Mark A. Lester is a managing partner of Lester & Hirschberg, LLP, in Camarillo, California, where his practice focuses on trust, estate, and conservatorship litigation, estate planning, and trust and estate administration. Mr. Lester was trial and appellate counsel in Breslin v. Breslin (2021) 62 Cal.App.5th 801, Christie v. Kimball (2012) 202 Cal.App.4th 1407, and Estate of Odian (2006) 145 Cal.App.4th 152, and co- author of one of the Amicus Briefs relied upon and quoted by the California Supreme Court in reversing the Court of Appeal in Barefoot v. Jennings (2020) 8 Cal.5th 822. He is recognized by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization as a certified specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law for over 20 years and, after a 5-year term on the Estate Planning Law Advisory Commission (including as chair of the commission 2015-2016), served as an appointed member to (and chair of) the California Board of Legal Specialization.
Mr. Lester has been qualified and testified as an expert witness on the standard of care and practice for trustees in maintaining impartiality between competing beneficial interests in the matter entitled In the Marilyn and Robert Carman Family Trust, Santa Barbara Superior Court Case No. 16PR00419 (2021). He has also been deposed as an expert witness (i) on the standard of care and practice for court-appointed attorney in preparation of estate planning documents for a conservatee in the matter entitled Kanner v. Schomer Law Group, APC, et al., Los Angeles County Superior Court Case No. BC683648 (2020) and (ii) on the issues of undue influence, shifting burdens of proof re undue influence, validity and efficacy of an amendment to trust, and application of care custodian statutes to family friend in the matter entitled In the Matter of: Margaret B. Chappell Living Trust dated December 16, 2010, as amended (Aviles v. Swearingen), Ventura County Superior Court Case No. 56-2016-00479394-PR-TR-OXN (2017). Since 2001, Mr. Lester is an AV (Preeminent) ™ peer-review-rated attorney by LexisNexis/Martindale Hubbell. In 2015 through 2025, Mr. Lester has been recognized as a Southern California Super Lawyer™ in Estate & Trust Litigation, in 2015 and 2018 in Estate Planning & Probate, in 2018 in Corporate and Business areas of the law, and in 2022 through 2025 as Top 100 Attorneys in Southern California. From time to time since 2017, Mr. Lester serves as a judge pro tem for the Probate Department of the Ventura County Superior Court.
Mr. Lester received his B.A. degree from Stanford University, his J.D. degree from Seattle University School of Law, and his LL.M. degree in taxation from Boston University.