For more than 15 years, Russell has helped families, fiduciaries, and individuals navigate complex trust and estate matters with clarity, care, and practical guidance. His clients include trustees, personal representatives, conservators, professional fiduciaries, corporate trustees, and individuals seeking thoughtful counsel as they plan for the future or address disputes involving a loved one’s estate. Russell’s practice includes trust administration, probate, conservatorships, estate planning, and trust and estate litigation. He advises trustees, personal representatives, and conservators as they administer trusts, probate estates, and conservatorships, helping them understand and fulfill their fiduciary obligations. When disputes arise, Russell represents fiduciaries in litigation involving trusts, estates, and conservatorships. In his estate planning work, Russell helps clients prepare for the uncertainties of life by creating individualized plans that reflect their needs, wishes, and family circumstances. To learn more about how Russell can assist with estate planning, trust administration, probate, conservatorship, or trust and estate litigation matters, call 626-746-5877 or complete our online contact form.

Nicholas J. Leonard is a seasoned trial attorney who now manages Ikuta Hemesath’s Northern California office. Nick has practiced exclusively in medical malpractice after graduating from law school in 2008. Specifically, for the first 14 years of his career, Nick practiced as a defense attorney at Low McKinley & Salenko, a prestigious medical malpractice defense firm located in Sacramento. While there, Nick quickly rose through the ranks and became a partner in 2014. Hired by insurance companies, Nick successfully defended countless doctors, nurses, and hospitals in civil actions and board proceedings. Nick even presented to medical malpractice insurance companies, large hospitals, and medical groups on how to limit exposure in medical malpractice lawsuits. Nick was named a Rising Star, awarded to the top 2.5% attorneys under the age of 40, by Super Lawyers Magazine in the field of medical malpractice defense in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Nick’s transition from the defense has been seamless. His defense experience is the foundation and motivation for Nick, who uses the skills and knowledge learned during those years to achieve maximum compensation for injured victims of malpractice from those same insurance companies and large hospitals. To that end, Nick often speaks to other plaintiff lawyers about litigation strategies focused on leveraging internal pressure points insurance and large companies have to compensate injured persons for their losses. Nick graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in 2008, where he was a member of the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal and clerked at the California Attorney General’s Office. Before law school, Nick received an athletic scholarship from Seattle University to play on their basketball team and was honored as a member of the league’s academic all-conference first-team three times. He received a B.S. in Computer Science with a Business Specialization from Seattle University. After graduating but prior to law school, Nick worked as a Business Systems Analyst at Microsoft.

Mr. Bendel received his B.S. in Finance, magna cum laude, from the University of Connecticut in 1997. He then went on to receive his J.D., magna cum laude, in 2000 from Pepperdine University, where he was a member of the Pepperdine Law Review. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Bendel joined the Los Angeles office of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, where he practiced for over twelve years. While at Stroock, Mr. Bendel handled complex business litigation, including securities disputes, small business dissolutions, insurance coverage and bad faith matters, and other business and commercial disputes. The primary focus of Mr. Bendel’s practice is insurance coverage and insurance bad faith litigation. He has provided coverage advice and/or been involved in bad faith litigation with respect to claims made under all types of insurance policies including Commercial General Liability, Directors & Officers, Errors & Omissions, Property, Homeowners, and Automobile insurance policies. Mr. Bendel is admitted to practice before all federal and state courts in California, including the California Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has tried cases in federal and state courts in Northern and Southern California. In total, Mr. Bendel has over fifteen weeks of trial experience. Mr. Bendel also has experience at the appellate level; he has drafted a number of successful appellate briefs.