Diedre Wachbrit Braverman

Diedre Wachbrit Braverman is one of the nation’s leading estate and special needs planning attorneys. A graduate of Stanford Law School where she was Chair of the Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance, she is also a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of University of California, Irvine, magna cum laude where she graduated first in her class of over 800 students.

Diedre has been quoted in Time magazine, the New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and repeatedly quoted in The Wall Street Journal and was profiled in the Ventura County Star newspaper and Working Mother magazine.

Diedre was certified as a specialist by the California Board of Legal Specialization in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law.

Diedre co-founded the Academy of Special Needs Planners, a national organization of attorneys who include special needs planning in their practices.

Prior to opening her law practice, Diedre was a Senior Associate at the leading international consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, where she provided strategic business advice to some of the nation’s largest and best-known companies.

Before that, she was an Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell and at Kirkland & Ellis, both international law firms. Diedre is licensed to practice law in all Colorado and California State Courts, the Colorado and California Supreme Courts, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Supreme Court.

Diedre is a member of Wealth Counsel and Elder Counsel, both organizations of premier providers of sophisticated legal planning. Diedre has studied estate planning at both Stanford Law School and UCLA.  She has served as a teaching fellow at the Southern California Institute.

With her extensive experience in these areas over the past twenty-plus years, along with her extensive continuing education, as a student and a nationally recognized speaker, Diedre will effectively protect your family and assets.

Diedre’s teaching and speaking credits include:

• “Tax strategies and estate planning for new residents of California” to top executives at Amgen Corporation;
• Multi-day Intensives, “Legal Planning For Young Families," "Estate Planning 101," and several shorter courses to WealthCounsel member attorneys, nationally;
• Specialized courses on sub-topics related to special needs planning at the Academy of Special Needs Planners' national events; and dozens of consumer courses all over the country.

Diedre's writing credits include articles or chapters in:

• Special Needs Planning, a treatise for attorneys published by the Continuing Education of the Bar in California and referenced as a resource nationwide;
• Apartment Finance Today, a national magazine; and 
• The Link, a national home-schooling newspaper. 

Diedre is the author of three widely used guides: "The Parents’ Guide to Protecting Great Kids"; "The Family Asset Protection Guide" and the "Family Business Survival Guide", each of which is available at no charge to firm clients. These Guides have been featured in numerous publications including The Autism Digest.