concentrates her practice in the areas of probate, trust and G/C administration and litigation. She is a certified specialist in estate and trust law and a licensed fiduciary. She is the 2007 Recipient of the Eleanor Ter Horst Distinguished Service Award given by the Probate & Trust Section of the State Bar for superior knowledge in probate and trust law; consultation to the bar, the courts and the public; participation in related committees and projects and enhancement of public awareness of trust and probate issues. She is rated AV-Pre-eminent (30+ years) and Top Rated Lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed by SuperLawyers, Arizona’s Finest Lawyers and Best Lawyers of America (2023 & 2025 Best Lawyer of the Year, 2023 & 2025 Best Law Firm, Phoenix: Elder Law, Trusts & Estates, Litigation - Trusts Estates). She has served as a Judge Pro Tem for the Probate/Mental Health Division of the Maricopa County Superior Court since 1988; and is a certified arbitrator and settlement judge in the probate and civil divisions. She attended Northwestern University and Arizona State University College of Law (JD 1977). She is a former member (1988-92) and co chair (1990-91) of the Executive Council of the State Bar’s Probate & Trust Section, and the State Bar’s Continuing Legal Education Committee (1991-95). She served on the Advisory Commission on Estate and Trust Specialization (1991-98 and 2012-16, chair in 2016), the board of the Maricopa County Bar’s Estate Planning, Probate & Trust Section and the Arizona Supreme Court’s Probate Rules Committee. She was a Senior Editor of the Probate Practice Manual, 5th ed.2014 and 6th ed. 2022. She served on the 2014-15 Alternative Dispute Resolution Policy/Training Group which developed new policies, procedures and mandatory probate ADR training for the Maricopa County Superior Court. She was a member of the Arizona Supreme Court’s Task Force from 2017 through 2019, which re-wrote the Rules of Probate Procedure. She was a faculty member for the State Bar’s College of Trial Advocacy (2014-2018) and the Arizona Supreme Court’s mandatory training program for court appointed attorneys and guardians ad litem. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel, and a member of the Sole Practitioner’s Probate Litigation Committee, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Arizona Fiduciary Assn and the Arizona Assn of Women Lawyers. She is a volunteer with the MCBA Probate Lawyer Assistance Program. She is qualified as an expert witness, special master, GAL, litigation conservator, arbitrator and mediator; and is a frequent speaker on probate and trust administration, GCs, litigation and professional ethics.

Honorable Kenneth Lee was appointed to the Pima County Superior Court on April 17, 1997. He is currently assigned to the Probate Bench and currently serves as Presiding Judge of the Probate Bench. His prior bench assignments have been a civil assignment from 1997 to 2002, a criminal assignment from 2002 to 2006, a family law assignment from 2006 to 2008, a civil assignment from 2008 to 2013, and a criminal assignment from 2013 to 2018. He previously served two terms as the Civil Presiding Judge from 1999 to 2000 and 2008 to 2010. In addition, he served four terms as the Associate Presiding Judge from 2001 to 2002, 2004 to 2005, 2011 to 2014 and 2015 to 2018. Judge Lee is currently a member of the Arizona Supreme Court Steering Committee on Data-Based Court Performance and Data Standards and was previously on the Committee for Superior Courts. In the past, he has been a member of the Arizona State Bar Committees on Civil Jury Instructions and Civil Practice and Procedure. From 2000 to 2002 he served as secretary of the Arizona Judges Association. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Lee was trial attorney in Tucson for 16 years. He practiced at the firms of Davis and Eppstein, P. C. from 1981 to 1986 and Haralson, Kinerk & Morley from 1986 to 1997. The major areas of practice were plaintiffs’ medical malpractice and other complex, personal injury cases.

is certified as a specialist in Estate and Probate Law with the State Bar of Arizona. Hillary has been licensed to practice law in Arizona since 1998. Her practice has focused primarily on estate planning, guardianships, conservatorships, protection of incapacitated and vulnerable adults, probate administration, trust administration, and litigation in contested probate and trust administration matters since 2006.

Hillary's estate planning practice consists of assisting clients develop and prepare a personalized estate plan appropriate for their individual and family needs. An estate plan may include, among other things a will, revocable living trust, special needs trust for a disabled family member, irrevocable trust, life insurance trust, estate tax planning, power of attorney, health care power of attorney, and living will. She also works with small business owners to prepare a succession plan and buy-sell agreements.

She is skilled in handling a variety of contested and uncontested probate and post death administration matters including, but not limited to:

Assisting families and individuals establish guardianships and conservatorships for a disabled or incapacitated family member;
Representing disabled and incapacitated adults in guardianship and conservatorship proceedings;
Representing private fiduciaries in guardianships, conservatorships, trust administration and probate estate administration;
Advising Trustees in the administration of a trust;
Representing personal representatives in the probate of a will or intestate estate;
Representing trust beneficiaries or estate heirs in the protection of their rights as a beneficiary or heir; and
Litigation and trials in contested probate matters.

is a Partner at the legal services firm of Fletcher Struse Wagner & Derksen PLC in Tucson, Arizona. His areas of expertise are in estate planning, trust administration, and estate, trust, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxation. Steve became a certified public accountant in December 2002. Then Steve went to Rutgers School of Law in Camden New Jersey and became a member of the state bar of Arizona in December 2005. Steve worked as a CPA for BeachFleischman for a little over 9 years and has been practicing law since 2014. Steve is a member of the Southern Arizona Estate Planning Council and Tucson Tax Study Group. In addition, Steve is the chair of the Professional Advisory Network for the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. In his free time Steve is a performer and co-founder of a local circus company Cirque Collective, performing with fire and partner acrobats.

Lauren Talkington is an attorney with Snell & Wilmer. Her practice is concentrated in private client services, specifically estate planning, probate, as well as estate and trust litigation. She has extensive experience in preparing estate planning documents to fit clients’ needs, including wills, revocable or irrevocable trusts, as well as incapacity planning documents such as financial and health care powers of attorney. Lauren also provides advice regarding income, gift, and estate tax issues with experience in preparing taxable estate tax returns and gift tax returns. She has widespread knowledge of fiduciary service matters, including matters of complex estate and trust administration. Lauren is a Certified Estate and Trust Law Specialist through the State Bar of Arizona. She received her Bachelors from Northern Arizona University (Business Economics and International Affairs) and her JD from the University of Arizona.