David M Lutrey

David M. Lutrey is the managing partner of the Lake Forest law firm of Lesser Lutrey Pasquesi & Howe, LLP.  For the past 20 years, Mr. Lutrey has counseled individuals and corporate fiduciaries as a seasoned litigation attorney in the areas of trusts, estates, probate and guardianships.  He assists individuals in the creation of wills, trusts and other estate planning documents that preserve and transfer meaningful legacies.

In addition to representing individuals and corporate fiduciaries in their capacities as trustee, executor, guardian or agent, Lutrey also represents financial institutions in their own right with regard to the creation and implementation of trust and estate policy manuals, risk management strategies and employee training.

David Lutrey is a powerful and effective litigator and has chaired numerous trials in Lake, Cook and McHenry Counties as well as appearing in Federal District Court involving complex trust and estate issues.  His trial successes include a recent $1,000,000 undue influence award in the Circuit Court of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit in Lake in the estate of Augusta Gershman, deceased.  He has also been involved in numerous appeals addressing or creating new law, including the published decisions of the Estate of Helen Weiland, Deceased, and the Estate of Walsh, Deceased.

Lutrey is a respected and frequent speaker and writer on estate planning, administration and litigation issues. He served on the legal education and outreach committees of the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s Estate Planning Short Course from 2009-2016.  He is a member of the ISBA’s Trusts and Estates Section Council and the Chicago Estate Planning Council.  He is a Past President of the Lake County Estate Planning Council and recently completed his fifth consecutive term as Chair of the Lake County Bar Association’s Trusts and Estates Committee.  

Lutrey is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (“ACTEC”) and Litigation Counsel of America (“LCA”), and was an adjunct trust and estate professor at Loyola Law School in Chicago from 2012 – 2015.  In 2015, Lutrey drafted portions of the Illinois trust legislation allowing distributions of trust in further trust (“decanting”). 

David Lutrey is well known and respected by his peers. He was rated “AV” by both the bar and judiciary according to Martindale Hubbell; he was selected by Thompson Reuters as a “Super Lawyer” for the years 2014 through the present; and selected by the Law Bulletin Publishing Group as a “Leading Lawyer” for the years 2016 through the present.