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Practice Emphasis

Estate Planning, Trusts & Probate
Corporate & Business Law
Tax Law

Denver’s practice spans multiple disciplines, but his primary focus is estate planning, trusts, and probate.  Denver advises clients and develops and drafts wills and trusts that successfully navigate the complexities of state and federal law and mitigate or reduce gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. He also advises clients on a broad range of estate planning and probate issues, such as powers of attorney, disclaimers, and tax planning advice with respect to the gift tax, estate tax, and generation-skipping transfer tax.  In addition, Denver helps clients with business and real estate issues, including the formation, drafting and advising business succession plans, full and partial sales, and successful on-going operations.

Denver joined LHSE from a different firm where he was a partner with a wide-ranging practice, including not only business, trusts and estates, but also environmental compliance, cleanup, and cost recovery actions and purchasing and selling real estate.

Education

• University of Washington School of Law
  LL.M. in Taxation, 2007
• Seattle University School of Law
  J.D., Summa Cum Laude, 2006
• Whitman College
  B.A., Politics, 1998

Representative Work

Estate Planning – Denver prepares many advanced estate plans including wills and revocable and irrevocable trusts, charitable and family gifts, private foundations, and family limited liability companies. He structures and implements Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Generation Skipping Trusts, and other sophisticated trusts. Denver also advises with gift tax return preparation and filings because there are many elections with legal significance that are required to be filed with the tax return.

Succession Planning for Private Family – As an attorney for many private businesses, Denver develops and implements many succession plans and other plans of reorganization to facilitate and methodically transfer ownership and control to successive generations. These transactions require careful attention to corporate, estate planning, tax and other areas of law. Denver strives to structure these transactions to achieve the goals of the parties while at the same time laying the legal foundation for the successful continuation of the business itself.

Probate Administration and Post-Mortem Tax Planning – Denver handles the legal administration of many large and small estates. In particular, he gives special consideration to post-mortem tax planning. In a one case, Denver recognized an opportunity to disclaim assets to achieve estate tax savings and composed a strategy that enabled the surviving spouse to increase the amount of assets available to fund a tax-exempt trust so that transfers to future generations would be precluded from federal and state estate tax. Denver also advises with tax return preparation and filings because there are many elections with legal significance that are required to be filed with the tax return.

Formation, Operation and Liquidation of Businesses – Denver assists with forming and reorganizing businesses. Denver has a deep understanding of taxation for partnerships (and LLCs), corporate (and S-corporations), and charitable organizations. This knowledge helps influence the negotiation and structuring of limited liability companies, joint ventures and other agreements. He puts significant focus on well-drafted buy/sell provisions in shareholders agreements, partnership agreements and similar documents in an effort to minimize time consuming and expensive disputes among co-owners of businesses.

Civic & Professional

• Named as a “Best Lawyers” by The Best Lawyers in America, in the area of Trusts & Estates, 2020-2021, 2025 eds.
• Named to Washington “Super Lawyers,” Super Lawyers Magazine Washington, 2024
• Named as a “Rising Star,” Super Lawyers Magazine Washington, 2014 – 2017
• Washington State Bar Association
• King County Bar Association

Of Note

Denver is an outdoorsman who enjoys skiing, hiking and biking.  He frequently spends his weekends watching his daughters play club soccer.  He is an avid University of Washington football fan.