Sowards Law Firm

Focus and practice areas

The firm works out of Campbell, California, in the Silicon Valley area, and its work centers on estate planning. The core list covers wills, trusts, probate, and estate administration. Trust administration sits alongside those, together with asset protection and elder law that includes Medi-Cal planning. The firm also handles trust and probate litigation.

The firm calls itself a boutique firm. It says its members have been helping California families for more than 25 years. That figure comes from the firm's own site. It points to years of experience, though the site gives no single founding year.

Where the firm sits

Campbell sits in Santa Clara County, within the part of California known as Silicon Valley. Estates in that area often include a home that has gained value over many years, along with retirement savings. Planning for assets like these is a common reason families in the region consult an estate lawyer. The firm's office places it among the clients it names.

Estate planning generally means drafting documents that decide how property passes and who steps in when a person cannot act. A will directs distribution after death and goes through probate. A living trust holds assets during life and can pass them without that court step. In my opinion, a firm that keeps wills, trusts, probate, and administration under one roof can handle a client's first plan and the probate or trust work that comes years later.

How the team is built

Three attorneys carry the firm's name on its team pages. Benjamin J. Sowards, a California attorney, leads the team and directs its estate planning work. The home page presents him as the attorney at the head of the firm. The firm describes itself as boutique, and with three attorneys on its pages, a client is likely to deal directly with one of them.

Patty Setser, whose full name is Patricia Teal Setser, is one of the other two attorneys. She holds a B.S. from California Polytechnic State University and a J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. Her practice covers estate planning, probate, and elder law. That work runs to trusts, wills, estate administration, guardianship, and conservatorship.

Megan Gooing is the third attorney the site names. She earned a J.D. from Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law and a B.A. in marketing from New Mexico State University. Her work covers estate planning, probate, and trust administration, and she also handles guardianship, conservatorship, and elder law matters. The two associate attorneys share much of the same ground, which gives the firm more than one person versed in each area.

The planning documents on offer

Beyond the trust and will themselves, the firm drafts the papers that keep a plan working while a client is alive. The home page describes durable power of attorney and Advanced Health Care Directive drafting. A durable power of attorney names someone to handle finances if the client becomes unable to. A health care directive records medical wishes and names the person who speaks for the client on treatment.

A living trust works once assets are moved into it, a step known as funding. Funding means retitling accounts and real property into the name of the trust, so the plan controls them later. Many California families use a trust to keep the estate out of probate, which can shorten the time and cost of settling it. These are the mechanics behind the trust drafting the firm lists.

The firm also prepares plans for particular family situations. Special needs planning arranges support for a beneficiary who relies on public benefits, so that an inheritance keeps that help intact. Pet trusts fund the care of an animal after an owner dies. For families with young children, an estate plan often names guardians and sets the terms under which minors receive property. Each of these plans turns on the specific facts of a family, so the documents are drafted case by case.

Probate, administration, and disputes

When a plan meets the courts, the firm handles both the administration side and the contested side. Probate is the court process that settles a person's estate after death. It confirms the will, gives an executor authority, and oversees payment of debts before what remains passes to heirs. Probate in California can run many months, since the court sets the pace. Trust administration follows a similar path outside court, where a trustee gathers assets, pays what is owed, and distributes the rest to beneficiaries.

The firm takes on trust and probate litigation, which includes will contests. These matters reach a judge when heirs or beneficiaries challenge a document or question how an executor or trustee has acted. Grounds can include claims about capacity, undue influence, or the way a document was signed. As a reviewer, I read the presence of both drafting and litigation as a sign the firm can stay with a family if a plan is later challenged.

Elder law, asset protection, and reach

Elder law and Medi-Cal planning form another named area. Medi-Cal is California's version of Medicaid, and planning around it deals with the eligibility rules that govern help with long-term care costs. Those rules include a look-back at past transfers, so timing and structure matter. Asset protection, also listed, concerns arranging ownership so that property carries less exposure to future claims. Elder law also touches planning for incapacity and for the shift in care as a client ages.

Guardianship and conservatorship appear across the attorney profiles. A conservatorship gives a court-appointed person authority over an adult who cannot manage their own affairs, while guardianship covers a minor. Both run through a court and call for filings and hearings, which places them close to the firm's probate work.

Business work and service area

The home page mentions business formation and business litigation, which widens the firm's reach past estate matters. Business formation covers setting up an entity such as an LLC or corporation and filing the papers that bring it into being. The firm serves clients across California, and its stated area includes Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz counties, along with San Francisco.

Two features on the contact page speak to access. The free telephone consultation lets a prospective client discuss a matter before committing to fees. The on-site visit means the firm will meet a client at home or another location, which helps when age or health makes travel hard.