Ms. Ostfeld has an active probate practice. In addition to probating decedents’ estates and representing heirs and legatees, she has received over 200 court appointments from fifteen different probate judges to represent minors and disabled persons.
Where this work involves decedent’s estates, she has worked with executors to collect and preserve assets, sell real estate when necessary, and distribute estate assets according to the terms of the will or laws of the State of Illinois. When assets have been found in France, Ms Ostfeld has worked with her colleagues and French notaires to obtain the assets, as efficiently and economically as possible.
Ms Ostfeld has engaged in contested litigation to represent respondents in guardianship proceedings as well as estate administrators and heirs/legatees in decedents’ estates. The issues have concerned Will construction, real estate partitions, rights of beneficiaries of decedents’ estates, and claims.
Lynne Ostfeld with judges at
Annual Nordic Law Probate Night (2022)
Articles, Speeches
- Estate Planning and Probate in Illinois and France, ISBA, "THe Globe", September 2022
- Planification successorale et Homologation en Illinois et en France (pdf in French)
- Essential Predeath Planning for Postdeath, ABA GP/Solo Law Trends & News, Winter 2011 (pdf)
- Probate Practice in Illinois (speech), CBA Solo & Small Firm Committee, Spring, 2002
- SUCCESSIONS – Mourir sans testament, Le Bulletin de l’UFEC, octobre 1996