Work for trusts and estates asks attorneys to bring legal precision into some of the most personal conversations a client will ever have. A surviving spouse, family business owner, or fiduciary may arrive with legal questions shaped by grief, control, family tension, or long-term legacy concerns. For lateral trusts and estates attorneys, the best opportunities often go to lawyers who can show practical judgment as clearly as credentials.

For candidates and firms, the hiring conversation usually centers on planning experience, fiduciary administration, tax fluency, drafting discipline, discretion, and client relationship ability. This article explains the traits firms tend to weigh most carefully when evaluating trusts and estates attorneys.

Experience with Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer

Firms first look for planning judgment. A trust and estate attorney should be able to discuss the matters handled, the client profile, and why a particular structure fits the circumstances. Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion in U.S. wealth will transfer through 2048, helping explain why firms pay close attention to planning judgment, family wealth experience, discretion, and multigenerational advice.

That may include trust work, gifting strategies, charitable planning, or generation-skipping transfer issues. The stronger answer is usually a matter story rather than a document inventory: what the risk was, how options were explained, and why the client chose a path.

Fiduciary Administration and Probate Knowledge

Administration experience gives trusts and estates lawyers a practical lens that improves planning. Attorneys who have advised trustees, executors, beneficiaries, or family members often understand where documents create friction after death or incapacity.

Assets may be hard to locate while beneficiaries may disagree about timing or intent. Fiduciaries may need guidance on duties, distributions, claims, or accounting. The IRS treats estate, gift, and trust statistics as a distinct area, underscoring how closely legal, tax, and fiduciary issues can intersect.

Tax Law Proficiency

Tax awareness remains one of the clearest differentiators among trusts and estates Attorney skills. Candidates do not always need to be pure tax lawyers, but firms will expect comfort with estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer, income, and fiduciary tax concepts.

The key is knowing when a plan requires deeper tax analysis and how to work with accountants, valuation advisers, and family office teams. An LL.M. in tax, sophisticated private-client work, or close collaboration with tax counsel can show that the attorney will recognize tax-sensitive issues early.

Familiarity with Business Succession Planning

For many private clients, estate planning and business succession planning are closely connected. Firms may look at whether a candidate has worked with closely held businesses, family enterprises, ownership transfers, governance documents, or buy-sell arrangements. This experience shows that the attorney can think across the client’s estate plan, operating business, family relationships, and long-term control concerns.

Drafting and Transactional Skills and Precision

Trusts and estates work rewards careful drafting. A small ambiguity can create uncertainty years later, when the client is no longer available to explain with intent. Firms therefore pay close attention to writing samples, document experience, and the attorney’s ability to produce clear work.

In interviews, firms listen for more than a list of documents drafted. A trust and estate attorney should be able to explain why certain language was chosen, how it should operate during administration, and where unclear drafting could create tax, fiduciary, or family conflict.

Emotional Intelligence and Discretion

Some of the most important trusts and estates attorney characteristics are difficult to capture on a résumé. Clients may be discussing mortality, incapacity, family conflict, wealth, control, or a recent loss. Firms need attorneys who can listen closely, ask direct questions with care, and maintain confidentiality without drama.

ACTEC’s Commentaries on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct address ethical issues specific to estate and trust practitioners, including confidentiality, communication, client capacity, fiduciary representation, and family-related conflicts. For firms, that context matters because trusts and estates attorneys must handle precise legal advice, sensitive personal information, and complicated family relationships with care.

Business Development Potential or Growth

As attorneys become more senior, firms increasingly consider client development potential. For a rising trusts and estates attorney, growth may show through referral relationships, bar involvement, estate planning councils, accountant connections, or careful stewardship of existing firm clients.

Lateral hiring is also a meaningful part of law firm growth strategy. NALP reported that aggregate law firm lateral hiring increased 16.4% in 2025, with both partner and associate lateral hiring up year over year among responding offices and firms. For trust and estate candidates, that makes credibility, relationship instincts, and long-term fit especially important.

What Candidates and Firms Should Take Away

For candidates, broad statements about estate planning experience are less persuasive than specific examples. Be ready to explain the matters you have handled, the clients you have advised, the documents you have drafted, and the judgment you brought to sensitive situations.

If you are weighing a lateral move or assessing a hiring need, contact Atticus Recruiting for a confidential conversation about fit, timing, and the Chicago and Midwest legal market.