Mark A. Lester

Partner
Location: Camarillo

Practice Areas:

• Trust and Probate Litigation
• Probate and Trust Estate Administration
• Estate Planning

For the past twenty years, Mark has been a frequent and highly-rated and -requested presenter on numerous continuing legal education topics involving trusts and estates litigation and estate planning and administration issues. On twelve (12) separate occasions during the period 2003 to 2019, Mr. Lester has taught continuing legal educations courses for National Business Institute (“NBI”) in the areas of estate planning, will drafting, trusts and estates administration, and estate planning and recovery for elderly clients. From 2012 through October 2023, Mr. Lester has presented or co-presented programs entitled “Shifting to Neutral – The Change in the Courts’ View on Trustees Remaining Unbiased in Light of Breslin v. Breslin and Zahnleuter v. Mueller,” “The Evolution of Heggstad,” “Probate Litigation 101: The Nuts and Bolts (Capacity in Trust, Probate and Conservatorship Proceedings and Mediations and Settlements),” “Updates in Estate Planning and Trusts & Estates Litigation,” “Breslin Notice: Consequences for the Non-Participating Beneficiary,” “Breslin v. Breslin (2021) 62 Cal.App.5th 801 – New Guidance for Serving as the Neutral Fiduciary in Litigious Conservatorship, Trust and Probate Administrations,” “Certificates of Independent Review: Drafters, Care Custodians, Timing and Other Conundrums,” “Gifts to Care Custodians: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished v. Fox in the Hen House,” “Prohibited Transferees, Certificates of Independent Review, and Clear & Convincing Evidence (Probate Code §§21360 et seq.),” “Powers of Attorney – Myths, Management & Litigation,” “No Certificate of Independent Review – Can the Gift to a Prohibited Transferee Otherwise be Salvaged?”, “Trust Attorneys’ Fees and the Non-Participating Litigation Beneficiary,” “Do You Know Who Your Children Are? Determining Parentage in Probate and Trust Administration Cases,” “To Have and to Hold Out or Is DNA Enough to Claim Your Inheritance,” “Certificates of Independent Review & Gifts to Care Custodians,” “Effectively Using Petitions to Compel Accountings and to Appoint Neutral Trustees to Resolve Trust Disputes,” “Surcharges and Sanctions: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and “Ethically Managing an Estate Planning Practice” to the Trusts and Estates Sections of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, San Fernando Valley Bar Association, Ventura County Bar Association, North San Diego County Bar Association, and the South Bay Bar Association, to the Probate Attorneys of San Diego, to the Woodland Hills Tax & Estate Planning Council, San Fernando Valley Estate Planning Council, to the Professional Fiduciaries Association of California (with separate presentations for the Northern and Southern Sections), and for Pincus Professional Education.

Mark is a local community leader as well, volunteering for the Ventura County Wellness & Caregiver Resource Center and the golf committee for the Ventura County Council Boy Scouts of America. He has served on the Board of Directors for Family Health Care Centers of Greater Los Angeles, Inc. and the Oxnard Police Foundation. For almost 15 years, Mark (an Eagle Scout since 1969) served as an Assistant Scoutmaster and merit badge counselor for Western Los Angeles County Council Boy Scout Troop 485, where three of his sons also attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He is also an avid outdoorsman with a fondness for golfing, camping, hiking and RV-ing.

Since completing his distinguished legal education, Mark has been admitted to practice by the State Bar of California, the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Tax Court.