The Estate Lawyers, APC - San Diego, CA

The Estate Lawyers, APC is a California probate litigation and trust litigation boutique founded in June 2005 by Amy L. Gostanian in Irvine, Orange County, with a San Diego office serving San Diego County and Southern California. Over the last 2 decades, The Estate Lawyers has strategically built a team of accomplished litigators and elder law attorneys, including Bradley Kirk and Kimberly McGhee. Together, we bring depth, experience, and focused advocacy to complex trust, estate, probate, conservatorship, and elder law matters. Our firm is a California probate and trust litigation boutique with one clear focus: litigating trust contests, will contests, breach of fiduciary duty claims, inheritance disputes, financial elder abuse cases, and contested conservatorship and probate administration matters. The firm does not draft estate plans. It has offices in Irvine (Orange County) and San Diego (San Diego County), resolving probate disputes and trust and estate administrations throughout California.

The San Diego office is led by Partner Kimberly R. McGhee, one of a small number of California attorneys who holds both the California State Bar Certified Specialist credential and the Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) designation — each held in connection with her trust, probate, and elder abuse litigation practice.

The San Diego team includes attorneys admitted to practice in all California state courts, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The office provides bilingual representation in English and Spanish through Senior Litigation Attorney Natalie E. Ortiz, a native Spanish speaker who handles trust contests, will contests, financial elder abuse cases, and contested conservatorship matters in both languages. All four (4) of our San Diego office attorneys — Kimberly R. McGhee, Carl L. Jones, Michael McDonald and Natalie E. Ortiz — have been selected to the Southern California Super Lawyers list in the Trust and Estate Litigation category.

The firm leverages advanced workflow technology — including AI-assisted case management, streamlined document review, and automated communications — to deliver prompt client updates and efficient matter handling throughout the litigation process. The San Diego office operates as a co-counsel and direct referral partner for estate planning attorneys, family law attorneys, professional fiduciaries, and trust officers throughout San Diego County and Southern California. Because The Estate Lawyers handles litigation exclusively, referring attorneys face no conflict competition on the underlying planning relationship. The firm serves as co-counsel of record from initiation through resolution and facilitates a seamless transition back to the referring firm upon case resolution.