About Us
Mission
We’re a family-first law firm. Your family brain trust.
We’re the team behind some very successful people who we genuinely and joyfully commit ourselves to.
Why
TORCH
LAW?
1
For most of our clients, TORCH is where the business office meets the family office.
2
Substantially all of our clients scattered across the globe are UHNW.
3
Our practice has grown to include an inexhaustibly diverse roster of clients and industries.
4
Our values. We’re direct but discreet, always family first, compulsively honest and loyal, and predictably rigorous.
5
We have an irregular attention to and retention of detail.
For some reason, if we read or learn something about your family or your business we retain it indefinitely. Try us 🙂
6
Because we authentically care, we’re on call for our clients.
7
We’re incurably creative. Why use a cookie cutter when you can innovate?
8
This is all we do. After 25 years of a deeply focused practice, we’re a quick study of the complex.
TORCH Team
WE’RE
HIRING!
TORCH LAW is a fast-paced, private wealth law firm, always becoming bigger and better by providing the kind of service our discerning clientele has come to expect. If you’re a lawyer, law student, or law firm professional, and we sound like a good fit but you don’t see a specific job offering in your area, we invite you to reach out.
TORCH Client Stories & Reviews
With gratitude for our clients who have brought us into their family and allowed us to share their thoughts and their stories.
UHNW
ESTATE
& WEALTH
PLANNING
‶Phil is just amazing. He did a fantastic job working through a very complex situation. He’s just such a level headed problem solver. He’s the counselor to people who are going through a lot, and gets them to talk about things they don’t want to talk about. He’s that calm force that you need in these situations. And honestly, I don’t know how he does it. It’s such a hard thing with a large estate to be impartial and get it across the finish line, but that’s what Phil does. It takes humility and honesty, someone who is not a yes man, and Phil is that person.
If you take the more complex clients, you have to be exhaustive and discreet. Phil has amazing discretion. These clients are demanding and complex and expect a lot. And it’s a dedicated, longterm relationship. He is just so good, such a great lawyer, he can put the most complex situation in layman’s terms so that everyone understands it.
He’s absolutely a partner. 100%. He’s putting love and care into what he’s putting on that piece of paper. And he’s a good human on top of being a good attorney. He is just an ethical, hard-working, kind and caring individual. And he’s wild, he’s funny, he is fantastic to work with. He really is. This is his niche. And he kills it.″
– SB
CORPORATE
STRUCTURING
& BUSINESS
SUCCESSION
‶I have always wanted somebody who would outlive me by a lot who could help my wife and family with our estate. And to have this young brilliant guy who knows our family well, Phil and I have leveraged our relationship with a philosophy to help my entire family. I rely very heavily on him.
Not only is Phil brilliant, he’s personable, and he’s a family guy, devoted to his daughter. He understood us, our values, what our concerns were, and we always felt so comfortable with his work because he was at the cutting edge of proper legal techniques and estate plans and so goddamn smart, I couldn’t even take notes! I’d be like, Phil! Slow down!
Phil’s been involved in our business for years because of stock ownership, property, all these moving pieces. This tax planning and estate planning and trusts and wills, it’s complex. And all the gymnastics and the hoops you have to go through to get to that, it’s really very complex. And how he keeps all this shit straight is beyond me! Some of the documents are 25 pages thick! But the strategy and the thinking and the concepts that he’s brought to us are perfect. And he gets it, he understands our desires, what we’re trying to accomplish, but he also gets the complexity.
We have a great sense of core values in our company including being fair and equitable on a monetary basis. And I don’t want the kids or my wife to have problems down the road and that’s the part that keeps you up at night. I have 4 kids; 3 in the business, and one with a business of her own. They’ve all benefited from our success and Phil figured out how to make all of them ok with how we distribute the estate. So three of my kids have control of the business and they’ll be the beneficiaries of it. As far as my daughter’s concerned, we set her up with a nest egg that we’ve invested. And whatever’s left, we’re going to divide between our 4 children and 12 grandchildren.
We don’t think of him as a lawyer – we think of him as the very critical component of a highly trusted advisor. We’ve relied on him to guide us – personal, professional, estate planning and succession – and he has far exceeded expectations by all means, always giving us what we felt was the very best advice. He’s brilliant. Unbelievable capacity.
I know we’re not his only clients and he has clients all over the country with estates much more significant than ours, but his capacity to retain everything about our needs is overwhelming to me. There are very few people that have that kind of intellect and capacity to do this. There’s a lot of creativity involved. His law practice is an art, not a science. This is not book learning so to speak. He’s brilliant. He’s one smart son of a gun. His capacity to keep it all straight, it’s breathtaking.″
– JK
U.S. & GLOBAL
TAX STRATEGY
‶My partner and I met in law school, started our firm, and built a big enough practice that we were introduced to somebody to run our family office. And Phil was brought in as the attorney to handle our estate, help with the tax strategies, implement them on a legal level, and be an all around great guy, which he is.
He’s really bright. If he reads something or learns something, he retains it. He’s got a good pedigree, very good listener, and he does things based upon what he knows our desires are. We needed him to build our path to financial security, for us and those who come after us, kids, grandkids. And he’s always looking out for the next couple steps which entrepreneurs like us need because we’re not following someone else’s lead, right? We need to know what could happen, a, b, or c, and he can tell you. So financially, longterm, even short term, he can help write the script before you go down the road.
Text him, email him, call him any time of day, he’s just very welcoming. Very approachable. He has no ego. If he’s not confident about something, he’ll tell you, go research it and make sure it’s right because our life is in his hands and he holds that responsibility on his shoulders. He’s always figuring out how you can leave the most wealth possible and how you can also take advantage of your current situation so you’re enjoying life, too. He always says, ‘You need to enjoy some, too.’ I appreciate that!
I trust him 1000%. He wants what’s best for us. And he cares. He adds so much more value than what we pay him that we’d find it near impossible to get rid of him.″
– RK
FAMILY
OFFICE
SERVICES &
ADVISORY
‶Phil is simply an amazing estate planner. One of the best. He’s fantastic. We’re financial advisors. We work with ultra high net worth clients and we bring our clients to Phil for tax mitigation, estate planning, and income tax planning. Our work is complex and very sophisticated, not cookie cutter. And he knows this space from soup to nuts, inside and out.
Phil can go from an idea to a plan of execution very quickly and he has the experience to back it up. He’s great at that. It’s easy to him. He connects the dots super quickly and determines what the best structure would be. He can analyze it all very quickly. And he has everything in his head – all the details – at any given time. He remembers things very, very well.
We work directly with Phil and pass him along to all of our clients because he’s not your standard boring attorney persona where the approach is based on billing so they always want to put in more hours. Phil’s approach is very different. He will always make himself available, he is super honest, very direct, works from the heart, always does what’s in the best interest of the client.
And he’s very easy to get along with, our clients really like him. They trust Phil. He’s very authentic. Phil is always Phil! And our clients appreciate that. Oftentimes people feel they need to act a certain way in front of people of substantial wealth, but he doesn’t operate that way. He’s transparent, personal and trustworthy. And very, very creative. And Phil is certainly not boring! He makes things more enjoyable. We adore him. He’s like family, and our clients come to feel that way, too.″
– JM
CAPTIVE
INSURANCE
STRUCTURING &
EXECUTION
‶Phil and I designed and implemented a novel series LLC business structure specifically for captive insurance. It’s complex. And Phil puts it all in play. Phil does such a good job of understanding where a client has been and where they’re at and where they’re trying to go, and he probes through good questions on tax and legal that gets them to a quicker mindset of understanding the value of what I do. I’ve grown my business significantly since 2009 and it’s a direct correlation to Phil. And I’m happy! Phil is a big part of that. He takes that worry and that burden and he gives me peace of mind. He keeps me safe.
Phil’s got that personality, that charisma, and he has that enjoyment about life in general where he just builds good relationships with folks wherever he goes. He’s kind. When he’s talking to you, he pierces you with those eyes, he listens, and he’s genuinely interested in who you are and what you’re saying. I trust him with everything. 110%. There’s nothing I hold back. I tell him my deepest worries, and I know that he’ll talk to me as a friend, as a lawyer, as a business owner. I trust his insight and perspective across all of those. He’s my inner circle.
Another big piece about him is he understands the political aspects of the business, and to watch him walk that line as a lawyer, it’s fascinating. We were asked by Nevada to give input on how they can make their legislation better for the captive insurance industry. That’s a real compliment that the state of Nevada is asking us how they can do it better. That’s Phil. He’s looking at the legislation, keeping in mind the Secretary of State, the Department of Insurance, and coming up with a framework that works for both divisions. And he rides the political shifts better than anyone. The new regs just came out so he’s going through it and determining what kind of impact it has on our clients.
You have to see somebody in action to know who they are, what their gifts are, and how that transfers into who they are as a human being, and you look at who Phil is with his daughter, his commitment to her, his love and compassion, that’s the gift of Phil. He is always focused on his responsibility to help the other person succeed. Big heart. I absolutely love him. I’d do anything for him.″
– LS