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Karl L. Chen

27 years of experience
Estate Planning, Business Law, Probate
District of Columbia, Maryland

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Biography

Unique and Unconventional

I began my law career at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., after seven years as a financial services professional. It was an incredible experience as I had responsibility for reviewing and commenting on various initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and periodic corporate filings. Over the next seventeen years my experience included working for three major U.S. corporations as their corporate counsel. Those experiences included serving as lead counsel on securities offerings, corporate compliance, advertising, corporate sponsorship negotiations, contracts, labor and employment matters and counseling through a massive $3.5 billion merger.

I dreamed about going to law school and coming out and making a difference in people’s lives, but in reality, I ended up working in “corporate America”, where my legal experience was totally transactional and didn’t truly serve individuals and small business owners in the way I do today.

When I opened my practice in April 2011, I followed the mantra of many other law firms and performed work primarily on a billable hourly rate that was as high as $400. And, as you can imagine my clients wanted me to do everything as quickly as possible with as little communication as possible. They didn’t want to talk about certain concerns or issues, they were afraid to call because they didn’t know how much that call would cost them and whether it was worth it.

I opened this firm with the idea of bringing back the Personal Family Lawyer relationship - where initial planning is just the beginning of the relationship and we’re focused on putting in place a plan we know we will work for you and the people you love. Over the last ten years, the firm has grown into the type of service provider where we do things differently based on my experience.

Practice Areas

Estate Planning: Guardianship & Conservatorship Estate Administration, Health Care Directives, Trusts, Wills

Business Law: Business Contracts, Business Dissolution, Business Finance, Business Formation, Franchising, Mergers & Acquisitions, Partnership & Shareholder Disputes

Probate: Probate Administration

Fees

Free Consultation
We offer a FREE 15 MINUTE CONSULTATION regarding all matters we handle. For planning sessions fee is $750/estate and probate and $950/business for up to 2 hours. Fee is applied toward any legal work that firm is hired to perform.
Credit Cards Accepted

Jurisdictions Admitted to Practice

District of Columbia: District of Columbia Bar
Since 2005

Maryland
Since 1996

Languages

English: Spoken, Written

Professional Experience

Managing Attorney: CHEN Law, LLC; 2011 - Current

Senior Counsel: Towers Watson & Co. (f/k/a Watson Wyatt Worldwide); 2006 - 2011; Corporate Attorney responsible for securities reporting and compliance for publicly-traded company and lead counsel for investment adviser division. Served as part of the M&A team in the $3.5 billion merger of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

Associate General Counsel Securities Compliance: Fannie Mae; 2003 - 2006; Developed, Implemented and Monitored Compliance Plans for several business units within Fannie Mae.

Special Counsel: Nextel Communications, Inc.; 1997 - 2003; Corporate Attorney handling securities reporting and compliance, transactional, marketing and advertising matters.

Attorney-Adviser: U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission; 1994 - 1997; Attorney in the Division of Corporation Finance with responsibility of review of IPOs, M&A, shareholder proposals, proxy statement reviews and providing comments to registrants and their respective counsels to ensure disclosure conformed with securities rules and regulations.