Lee Alan Lerner concentrates his practice in estate planning and probate. His estate planning practice focuses on clients trying to balance busy work and family lives who require the peace and protection that a well-tailored estate plan can help provide. Mr. Lerner employs a variety of estate planning tools to achieve his clients’ planning objectives including wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, special needs trusts, charitable trusts, and insurance trusts. Although it is often preferable to avoid probate, it is sometimes inevitable. Mr. Lerner has successfully administered probate estates for clients who have died both with and without wills in most of the greater Chicago metropolitan area, focusing his practice in Kane and DuPage counties.
Mr. Lerner earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and his J.D. from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Prior to founding Schmidt & Lerner with Scott Schmidt, Mr. Lerner worked at Riordan, Fulkerson, Hupert & Coleman in Chicago. Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Lerner spent many years as the Director of Public Affairs at an economic public policy think tank.
Mr. Lerner is a former competitive swimmer who was raised in northern Virginia. He moved to Chicago in 1997 and for the last ten years has lived in the Chicago suburbs with his wife, their two sons, and a pretty princess pony named Stella. When he manages to find spare time Mr. Lerner enjoys spending it coaching his sons’ various teams.