The Gordian Knot

Meet Barry Adams. Barry’s practice mainly focuses on probate and trust law and over the course of the podcast, Rick and Barry talk about some of Barry’s more tricky cases and his thoughts on that area of law in general. They also discuss the impact of the fires in California and how it is affecting the people in the region.

What kind of cases do you typically encounter?

Barry has been doing almost exclusively probate and trust work...

Meet David Shapiro. Rick and Dave discuss David’s trust and estate practice, tricky puzzles he’s encountered in the course of his business, and some of the more messy property cases he’s worked on.

What does your practice look like?

David’s practice is almost exclusively trust and estate litigation. He represents trustees and beneficiaries from all over the world.

No matter what planning people will do, people will die and leave me...

Listen into the interesting interview with Joseph McHugh. Rick and Joseph discuss the ins and outs of his law practice, some of the more tricky cases he’s dealt with, as well as how Joseph works with his clients.

What kind of work do you like to do?

Joe’s background of working at Disney gave him a taste for contract administration and project management. While he was working at Disney, he got a lot of questions about probate and es...

In this episode of the The Gordian Knot, Rick is interviewing Jenny Alberts. They chat about her estate planning practice in the heart of the tech world. We learn about some of the more wild cases she has worked on as well as some of her techniques for working with new clients.

What kind of clients do you usually work with?

Jenny is a specialist in trust and estate planning as well as probate law. On the planning side, her work inv...

Meet Marivel Zialcita and enjoy this discussion about her Claremont California based trust, estate, and elder law practice center, her extensive involvement in community service, and how she approaches new clients with property issues.

Tell us a little bit about your practice and your clients.

Marivel has been practicing for over 15 years. She always enjoyed working with and helping the senior community. When she went out on her ow...

In this episode of the The Gordian Knot, Rick is interviewing Bruce Norris. Rick and Bruce talk about Bruce’s early years as a real estate speculator, the Norris Group’s role in funding fix and flip real estate investors and some of of his own experiences in the California real estate market.

Find out about Bruce’s experience with his own 700+ property investments and his predictions for the California real estate market.

What kind...

Meet Megan Waugh. Rick and Megan talk about her work as a litigator at Schomer Law in California and how she approaches some of the more interesting cases that come across her desk.

Tell us about your practice

Megan has been working as a litigator for the last 5 years and deals with both contentious and non-contentious cases dealing with fun topics like incapacitation and death.

Megan managed to help Rick out on a case where he had...

Meet James (Jake) Walker. Rick Harmon and James talk about his law practice, some title surprises, transfer tech challenges, and some interesting stories. Learn a creative approve to sorting out a five-way inheritance and the unexpected dangers of filing an insurance claim for fire damages.

How has the local Napa economy been affected by the fires?

The wine industry has been going through some tough times due to the fires recently,...

George Liddle is a veteran with four decades of experience with a practice devoted strictly to property possession issues. They talk about some of the more challenging cases over the years as a top-level eviction expert for some of the biggest national lenders.

What does your typical practice look like?

George started the office of Liddle and Liddle with his sister in 1986 and he knew before he started law school what he was going ...

Meet Scott Schomer. Rick and Scott talk about his very successful real estate practice and his experience over the last two and half decades working commercial real estate.

What does your typical practice look like?

Scott is a probate and trust specialist in addition to focusing on commercial real estate. When it comes to probate court, you’re often finding real estate so there is a lot of overlap between the two fields. Diminished...

Paul Horn is one of the highest volume probate attorneys in Southern California. Paul and Rick Harmon talk about Paul's probate practice, how he chooses which cases to work on and which ones not to, some easy ways to avoid a formal probate, as well as some great stories.

Paul focuses on delivering educational seminars in order to reach new people in the market. Paul does probate all across California so he has to analyze which case...

Meet Byran Hartnell, his California Law practice and some of the more unique situations he has encountered over the years.

Early on, Bryan realized that general practice was neither practical nor rewarding and has since focused on estate accounting and probate law, with a side specialty in mental health law.

What kind of stories do you hear from the bench?

Bryan's two most memorable comments came from the same judge and he relates ...