Evelyn M. Leathers, estate planning attorney in Irvine

Evelyn M. Leathers leads Bezaire & Leathers, an estate planning law firm in Irvine. She advises clients and prepares revocable and irrevocable trusts, special needs trusts, generation-skipping trusts, wills and durable powers of attorney. She also administers trusts after a death, handles probate for estates that were not held in a trust, and handles related litigation when a matter requires it.

Evelyn meets clients at the Irvine office and by video, and she travels to meet clients in Los Angeles, San Diego and the Inland Empire.

In law school, Evelyn served as Managing Editor of the Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy, where she advocated for disabled children's access to an appropriate education. That background shapes her work with families planning for a loved one with a disability through special needs trusts.

• Juris Doctor, cum laude, Whittier Law School
• Managing Editor, Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy
• Member, American Bar Association, including its trusts and estates section
• Member, Orange County Bar Association, including its trusts and estates section
• Admitted to practice in California, 2006

Evelyn moved to Southern California from Texas in 1989.

Evelyn's approach is simple: thorough preparation, plain-spoken explanations, and documents written for real life. She explains how a will, a living trust, powers of attorney and a health care directive work together, and she outlines the scope, timing and fee before any work begins.