A3 – Unraveling Consent: Issues of Capacity and Undue Influence in Contested Trusts & Estates

Scott Rahn has been litigating contentious probate matters for more than 20 years, including the last decade at RMO LLP, a firm he launched in 2015 to focus exclusively on contentious trust, estate, and conservatorship matters. Mr. Rahn has earned a reputation for his keen ability to manage family dysfunction while securing real-world results. He has extensive experience in courts, arbitration, mediation, and dispute resolution forums across California as well as in key retirement centers in the United States and through strategic partnerships in international locations. Representing beneficiaries, heirs, executors, trustees and fiduciaries, his clients are typically embroiled in inheritance disputes involving trust contests, will contests, undue influence, incapacity, fraud, financial elder abuse and claims for breaches of fiduciary duties.

Mr. Rahn has worked to bring a better, more professional and results-oriented contentious trusts and estates experience to our communities. The effective solutions he and the firm have been able to bring to even the most fraught trust and estate fights have earned him well-deserved recognitions, including being named to the Chambers and Partners “2024 High Net Worth Guide” in Private Wealth Disputes and the “Best Lawyers in America” list by Best Lawyers. He also has been recognized as a “Top Litigator” by the Los Angeles Business Journal and a “Leading Litigator in America” by Lawdragon.

Dr. Dana Chidekel, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist, is certified by both the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology and the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology. She is licensed to practice in California and Oklahoma, and she is authorized to practice up to one month per year in 31 additional states. She has a private practice in Encino in which she provides neuropsychological testing to clarify the source and scope of cognitive, developmental, academic, psychiatric, and behavioral problems in privately referred children and adults aged 5-102.

Dr. Chidekel is also retained as an expert witness in state and federal matters across the country associated with personal injury, elder law, probate, employment law, educational law, business law, and (limited) family, criminal and immigration law. Cases involve testamentary and contractual capacity (in living and deceased testators), neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, traumatic brain injury, medical malpractice, psychological trauma, harassment, discrimination, and special education.

Dr. Chidekel has authored and coauthored professional articles about developmental neuropsychology and parameters of professional practice, that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, including Cerebellum, Pediatric Neurology, and Applied Neuropsychology: Child. She is co-author of ADHD as a Model of Brain-Behavior Relationships (Springer 2013) and author of Parents in Charge: Setting Healthy, Loving Boundaries for You and Your Child (Simon and Schuster, 2001). She is a frequent presenter to lay and professional audiences as a speaker, panelist, and keynote. Dr. Chidekel has appeared on local and national radio and TV programs, including multiple appearances on The Today Show.