Partner

Los Angeles

Direct: 213.891.5149

Office: 213.891.0700

gstuart@buchalter.com

Bar Admissions

California

Overview

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Gordon Stuart is Chair of the Firm’s Trust and Estate Litigation Practice Group and a Partner in Buchalter’s Los Angeles office. Mr. Stuart’s practice focuses on trust and estate litigation, representation of fiduciaries, conservatorship and guardianship matters, as well as real estate and general business litigation. Mr. Stuart has extensive experience representing high-net-worth individuals in complex trust, estate, and conservatorship proceedings.

Gordon Stuart handles trust & estate litigation throughout California, as well as related business, real estate, and contract actions, with litigation in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, Riverside County, and Ventura County.

  • Successfully represented a trustee of a trust estate valued in excess of $50 million against claims of breach of fiduciary duty and trust mismanagement.
  • Litigated and ultimately defeated Petition by Guardian ad Litem for court approval of settlement agreement entered on behalf of client’s minor children.
  • Multiple petitions throughout California resulting in court orders deeming assets omitted from trusts as trust assets, thereby avoiding probate (Heggstad Petitions).
  • Represented personal representative of estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars, involving complex business and real estate transactions and active litigation.
  • Successfully invalidated trust amendments leaving substantial estate worth millions of dollars to caregivers for incapacitated settlor.

Mr. Stuart also has significant experience in appellate matters concerning a wide range of subjects:

  • Starr v. Ashbrook (2022) 87 Cal.App.5th 999 (successfully represented trust beneficiary in defeating an anti-SLAPP motion brought by a trustee claiming that misuse of trust funds in the course of litigation was protected activity)
  • Cooper v. Cooper, 2020, Cal.App.Unpub. LEXIS 4141 (2nd App. Dist., Div. 3, June 29, 2020) (successfully reversing trial court’s order entering judgment under Code of Civil Procedure section 664.6 where terms of judgment varied from oral stipulation entered on the record)
  • Sacher v. Sacher, 2019, Cal.App.Unpub. LEXIS 3866 (4th App. Dist., Div. 3, June 3, 2019) (successfully affirming trial court’s order granting motion to disqualify opposing counsel based upon breach of ongoing duty of loyalty to former client)
  • Haugen v. Wiley, 2016 Cal.App. Unpub. LEXIS 141 (4th App. Dist., Div. 3, Jan. 7, 2016) (successfully affirming trial court’s dismissal of derivative action where nominal plaintiff failed to maintain membership interest in mutual benefit corporation during pendency of litigation)
  • Heltebrake v. City of Los Angeles, 2015 Cal.App. Unpub. LEXIS 5774 (2nd App. Dist., Div. 5, Aug. 11, 2015) (successfully reversing trial court’s order granting anti-SLAPP motion to strike, where the issue on appeal was whether oral statements relating to publically offered reward constituted protected activity under Code of Civil Procedure Section 425.16)

Admissions

  • California
  • U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Education

  • Pepperdine University School of Law, J.D.
    • Graduating with Honors
  • Loyola Marymount University, B.A., History, magna cum laude

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