calfee Building, 1405 E. 6th St., Cleveland, OH 44114
Tel: 216.622.8200
Fax: 216.241.0816
Email: [email protected]
COLUMBUS, OHIO: 1200 Huntington Center, 41 S. High St., Columbus, OH 43215
Tel: 614.621.1500
Fax: 614.621.0010
Email: [email protected]
INDIANAPOLIS, IN: 115 W. Washington St., Suite 1585, Indianapolis, IN 46204
Tel: 317.308.7970
Fax: 317.759.7319
Email: [email protected]
NEW YORK, NY: Wall Street Plaza, 88 Pine St., 14th Fl., New York, NY 10005
Tel: 646.360.1560
Fax: 646.712.9459
Email: [email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C.: 1627 I St. NW, Suite 1120, Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202.672.1010
Fax: 202.672.1007
Email: [email protected]

This firm is also ranked in:
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Private Wealth Law
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Ranked Offices
Chambers Research is conducted by 200 Research Analysts, across 200 jurisdictions and provides nearly 6,000 rankings tables. Annually we collect hundreds of thousands of responses from clients, the majority via in-depth interview. Learn more about our methodology.

Ranked Offices
Head Office





The Calfee Building
1405 East Sixth Street
Cleveland
Ohio
USA
OH 44114