Benson County Estate Planning Lawyers

Available to help farmers and small business owners manage and protect their family's mineral, property, and business interests so they can continue to provide for their loved ones and for future generations.

Kelsey (commonly known as "Lou") was born and raised on his family's farm and bison ranch near Pingree, North Dakota. After graduating from Pingree-Buchanan High School, he attended the University of North Dakota for both his undergraduate and law degrees. Following law school, Kelsey worked as an associate attorney with a private litigation firm in Bismarck, primarily defending personal injury and property damage cases. Additionally, he served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the North Dakota Public Service Commission for various regulatory matters. In 2016, Kelsey moved back to the Jamestown area to start James Valley...

Growing up in a farming family in Williston, North Dakota, Kaitlin understands the unique legal challenges that come with the changing dynamic of the oil industry in the upper Midwest. She has handled a wide range of legal issues in her career, but she currently focuses on oil and gas (specializing in curative issues for mineral owners), probate (often related to mineral rights), real estate, estate planning, and business law. She has expanded her practice in these areas into Montana and Texas, where she currently resides. Kaitlin currently serves as the civil Municipal Attorney for Fairview, Montana, and she has...

Chad Anderson Law Firm specializes in Bankruptcy, Probate, and Estate Planning

Thad Swanson joined the Nilles Law Firm in 2016 and is a shareholder in the firm’s transactional group. Thad began his legal career in Williston, North Dakota, serving as judicial law clerk to the six judges of North Dakota’s Northwest Judicial District. Thad provides legal advice to his clients in the areas of Business Law, Estate Planning, Trust Administration and Probate, and Real Estate Law. Some of Thad’s legal services include business formation, drafting and reviewing contracts, corporate governance, shareholder buy-sell agreements, business succession planning, commercial and residential real property sales and leases, drafting wills and trusts, drafting powers of...

Michael is an attorney in the Nilles Law Firm's transactions department. His practice is focused on business and transactional law, and includes business organizations, contract negotiation, mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing and securities, and real estate transactions.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Born November 1, 1962 in Jamestown, ND Fifth-generation North Dakotan, fourteenth-generation American Honorable Discharge, Company B, 141st Battalion, North Dakota National Guard June 10th, 1981 First Degree Brown Belt in Shotokan Karate, July 9th, 1983 Admitted to the North Dakota Bar on October 4th, 1988 Admitted to the US District Court Bar for District of ND on April 27th, 1989 Admitted to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on November 29th, 2017 Executive Board Member, North Dakota Family Support Council, 1989-1993 Married to Susan Tschider, September 23rd, 1995; divorced October 3rd, 2003 Remarried November 25th, 2006—divorced for the second time January 11th, 2013 One child—Cassandra, born June 1st, 1998. Finalist...

Isaac is an attorney and certified public accountant. He represents farmers, ranchers, estates, owners of mineral interests, and owners of closely held businesses in a range of legal and tax matters. Isaac graduated from Cornell University and practiced with a national accounting firm in New York and Nevada before attending law school at the University of St. Thomas. He worked for a real estate development company during and immediately after law school. Isaac’s father grew up on a ranch north of Napoleon, North Dakota and his mother’s family operated a small business in the Fargo-Moorhead area....

I have been licensed in North Dakota since 2011. I primarily work on real estate, probate, oil and gas, and business matters. I do municipal contract work for the City of Williston and City of Stanley. I sit on the Mountain States Legal Foundation as the Vice-Chair of the Litigation Advisory Council. I teach courses at Williston State College and am a member of the North Dakota Inquiry Committee West, an ethics advisory board.