Les Raatz

Les Raatz is an attorney practicing primarily in the areas of estate planning, probate and trust administration, entity structuring, taxation, charitable organizations, commercial organizations, and commercial transactions. Mr. Raatz has significant experience representing hundreds of business clients and their families in connection with estate and tax planning. He has been an author and speaker at numerous seminars on areas of income and estate and gift taxation, selection of business entities, and buying and selling businesses.

Mr. Raatz graduated with high honors from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Accountancy in 1974. He received his law degree from the University of Illinois in 1977. He is a licensed attorney in Texas and Arizona. After graduation from law school he practiced as a Certified Public Accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick, CPAs. Since that time, he has practiced law in Texas before becoming a shareholder with Mariscal, Weeks, McIntyre & Friedlander, P.A. in 1986.

Mr. Raatz has extensive experience in a broad range of tax, probate and trust matters, including estate planning, audits and litigation, and corporate, trust, exempt organizations, real estate, and partnership and limited liability company taxation.

Mr. Raatz is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and is listed in Best Lawyers in America in fields of Tax Law and Trusts and Estates. He is certified as a Tax Specialist by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of Arizona. He was President of the Central Arizona Estate Planning Council, Chair of the Probate and Trust Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona, Chair of its Arizona Trust Code Comment Committee, and Chair of the Tax Advisory Commission for the Board of Legal Specialization. He is a member of the Taxation Section of the American Bar Association, and the Taxation and Probate and Real Property Sections of the State Bar of Arizona, and was a member of the Probate Rules Committee of the Arizona Supreme Court.

He is a Director of the Phoenix Arizona Chapter of the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation.