Ellen Kaufman Wolf

Partner and Founder

Ellen Kaufman Wolf is the founder of Wolf Wallenstein, PC, an estate planning, business, real estate and litigation boutique in Los Angeles, comprised of former big firm lawyers who, like Ellen, prefer practicing law in a more personal context. Ellen’s practice has long focused on litigation in state and federal courts, and now also focuses on estate planning, business, and real estate, with an eye towards effective problem-solving and long- term strategies.

CAPABILITIES

Business Transactions, Partnerships and Entities

Real Estate Transactions

Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning & Administration

Insurance Cost Recovery

Litigation

Real Estate Litigation

Creditors’ Rights

Outside General Counsel Services

For more than 30 years, Ellen has represented real estate and other companies, large and small. In commercial matters, she has represented Fortune 100 companies, handling everything from large portfolios of cases to single one-off matters.

A skilled litigator, Ellen has prevailed on behalf of both institutional and individual clients in numerous disputes before federal and state courts and as part of arbitration and mediation proceedings. She has handled cases involving breach of contract, insurance recovery, torts and mass recoveries involving large-scale litigation, multidistrict, coordinated cases, and class actions. Other subject areas include land use and real estate disputes, fraud and fraudulent conveyance, partnership and shareholder/co-owner disputes, employment defense, and probate and trusts issues, among others.

As a “trusted advisor” and estate planning attorney, Ellen also has significant experience and an unusually broad overview understanding of the various aspects and needs of private wealth family offices. Thus, Ellen is trusted by private wealth clients, family offices, and their companies to be the one call to make for legal and practical advice, guidance, negotiation and representation in their estate planning, as well as in business, real estate and operational areas.

In addition to succession planning, including basic and advanced estate preparation that helps smooth succession and estate tax planning, Ellen often acts as a type of “outside” general counsel to her clients, some of whom Ellen has represented for more than twenty-five years. Ellen has helped restructure a number of estates and businesses—some of them involving mutli-generational family businesses and asset values up to a half billion dollars—to mutual benefit and the satisfaction of many of the parties.

Ellen advises her clients’ companies on issues ranging from employment to investors and joint ventures. Ellen assists with vendor contracts and relations.

In sales and business exits, Ellen has assisted business owners, CEOs and founders in preparing for and navigating the sale/exit process, as well as with employment and consulting agreements, and the family or investor relations and documents that arise with both start-up and exit. In mergers and acquisitions, Ellen has been involved in company sales and financings exceeding half a billion dollars.

Real estate has also been a focus of Ellen’s throughout her career. Ellen’s real estate clients have included syndicators, developers, property management companies and real estate entrepreneurs, as well as their executives, addressing the myriad issues stemming from the purchase, sale and operation of both multi-family residential and commercial properties. For her real estate clients, she has negotiated and drafted term sheets; letters of intent; purchase and sale agreements; joint venture, partnership and shareholder agreements; private placements; opinion letters; 1031 exchanges; commercial and residential leasing agreements; loans and security agreements, assignments and joinders, operating agreements, convertible warrants, defeasance agreements, licenses, easements, software, website and service agreements, vendor contracts, independent contractor agreements, distributorship agreements, employment and consulting agreements; and landlord/tenant agreements.

Ellen is admitted to practice in California. Prior to founding Wolf Wallenstein, she began her career as an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and was a partner at Gilchrist & Rutter, P.C.

Ellen Kaufman Wolf Practice Summary

Trusted Advisor in Business, Real Estate, Trusts/Estates
Business and Real Estate Transactions
Complex Litigation
Partnership and Shareholder / Co-Owner Disputes
Family Succession and Re-structures
Catastrophic Injuries and Losses
Insurance Recoveries including Bad Faith
Investor Relations and Board Issues
Employment Matters and Defense
Probate and Trust Disputes
Enforcement of Judgments and Debts
Large law firm background turned into practical personal approach
Experienced with individual, corporate and institutional clients, portfolio asset recovery and workouts, litigation, transactions
Alternative dispute resolution including Mediation and Arbitration

Accolades

Martindale Hubbell AV Rating (1997-Present)Rated AV® Preeminent™ by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. (Rated by Judges and fellow attorneys as having the highest possible legal abilities and ethical standards. The rating is awarded to less than five percent of all attorneys across the United States, and is the highest rating given by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.)
California Super Lawyers (2009-Present)Named by Southern California Super Lawyers as one of the top attorneys in the state. Each year, no more than 5 percent of the lawyers in the state receive this honor.
Rising Stars (2014-2016)
Preeminent Women Lawyers (2011 – 2018)
Avvo Top-Rated Attorney (2021-2022)
Los Angeles Magazine Top Attorneys in Southern California (2013-2014, 2016-2024)
Los Angeles Magazine Top Women Attorneys of Southern California (2013-2022)
Top Attorneys in America (2024)
Legal Leaders Woman Leader in The Law (Jan. 2020)

Previous Professional Experience

U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit
Judicial Extern Law Clerk to Judge Dorothy Nelson
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Summer Clerk, Associate
Wolf & Wolf
Partner
Wolf, Seider, Abrams & Wolf, LLP
Partner
Gilchrist & Rutter, PC
Partner
Wolf Group L.A. / Wolf Wallenstein, PC
Sole Shareholder

Professional and Community Activities

Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Chair, Remedies Section (2015-2016)
- President, Executive Committee, Remedies Section (Years)
- Member, Executive Committee, Remedies Section (2013-Present)
Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue
- President (2007-2011)
- Board Member (1994-2011)
American Business Trial Lawyers Association
Financial Lawyers Conference
Women Presidents Organization
Vistage Worldwide
National Association of Women Business Owners

Insights

Publications

Updates Author and Editor, Matthew Bender Practice Guide. California Debt Collection and Enforcement of Judgments, July 2015 – Present
Author, “Invalid Assignments, `Innocent` Fraudulent Transfers, and Other Fun Surprises in Post-Judgment Enforcement,” LACBA Remedies Section Newsletter, January 2016
Author, “Property of Non-Debtor Spouse and the Presumption of Title,” LACBA Remedies Section Newsletter, January 2016
Author, “The Constructive Trust: A Remedy for Collecting After Embezzlement,” LACBA Remedies Section Newsletter, January 2016
Author, “Assignments Are Subject to Later Attack – Recent Case Invalidates Enforcement of Assignment,” LACBA Remedies Section Newsletter, April 2014
Author, “Discounts for Timely Payments: Unenforceable ‘Penalties’?”, Los Angeles Daily Journal, September 18, 2014
Author, “`Pay ‘Or Else` — When Do Attorney Demands Become Unlawful Extortion? (The Answer is Not So Simple)”, August 2012
Author, “Adding A Debtor To The Judgment Under CCP Section 187 – One Way To Stop A Debtor’s Shell Game Before It’s Too Late,” July 2012
Author, “Don’t Be Caught Dead – Creditor’s Claims Die Within One Year After Debtor Dies – Or Do They? Do Recent Cases Leave Room for New Practical Suggestions?”, LACBA Remedies Section Newsletter, May 2012
Author, “The Post-Judgment Debtor Examination: Details, Details, Details (Plus Secret Liens)”, The Practical Lawyer, June 2008

Speaking Engagements

Speaker, “Recent Developments in Remedies and Enforcement of Debts,” Los Angeles County Bar Association, January 2016
Speaker, “Recent Developments in Remedies Law,” Cardozo Society, March 2015
Presenter, “Mediating the Litigated Case™: Six-Day Course Certificate,” Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, November 2014
Presenter, “Collecting from the Dead,” Los Angeles County Bar Association, October 2014
Presenter, “Negotiating and Ethics 101: Truth or Consequences”, Los Angeles County Bar Association, June 2014
Presenter, “Negotiating 101 – Tips and Tactics for Lawyers,” Continuing Education of the Bar, September 2012
Co-Presenter, “Mazirow on Tactics, Techniques and Strategies in Negotiating Real Property Transactions,” Continuing Education of the Bar, March 2012
Moderator, “Judgment Enforcement”, Lorman Education Services, July 2011

Published Cases

McMackin v. Ehrheart (2011) 194 Cal.App.4th 128
(Creditor’s Claim Extended by Estoppel)

Education

J.D., Stanford University School of Law

2000 (summa cum laude)

B.A. in Fine Arts, University of California at Los Angeles