Carol Kao > Withers Bergman LLP > San Diego, United States > Lawyer Profile

Carol Kao

Work Department

Trust, Estates and Charitable Planning

Position

Partner

Career

Carol has provided confidential personal estate and tax planning services to private clients for over 25 years. She focuses on wealth transfers for successful families, sophisticated estate and gift tax saving techniques, charitable planned giving, family private foundations, business succession planning, complex probate and trust administrations, and resolving estate and gift tax audits. Prior to joining Withers, Carol was a partner in the law firm of Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps LLP/McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. She was also a certified public accountant with Arthur Andersen before starting her legal career.

She has been named as one of the ‘Best Lawyers in America’ since 2006. She has also been named one of ‘Southern California Super Lawyers,’ and ranked as one of the ‘Top 25 Women Attorneys’ and one of the ‘Top 50 Attorneys’ in San Diego by San Diego Super Lawyers. She has a Martindale-Hubbell® AV Rating and has been ranked in The Daily Transcript: San Diego County Top Attorneys, as well as being a recipient of State Bar of California’s Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services and the San Diego Volunteer Program’s Distinguished Service Award.

Memberships

California State Bar

California State Bar Tax-Exempt Organizations Committee

American College of Trust and Estate Counsel

Certified Public Accountant, California (Inactive)

Planned Giving Committee of University of California, San Diego

Board of Directors and Secretary of Make-a-Wish Foundation of San Diego

La Jolla Estate Planning Trust and Probate Section

San Diego County Bar Estate Planning Trust and Probate Section

San Diego County Bar Association

Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego

Education

UCLA, cum laude, B.A.

USC, J.D.