Description:
The Opportunity:Apex Law seeks an Associate Attorney with 5+ years of experience in estate planning, tax and corporate law to advise individuals, families and closely held businesses. The role carries substantial client responsibility.
You will handle legal matters from first client meeting through execution and administration, often working across disciplines for the same client: structuring a business, planning its succession, and designing estate plans that minimize the owners' estate and income tax exposure.
Responsibilities:
Estate Planning and Trusts
- Design and draft wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, pour-over wills, durable powers of attorney, patient advocate designations and other healthcare directives
- Develop advanced wealth-transfer strategies, including GRATs, ILITs, SLATs, QPRTs, dynasty trusts and charitable vehicles (CRTs, CLTs, private foundations).
- Prepare trust funding documents, including deeds, enhanced life estate (Lady Bird) deeds, assignments and beneficiary designation guidance.
- Draft trust amendments, restatements and decanting documents, and review and update existing plans as laws and family circumstances change.
- Advise on asset protection, special needs planning, blended-family planning and multigenerational planning.
- Handle trust and probate administration under the Michigan Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC) and Michigan Trust Code, including fiduciary guidance, notices, inventories, accountings and estate settlement.
- Represent clients in Michigan probate court proceedings, including formal and informal probate, guardianships and conservatorships.
- Form and organize corporations, LLCs and partnerships under Michigan law, including filings with the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).
- Draft operating agreements, partnership agreements, bylaws, shareholder agreements, resolutions and minutes, and advise on ongoing corporate governance and compliance.
- Structure buy-sell agreements and business succession plans tied to clients' estate plans, including ownership transfers to family members and key employees.
- Advise on mergers, acquisitions, sales and restructurings of closely held businesses, including asset and stock purchase agreements, due diligence and closing documents.
- Handle entity conversions, mergers, dissolutions and changes in ownership.
- Draft and negotiate commercial contracts, including vendor and customer agreements, commercial leases, employment agreements, non-compete and confidentiality agreements.
- Provide general counsel support to business clients on day-to-day legal questions.
- Serve as a primary point of contact for clients and manage a substantial caseload independently.
- Collaborate with Apex CPA on shared clients, aligning legal structures with tax preparation, Michigan Flow-Through Entity (FTE) elections and ongoing compliance.
- Supervise and mentor junior associates and paralegals.
Qualifications:
- J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school.
- Active bar admission in good standing in Michigan
- 5+ years of practice in estate planning, tax and/or corporate law, with meaningful experience in at least two of the three.
- Demonstrated drafting skill across trust instruments, entity documents and transactional agreements.
- Working knowledge of federal transfer tax rules and business entity taxation.
- Ability to manage a caseload independently, meet deadlines and exercise sound judgment.
- Clear communication with clients, including explaining complex tax concepts in plain language.
Preferred Qualifications:
- LL.M. in Taxation or Estate Planning.
- Experience with high-net-worth individuals, family offices or closely held business owners.
- Experience working with valuation experts on business interests and estate planning matters.
- Experience with Michigan probate court practice.
- Familiarity with Clio (practice management and billing) and NetDocuments. Preferred, not required.
