Jackson Walker has expanded its wealth planning practice with a five-lawyer group from Crain Caton & James in Houston.
The team is led by Sarah Patel Pacheco, a former president and executive committee member of Crain Caton. Joining her are partners Kathleen Tanner Beduze and Joshua Flores, senior counsel Joe Savoie and associate Jocelyn Thibodaux Slater.
Pacheco – who Jackson Walker managing partner Wade Cooper considers “one of the most recognized authorities on fiduciary litigation” – said her team’s sophisticated client base needed a larger platform with lawyers who have corporate, intellectual property, international and appellate expertise.
Jackson Walker’s Texas roots and her familiarity with the firm’s wealth planning group were also motivating factors in the move.
Pacheco, who currently has 10 cases in various courts of appeal, pointed specifically to Jackson Walker’s “highly-regarded” appellate practice as a big value-add. In one of those cases she is representing Linda Moody, daughter of the late W.L. Moody IV, on appeal at the Texas Supreme Court in a dispute with Deloris Darlene Moody and Moody National Bank over his estate.
In that suit Pacheco seeks to overturn a property-transfer agreement from Moody to his wife that Moody’s daughter alleges took money that would have gone to his estate on his death as separate property and made it marital property instead. The 14th Court of Appeals in Houston held Linda Moody did not have standing to challenge the agreement, overturning the result at the trial court. The Texas Supreme Court ordered merits briefing, a step closer in the review process to granting the petition.
Pacheco, a graduate of SMU Dedman School of Law, says she has handled a number of cases involving “caregiver exploitation,” including successfully defending the will of Sonny Stolz, Jr., the former three-term mayor of La Grange, Texas.
Wealth transfer issues and fiduciary litigation have “exploded” over the last three decades, Pacheco says, and she sees no signs of it slowing down as the population ages. Pacheco estimates the amount of monies in dispute is in the billions.
With these additions from Crain Caton, Jackson Walker has recruited 12 partners over the past three months.
The firm’s new depth includes Jennifer Freel, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, from Vinson & Elkins; real estate finance pros Andrew Ingrum and Michelle Vincent Parker from Holland & Knight; veteran dealmakers Brian Lidji and Kyle Hooper from the firm they founded; and corporate partners Evan Malloy and Chelsea Wood from Kelly Hart.