Scott E. Rahn | Trust Attorney & Managing Partner | RMO LLP Lawyers
Trust and Litigations firm RMO Los Angeles Location

California attorney Scott Rahn resolves contests disputes and litigation related to trusts, estates and  conservatorships, creating a welcome peace of mind for clients. He represents heirs, beneficiaries, trustees and executors. He utilizes his experience to develop and implement strategies that swiftly and efficiently address the financial issues, fiduciary duties and emotional complexities underlying trust contests, estates conflicts and probate litigation.

Driven by a commitment to provide relief to people grieving the loss of a loved one, Scott collaborates closely with clients. He pursues and defends claims involving incapacity, incompetence, undue influence, breach of fiduciary duty, and other similar areas of dispute. His advice and counsel includes prevention and remediation of financial elder abuse.

Positive Path to Resolve Trust and Probate Estate Litigation

Scott is known for in-depth financial investigations and deftly handling intra-family dynamics and decades-long family friction. He has extensive experience in courts, arbitration, mediation and dispute resolution forums across California as well as in key retirement centers in the United States and through strategic partnerships in international locations.

His clients are typically embroiled in inheritance disputes, trust contests, will contests, caregiver undue influence, step-parent undue influence, sibling undue influence, estate administration irregularities, beneficiary bias, trustee misappropriation, accounting irregularities, breach of fiduciary duty, beneficiary theft, trust investigations, accusations of wrongdoing, fraudulent behavior, wrongful taking something from an estate, and breach of fiduciary duties. He focuses on identifying and correcting where behavior went wrong, and where pointing out where allegations of wrongdoing are simply wrong.

While Scott customizes strategies to the unique needs of each client and each case, his overall goal is to achieve the best results—as quickly as possibly for the least legal spend possible—to guide clients forward in a positive direction so they can move on with their lives.

Influenced by his Midwest roots and close relationship with his grandmother, Scott demonstrates his affinity for family values with his own family as well as in the compassion he brings to client engagements.

Investigations, Disputes and Claims of Wrongdoing in Trusts and Estates

Scott has protected his clients’ rights in numerous parental, caregiver and sibling disputes, will contests and inheritance fights, including in these recent matters:

  • Incapacity: Secured a sizable judgment for an elderly woman whose deceased brother had been taken advantage of by an unscrupulous advisor.
  • Fraud: Led the investigation into long-term, multi-million dollar fraud committed against a wealthy Middle Eastern family.
  • Financial elder abuse: Defended a trustee accused of financial elder abuse and breach of fiduciary duty against her mother.
  • Undue influence: Unwound the undue influence of an interloping gardener and his caretaker wife on a 94-year-old woman and secured the family home that had been intended for the client.
  • International estate litigation: Parachuted into a years-long litigation to secure a favorable multinational/multijurisdictional litigation between decedent’s estranged children and his family.

Trust and Estate Leader for Baby Boom Generation and Families

Increasingly, Scott is resolving issues related to the Baby Boom generation and its unique longevity and wealth transfer issues. Affluent families often have multi-state and every-increasingly global footprints, and Scott’s worldwide contacts support clients in Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, England and elsewhere.

Scott’s effective solutions to the most fraught trust and estate fights has earned him recognition as “Trusts and Estates Litigator of the Year” from the Century City Bar Association and honors from and features in Vanity Fair, Super Lawyers magazine, the Los Angeles Business Journal, and the National Law Journal. Scott is president emeritus of the Beverly Hills Estate Planning Council.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • Best Lawyers in America – Trusts and Estates & Litigation – Trusts and Estates, Best Lawyers, 2018-2024
  • Chambers & Partners, High Net Worth Guide, Private Wealth Disputes, 2021-2023
  • “Top 100 – Trust and Estate Litigation” Super Lawyers, Southern California Super Lawyers 2017-2024
  • “Top Litigator,” Los Angeles Business Journal, Leaders of Influence: Litigators & Trial Lawyers, 2020-2023
  • “Legal Visionary,” Business of Law: Trends, Updates & Visionaries, Los Angeles Times, 2021-2023
  • “Leaders of Influence: Thriving in Their 40s,” Los Angeles Business Journal, 2021
  • “Super Lawyer,” Super Lawyers, Southern California Super Lawyers 2014-2024; “Rising Star” since 2006
  • “Trusts and Estates Litigator of the Year,” Century City Bar Association
  • “Elite Boutique Trailblazer,” National Law Journal
  • Rated AV Preeminent® 5 out of 5 by Martindale-Hubbell
  • Rated “Superb 10” by Avvo
  • “West Trailblazer,” The American Lawyer, 2022

COMMUNITY & PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT

EDUCATION

University of San Diego School of Law
Juris Doctor

University of Wisconsin, Madison
BA, Spanish & International Latin American Relations

LANGUAGES

  • English
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese

BAR ADMISSIONS

  • Member, State Bar of California
  • Member, District of Columbia Bar

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

  • Won a petition for conservatorship of the estate on an emergency basis during Covid to protect the conservatee from Nigerian fraudsters who had infiltrated, isolated, defrauded and unduly influenced her into sending them millions, leaving her broken, destitute and unable to buy food.
  • Secured the estate of our client’s late father, who had been victimized by childhood friends who had forged estate planning documents to steal his estate from his family.
  • Secured return of our client’s home value after her daughter and son-in-law moved into the home under the guise of “helping” her, only to have her sign the home over to them and then throw her out.
  • Neutralized a hostile co-trustee who was seeking to bilk our client’s trust of millions of dollars through a series of fabricated claims.
  • Secured removal of a thieving co-trustee whose malfeasance left her own mother destitute and unable to pay her bills, including recovery of the stolen assets, attorney fees and costs.
  • Recovered the home of an infirm, institutionalized senior who had been victimized by his “girlfriend,” an opportunistic volunteer at his care facility, financially securing his golden years.
  • Within 45 days of engagement, secured 125% of our client’s original bequests, plus attorney’s fees and costs, from their long-time friend’s estate after the 85 year-old decedent’s new husband manipulated the preparation of trust amendments to steal decedent’s estate for himself.
  • Swooped in after years of protracted litigation to secure a decision from the Los Angeles probate court to end a years-long dispute over trust property between feuding siblings of their parents’ estate.
  • Recovered disinherited beneficiary family’s full interest in great-aunt’s estate after financial elder abuse revealed the disinherited trust had been procured by the abuser at a time the aunt was incapacitated.
  • Secured no action from the regulatory authorities following an enforcement action that threatened the license and career of a decades-long professional.
  • Secured on behalf of a court-appointed guardian ad litem a prosecution agreement with counsel for the conservator of an institutionalized dementia patient who was taken advantage of financially by her financial advisor, leading to his permanent bar from the financial services industry.

SCOTT IN THE NEWS

Scott Rahn Discusses Britney Spears’ Conservatorship on NBC Today Show

published on Today.com 

Just one day after a judge denied Britney Spears’ request to remove her father as a conservator of her estate, a wealth management firm that was set to take over as co-conservator of the estate wants to be released from the arrangement. NBC national correspondent Miguel …

Scott Rahn Discusses Britney Spears on Reality Life with Kate Casey

As published on Acast

Attorney Scott Rahn discusses the latest update to the Britney Spears conservatorship. Last week Britney Spears addressed a court for the first known time in more than two years following the increased interest in her conservatorship after the release of The New York Times’ “Framing Britney …

Scott Rahn Featured on Reuters News Regarding Britney Spears Conservatorship

published by Reuters
Britney Spears has made clear how frustrated she is with the legal arrangement that has controlled her life for 13 years, but the singer will need patience before finding freedom… “Everybody thinks that you simply walk into court with your case and the judge is going …

RMO LLP’S SCOTT RAHN NAMED “TRAILBLAZER” BY THE AMERICAN LAWYER

published on PRNewswire 

National probate litigation and inheritance dispute law firm, RMO LLP, announced today that CEO Scott Rahn has been recognized as a “West Trailblazer” by The American Lawyer.

INHERITANCE DISPUTE FIRM RMO LLP RANKED BY CHAMBERS & PARTNERS

published on PRNewswire

National probate and inheritance dispute law firm RMO LLP announced today that Chambers and Partners has named Founding Partner Scott Rahn as a leader in Private Wealth Disputes in their “2022 High Net Worth Guide.”

RMO LLP’S SCOTT RAHN AND SEAN MUNTZ NAMED “LEGAL VISIONARIES”

published by Reuters

 National probate litigation law firm RMO LLP announced today that Founding Partners Scott Rahn and Sean Muntz have been recognized by the Los Angeles Times as ‘Legal Visionaries’ in its second annual Business of Law magazine.

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