Jonathan G. Blattmachr

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy

212-530-5066 www.milbank.com

It's actually possible to be a rock star in trusts and estates, and Blattmachr is the undisputed king. Milbank, his home, has counseled the Rockefellers and the Gettys on their estates. "His first name alone prompts recognition," according to a lengthy 2003 profile in the New York Times titled "The Loophole Artist." Like Elvis or Mick, he is also controversial: In 2007, a New York jury found he breached his fiduciary duty to a wealthy client by employing an insurance strategy halted by the I.R.S. He claims to be retiring this year, but none of his peers believe it. "He's like a type-A personality cubed; he's brilliant, with a huge amount of energy."

Carlyn S. McCaffrey

Weil, Gotshal & Manges

212-310-8136 www.weil.com

McCaffrey is known as the Queen of GRATS—that is, the grantor-retained annuity trust, a vehicle that allows a gift of wealth to grow and pass gift-tax free to beneficiaries. Called "the smartest estate planner in the country," superlatives abound at the mention of her name. Like many peers, McCaffrey won't divulge her client list. Privacy and discretion are the coin of this realm. But her memberships on the boards of cultural institutions seeking an entrée to her clients' philanthropic powers speak volumes: They include advisory seats at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and Lincoln Center, in New York City.

Carol A. Harrington

McDermott Will & Emery

312-984-7794 www.mwe.com

Harrington heads up McDermott's prominent private-client department and is a national authority on the federal generation-skipping tax. She co-authors a "tax treats" on the subject that is updated twice each year. Like McCaffrey, Harrington is an adviser to the Heckering Institute of Estate Planning, a Miami educational conference that is the gold standard. But both women are part of a far more elite informal group called the No Name Group. A study group of about 20 lawyers or so chosen by invite only, it meets twice a year to jawbone about the tax code, the most cutting-edge forms, and the like.

Dennis I. Belcher

McGuire Woods

804-775-4304 www.mcguirewoods.com

Described as "fabulous" and "very practical," Belcher, according to one peer, "knows his stuff and it shows." He specializes in problematic estates, closely held businesses, and estates with beneficiary disputes. Belcher represented the estate and foundation of Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Washington Redskins football team, in a long-running dispute among Cooke's heirs over his nearly $1 billion fortune. Belcher is president-elect of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a group of about 2,600 lawyers in which membership is by nomination only.

Henry "Terry" Christensen III

McDermott Will & Emery

212-547-5658 www.mwe.com

An icon among trust lawyers in New York, Christensen was a partner at the white-shoe firm Sullivan & Cromwell for 30 years and left last summer when his longtime client Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the chief executive of insurance giant AIG, sued another longtime S&C client. Dueling lawsuits between Greenberg and AIG created a conflict of interest forcing Christensen's departure, and Greenberg called his lawyer a "man of integrity and loyalty" in a Wall Street Journal article. He represented socialite Brooke Astor for more than 40 years, until her son switched estate-planning lawyers, apparently to her great detriment. Christensen has an international practice, and his clients include the Tate Gallery and the Starr Foundation.

Paul N. Frimmer

Irell & Manella

310-203-7639 www.irell.com

West Coast wealth has its own flavor—earned or acquired after World War II rather than through inheritance—and many of Frimmer's Los Angeles clients lived through the Depression and have difficulty grasping the control they must give up in the name of estate planning. Frimmer also specializes in art law. Frimmer and his partner Steven Thomas handled the record-breaking $135 million sale of the Gustav Klimt portrait of Adele Bloch-Blauer to Ronald Lauder's Neue Gallerie.

Joshua S. Rubenstein

Katten Muchin Rosenman

212-940-8545 www.kattenlaw.com

Rubenstein juggles estate planning, administration, and litigation in his practice and is described as "just wonderful" by his peers. His clients include the LeFrak family of New York, owners of a large commercial real estate empire. He has administered a Who's Who of estates in the arts and entertainment world, including the estates of Richard Rogers, Vladimir Horowitz, Igor Stravinsky, Rudolf Nureyev, and the painter Hans Hoffman. Rubenstein mixes it up: He's currently litigating a mother-daughter war over the money made from sale of the Jimmy Choo shoe business.

Ronald D. Aucutt

McGuire Woods

703-712-5497, www.mcguirewoods.com

Aucutt leads McGuire Woods' wealth-services group, and clients come to him for both estate planning and consulting for tax problems and I.R.S. audits. A past president of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and member of the elite No Name Group of trust and estate lawyers, Aucutt also advises clients on charitable giving and tax-exempt organizations.

Lloyd Leva Plaine

Sutherland Asbill & Brennan

202-383-0155 www.sablaw.com

Described as "very technically good all around," Plaine handles estates of both inherited-wealth clients and entrepreneurs. The firm's clients have estates as small as several hundred thousand dollars and as large as hundreds of millions of dollars. She is in charge of the individual-tax-planning division of Sutherland's huge tax practice. Like many of her peers, Plaine works on generation-skipping tax planning. "I try not to let the tax tail wag the dog," she says of her philosophy.

Ellen K. Harrison

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman

202-663-8316, www.pillsburylaw.com

Invariably described by peers as "fabulous," Harrison is the essence of discretion and will not name clients. In the same breath, she wittily points out that "high-net-worth people are our favorite clients." Some of her specialties include preserving family businesses and the orderly transition of management. She also counsels international clients in estate planning and protection against what they regard as a "litigious society."

David A. Handler

Kirkland & Ellis

312-861-2477 www.kirkland.com

A 1992 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, Handler is an up-and-comer in the trusts and estates bar, a group of acknowledged gray-hairs. Handler writes the monthly tax column for Trusts & Estates magazine and specializes in advising the principals of private equity firms such as Bain & Company and Summit Partners on how to transfer the "carried interest" of their speculative investments to a trust for the benefit of their families.

Diana S.C. Zeydel

Greenberg Traurig

305-579-0500, www.gtlaw.com

A protégée of Jonathan Blattmachr, Zeydel's star is on the horizon, and the older members of this group say she is "not quite there yet." Based in Miami, she focuses on making estate planning "accessible to everybody." Her clients' wealth ranges from $10 million to $100 million, which they are seeking to place into grantor-retained annuity trusts. She appears to be Blattmachr's preferred co-author and boasts an interesting pretrusts life: Prior to college and law school, she was a ballerina, winning a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School, after which she joined the Chicago Ballet.

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