Rachel Joan Baer

Rachel Baer is a Partner at the Family First Law Group, PLLC.  Rachel Baer’s practice focuses on wills, trusts, and estate administration, as well as guardianship and conservatorship for incapacitated adults.

Whether planning for the future or dealing with an immediate crisis, estate planning is a loving way of providing for our families and friends, as well as ensuring that our wishes are given full effect. Ms. Baer strives to help her clients understand their options and make the best decisions for themselves and their loved ones. Ms. Baer’s experience ranges from helping clients with simple wills to complex trusts, and everything in between. Ms. Baer also concentrates on helping pet owners to intentionally include their pets in their plans—regardless of the size of their estate. In addition, Ms. Baer advises individuals who are administering trusts or estates ​and helps them navigate the legal rules and court requirements.

Ms. Baer also helps families attain guardianship and conservatorship for their loved​ ones who have lost capacity due to dementia, intellectual disability, or mental illness. In these difficult circumstances, Ms. Baer provides empathetic advice​ and ensures that every case is focused on the client and their loved one’s needs. Ms. Baer can also assist conservators as they account for their loved ones’ assets, and assist clients in transferring guardianship and conservatorship to and from other states. In addition, the Virginia Supreme Court has qualified Ms. Baer as a guardian ad litem for both incapacitated adults and children.

Prior to starting the Family First Law Group with her partners, Ms. Baer had a solo law practice in Alexandria from 2012 to 2016, focusing on estate planning and elder law, and served as an attorney at a boutique elder law firm in Falls Church from 2016 to 2017.  More recently, Ms. Baer worked as an attorney at Rich Rosenthal in Old Town Alexandria from 2017-2020.

Before she began focusing on estate planning and elder law, Ms. Baer served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office from 2010 to 2012. Ms. Baer worked in the Health Services Section, advising several state agencies that provide services to persons with disabilities. Ms. Baer represented her clients in state and federal court, reviewed proposed regulation and policy, served as counsel during board meetings, and provided day-to-day advice. From 2009 to 2010, Ms. Baer worked as a contract attorney at Simms Showers LLP in Leesburg, Virginia.

Ms. Baer was born and raised in San Diego, California before moving to Northern Virginia in 2003. She currently lives in Alexandria with her husband and their daughter.