Marc Garlett

I graduated from the University of Missouri and Concord Law School, and I am a member of the California State Bar and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Originally from the Midwest, I now live in Southern California with my wife and two children. When I’m not working or spending time with my family, I volunteer as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for children in the Los Angeles County court system. I serve on the board of directors for Pacific Friends School in Temple City and as the PTA executive vice president for Field Elementary School in Pasadena.

After graduating from law school I built a successful litigation firm. But the truth is, I was lost. Every day was filled with contention, objections, and arguments. After filing complaints or cross-complaints on behalf of clients I spent my time and energy maneuvering for tactical and strategic advantage so I could destroy my opponent. Every day was a fight, if not an all-out pitched battle. I was playing the role of “hero litigator,” slaying my clients’ every foe. But I was posturing. Though being in the courtroom was certainly exciting, my professional life was less than fulfilling. In fact, it was fraught with tension and negativity. And I didn’t like the road I was going down.

Then my children came into the world and gave enormous focus and meaning to my life. And I love them – I’m still amazed at how much I love them. And providing for them, protecting them, and taking care of them means everything to me.

But all my wife and I had in place at the time was a woefully inadequate “boilerplate” estate plan that we didn’t update when our children were born because the lawyer who drafted it never kept in touch and would have charged us another big fee for reviewing something he hadn’t put much effort into in the first place!

Yet I knew this left a big gap in the protection I was supposed to be providing for my children, and ignoring it meant I was not doing the kind of job as a father that I expected of myself. Now I don’t expect myself to be a perfect parent. I fail at perfection every day. But when I discover a way to improve as a father and become a more responsible parent, I put in the effort. Because pushing myself to be a better today than I was yesterday is important to me, and my kids deserve that from their father.

So I threw myself into learning everything I could about wills, trusts, and estate plans – a practice area I hadn’t really delved into since law school, so it was a big undertaking. But I was relentless in educating myself about the subject. Once I finally gained competency, I redid our family plan (which had plenty of holes that needed to be filled in) and I made sure that even if my wife and I weren’t around to take care of our children anymore, we could ensure they would be taken care of just as we’d want them to be be, both in the short and long term. And when everything was in place it felt incredible to know exactly how they were going to be taken care of, in detail, in every way that was important to us.