Daniel T Blake

In my profession I am encountering lawyers on a weekly basis. While I have not developed a formal system for rating lawyers, it has become readily apparent that all lawyers are not created equal. My decision to choose Dan Blake as my Corporate Attorney nearly 19 years ago has proven to be one of my ...most brilliant business decisions. His analysis and input has been invaluable and his support has been unwavering through the years. I reccomend Dan Blake on a regular basis with complete confidence and he has never failed to meet client expectations.

I have personally used Attorney Dan Blake in several areas over the past several years and have referred him to numerous friends and business associates. His work for me has included estate planning, estate administration/probate, purchase and sale of real estate, and a variety of business related ma...tters. Let me briefly highlight a couple of these engagements and my impressions of Dan as it relates to them. I was asked to be trustee/executor of a friend’s multi-million dollar estate. He unfortunately had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had a very short time to live. He wished to leave his entire estate in trust to benefit two friends since he was not close to his living relatives - a half sister and several cousins. The estate was complicated involving six real estate properties, an extensive antique collection, numerous bank accounts and liquid investments, and an antique car collection. The trust was also complicated and included all necessary provisions for the support and care of the beneficiaries. Because time was short (less than 2 weeks), Dan provided quick turn around on drafting the will, setting up a trust, and transferring. Great care was taken so the will could not be contested. Upon my friend’s death, Dan oversaw the settling of the estate via probate and his office administered the trust for me as trustee. Reflecting back, I was amazed at how smoothly things went, especially considering the potential for serious problems. I feel this was largely due to Dan’s personal commitment to make sure things were done right from the start. Dan also set up an investment LLC for me. Its structure included numerous special considerations. For example equity interest in the LLC’s investments varied from one partner to another since it was based not only upon their initial capital contribution but also their degree of active participation in the investment. There were several other special requirements, which Dan was able to craft into its structure. I feel his knowledge of the area, enabled me to efficiently and economically create a custom LLC that perfectly matched my needs. On occasion I have needed to slightly modify the LLC because of alterations to our business strategy. Dan has been able to rapidly make these changes, which I again attribute to his keeping abreast of current thinking and laws in this area. As I indicated earlier, I have personally used Dan in several other areas including my family’s personal estate planning, sale of one of my businesses, and purchase and sale of several real estate properties. In each case I have found him very knowledgeable and efficient in the way he approached each assignment. He was comfortable providing a cost estimate for his work and I did not experienced any surprises in the final bill. I also feel his prices were fair. He took great pride in his work and when necessary took time to educate me on various approaches or options. Have have worked with numerous lawyers over the years and I definitely put him at the top of the list. That is why I continue to use him personally and also refer him to both friends and business associates.