Rebecca Abbott Zotti

I’ve been an attorney for over 20 years, and I’ve really never wanted to do anything else. I love using the law to help people resolve problems, or better yet, prevent them.

One of my favorite parts of being an estate planning lawyer is being able to design something unique that has real meaning for people in their day-to-day lives. There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a client tell me how much they appreciate the peace of mind of having a plan made specifically for them, that protects them and the people they love. That’s why I do what I do.

I didn’t start my legal career in estate planning, although I always enjoyed this kind of work. For most of my career, I was a successful litigator. I handled cases big and small, and I routinely achieved great results for my clients. While I enjoyed my work, some personal experiences made me reevaluate the focus of my practice.

In the last decades, I lost both of my parents unexpectedly. My mother died without any kind of estate plan, not even a simple will. My father had an estate plan, but it was poorly designed and didn’t take into account our family dynamics and his assets. Because of the lack of adequate planning, conflicts over their estates had to be resolved in court. It was painful to go through, and I knew right then that I wanted to spare other families that pain if I could. That was the motivation for me to start my own practice as an estate planning lawyer with a different approach to the process.

With Aspen Estate Planning, I try to help people overcome the personal and practical barriers that keep them from making an estate plan—the inconvenience, the discomfort with talking to a lawyer, the worry that they’ll be judged, the feeling that they have to have all the answers before they get started. I don’t want my clients to dread meeting with a stiff, formal estate planning lawyer. I want the process to feel like a good conversation with a trusted friend—the kind that leaves you feeling like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders.

I’m known among colleagues for my attention to detail, clear writing, and ability to recognize potential issues. Those skills are vital in estate planning, where mistakes and ambiguities might not be found until it’s too late to fix them. But my litigation background gives me a unique advantage. In trial work, I’ve learned to look at the facts of a situation and anticipate potential risks before they materialize. Because I have seen firsthand how a lack of clarity leads to litigation, I’m in a better position to help my clients avoid problems and have peace of mind that their plan will work when they need it.

When I’m not helping my clients plan for the future, you can probably find me planning to get to my next Bruce Springsteen concert (or at least listening to E Street Radio in the car). I also love spending time in the Rockies and the Cascades, where I first saw the aspen trees that inspired my law firm’s name. Whether at home in New Orleans or recharging in the mountains, I enjoy spending time with my own loved ones: my husband and our two rescue pugs, Jewel and Lucy—the pampered princesses of our family.