Shirley Ongee Tam

Shirley initially worked as a tax attorney at a large accounting firm, and while she enjoyed tax law, was unhappy about the lack of client interaction.  She worked in the field of tax law for about two years.

Then, one fateful night, Shirley's uncle happened to ask if she prepared living trusts.  At the time, the answer was "no."  He was concerned about what would happen to his children (Shirley's cousins) if anything were to happen to him since he travelled so much for business.  That was when Shirley realized that estate planning law was the perfect field of law for her to move into.   She soon met Attorney Douglas P. Barnes, whom she worked with for nearly eight (8) years as his trusted associate attorney.  Shirley worked all aspects of estate planning - from drafting the estate planning documents, administering a decedent's estate, to trust litigation.   A graduate of Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, Shirley goes home often to the L.A. area to see her family.

Shirley was born and raised in southern California. For most of her life, she lived in the City of Monterey Park. She left for the Bay Area when she was accepted to the University of California at Berkeley (GO BEARS!), where she earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, with an emphasis in political theory. Shirley attended Loyola Law School of Los Angeles directly after college and was admitted to the California Bar on December 2001.

Shirley is a member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association, the Silicon Valley Bar Association, and the Santa Clara County Estate Planning Council. She also participates in a local estate planning litigation group, which is where she meets with other trust and estate litigators to discuss the latest law cases and legal issues.