Monica Goel, a member of the firm since 1999 and partner since 2010, has been given the “Superb” rating by AVVO and was named to the upper echelons of Top Women Attorneys in Southern California in 2016. With over twenty years of legal experience, Ms. Goel advises clients on a full range of estate, trust, probate, and conservatorship matters, with special needs trusts being another area of particular interest. Her practice focuses on estate planning, trust administration, probate administration, and elder law. Her litigation skills have been used for trust and probate proceedings among other areas. Monica primarily works out of the firm’s Long Beach and Irvine, CA offices.

Early on in her career, Monica was the 1998/1999 Trope and Trope Family Law Fellow and did an Externship in the Chambers of Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999.

Ms. Goel is the Group Leader for the Cal CPA Society, Southeast Discussion Group. She is also an active member of Provisors and Soroptimist International where she served as the Downey chapter’s president for 2007-2008. For her service to the community, she won the Volunteer of the Year Award from the City of Downey Coordinating Council in 2007.

On August 1, 2014, the California Board of Legal Specialization certified Monica Goel as a legal specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law. She joins an elite group of attorneys that have taken the legal specialization exam and earned this coveted designation. The legal specialization exam is offered every two years in certain practice areas. Attorneys must pass the exam and apply to become board certified.

Ms. Goel was previously an adjunct professor at Cerritos College in the Certified Paralegal Program and is currently on the school’s Trustee Advisory Committee. She joined the faculty at UCI Extension in Summer 2014 where she teaches a class in Estate Planning.

Ms. Goel was also featured in the July 2015 and July 2016 issues of Super Lawyers Magazine as a Rising Star in the field of Estate Planning & Probate for the state of California.  In 2019 through 2022, she was selected as a Southern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine in Trust & Estates. In addition, she was nominated by CalCPA as one of the 2015 “women to watch” in the Emerging Leaders category.

Ms. Goel is a member of the Probate Volunteer Panel (PVP) for the Los Angeles Superior Court and is routinely appointed by the court to represent incapacitated persons and advise the court regarding the appointment of conservators.

Ms. Goel has been published in the Daily Journal and OC Lawyer Magazines and is a frequent lecturer on trust administration, probate administration, court accountings, liability for fiduciaries, and legal ethics in estate administration.

Her specialty in any legal setting is in handling sticky or complex situations.

RECOGNITION & AWARDS

• Certified Legal Specialist in Trust, Estates and Probate, State Bar of California
• The Best Lawyers in America®, Trusts and Estates, 2024
• Southern California Super Lawyers® Rising Star, 2015 – 2016
• Southern California Super Lawyers® in Trust & Estates, 2019 – 2022
• Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating
• AVVO “Superb” Rating, Top Estate Planning Attorneys
• Press-Telegram/Grunion Gazette Readers Choice Award, “Favorite (Top 5) Living Trust attorney”, 2022
• 2016 Top Women Attorneys in Southern California by Super Lawyers®
• 2016 Woman to Watch Nominee by CalCPA, Emerging Leaders category
• Volunteer of the Year Award, City of Downey (2007)
• 1998 Trope & Trope Family Law Fellow

PROFESSIONAL & COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• Member, Los Angeles Bar Association
• Member, Orange County Bar Association
• Member, Estate Planning/Probate Section of the State Bar of California
• Member, Probate Volunteer Panel (PVP), LA Superior Court
• Member, Provisors
• Member, Soroptimist International
• President, Soroptimist Downey Chapter (2007-2008)
• Leader, CalCPA Society, Southeast Discussion Group

EDUCATION

• University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., 1997)
• The University of Southern California Law School, Los Angeles, (J.D., 2000)

BAR ADMISSIONS

• California, 2000