Ally Legal Planning

Focus and practice areas

Estate planning is the center of this Columbia, Maryland firm. Ally Legal Planning drafts last wills and testaments, revocable trusts, financial powers of attorney, and advanced medical directives. It also handles estate and trust administration and probate. Clients come from Howard County and the areas around it.

The firm's estate work reaches into planning for particular situations. It covers special needs planning for families who support a relative with a disability. It handles asset protection and business succession planning. Prenuptial agreements sit on the service list as well.

The wider set of matters handled

Alongside its estate focus, the firm works in elder law and guardianship. It also handles special education law, which brings it into the questions that families of children with disabilities face at school. The named attorneys carry experience across these fields, and the site describes over 20 combined years among them.

For a family caring for a child or adult with a disability, several of these services connect. Special needs planning protects a relative's eligibility for benefits. Guardianship covers legal authority for a person's care, and special education law covers schooling. The firm keeps these matters under one roof.

As a reviewer, I find the firm's descriptions specific. It names the documents it drafts and the attorneys who handle each area. That detail gives a reader a clear sense of the daily work.

How the team came together

Two sisters, both attorneys, started the firm after each spent more than a decade at other law firms. That shared background gives the practice its family-owned character. The firm states this history on its home and about pages.

Two more lawyers later joined. Jim Walsh, who founded Walsh & Company, is one. Jonathan Greenstein joined as well.

The attorneys the site names

Jennifer McManus

Jennifer McManus has worked in estate planning for over a decade. She started as a law clerk for a small estate planning firm in Howard County while she was in law school. She earned her J.D. at the University of Maryland School of Law and her B.A. at the University of Maryland. She is admitted in Maryland and Virginia. A Howard County native, she lives in Columbia with her daughter.

Her work covers special needs planning, asset protection planning, advanced tax planning, premarital agreements, and the administration of estates and trusts. In my opinion, that spread fits a lawyer who handles both the drafting of an estate plan and the later administration of an estate.

Kristen Lohmeyer

Kristen Lohmeyer is an attorney at the firm and a sister of Jennifer McManus. The site places her within the family group that gives the practice its name.

Katherine Thomas

Katherine Thomas, who also goes by Katie, earned her bachelor's degree at Loyola University Maryland. She earned her Juris Doctor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in Baltimore. Her practice covers estate planning, special education law, guardianships, and mediation. She helps clients obtain guardianship, and she works with the schooling side of special education matters.

James D. Walsh and Jonathan E. Greenstein

James D. Walsh founded Walsh & Company and has joined the team at the firm. Jonathan E. Greenstein is an attorney who has also joined. Both names appear on the home page as recent additions to the group.

Meeting clients where they are

The firm offers portable planning. When a client cannot travel to the office, an attorney will meet at a hospital or at the client's home. In my opinion, that option suits older clients and people who are managing a health event and cannot easily leave home.

The firm also offers initial consultations for estate planning and probate matters, and it offers consultations for guardianship and special education law. Its office sits in Columbia, and it serves Howard County and the surrounding areas.