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Letty Maxfield is a partner in the firm. Her practice focuses on probate, trust, and estate administration, as well as trust and estate litigation and guardianships and conservatorships.
Letty works tirelessly side by side with her clients. She helps people through all phases of the probate court process, including routine trust and estate administration. Her commitment to her clients really shines in resolving disputes through mediation, depositions, court hearings, and multi-day trials.
Throughout her practice, Letty works cooperatively with her clients to understand each person’s unique background, goals, and needs, while zealously protecting their legal interests and helping them create and explore options. She finds creative resolutions to disputed trust, estate, guardianship, conservatorship, and related matters.
Letty has guided countless individuals and family members through the confusing probate and protective proceedings system. She regularly represents professional fiduciaries to help them administer complex estates and trusts and resolve disputes.
Letty cares about her clients and really listens to their concerns. Once she understands a client’s goals, she helps them understand and explore their legal situation. She is skillful in getting to the heart of a dispute and finding a resolution that no one else can see. Letty is a fierce advocate, but always treats every person involved in a case professionally, ethically, and courteously.
Letty dedicates countless hours to improving the legal system through her volunteer work at the Colorado Bar Association, including serving as a member of the Legislative Policy Committee, Chair of the Elder Law Section, and co-chairing committees to address the right to counsel and electronic wills. Letty lectures regularly at continuing legal education events to share her insight with other lawyers.
Letty has focused her practice in trust and estate work since her first attorney position at Bryan Cave, LLP (formerly Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP), where she prepared complex estate and tax plans. She expanded her practice into estate and trust litigation at Poskus, Caton & Klein, P.C. Letty founded Trust & Estate Advocates in 2016 with a long-time colleague and current Wade Ash partner, Norv Brasch. Trust & Estate Advocates merged to form Wade Ash LLC in 2023.
Letty was born and raised in a small town in the heart of the midwest. As a young adult, she worked as waitress, bartender, and housekeeper until graduating college and relocating to Page, Arizona. In Page, she was privileged to work in the field of education as a grant coordinator and as an adult basic education teacher.
Letty’s experience helping a diverse body of students work towards receiving their GEDs inspired her to pursue law school. Specifically, she observed that often highly intelligent, motivated, good people struggled to improve their and their family’s lives, in part because of the often confusing and complex legal and social systems we must all navigate.
During law school, Letty’s own lived experiences drew her to the field of trusts, estates, and elder law. As a college student, Letty and her family supported her father and provided his care until he succumbed to cancer. Her compassion for her clients and their difficult situations is rooted in her personal familiarity with the death and dying process and the journey towards peace, healing, and closure after the loss of a loved one.
- Trust & Estate Litigation
- Guardianships & Conservatorships
- Probate & Estate Administration
- Trust Administration
- Expert Witness Services
- University of Denver Sturm College of Law, J.D., 2011
- Knox College, B.A., 2005
- Colorado, 2011
- American College of Trust & Estate Counsel, Fellow
- Colorado Bar Association
Elder Law Section, Chair and Legislative Liaison
Legislative Policy Committee, Voting Member
T&E and Elder Law Subcommittee on Post-Adjudication Right to Counsel, Co-Chair
T&E and Elder Law Subcommittee on Uniform Electronic Wills, Co-Chair
T&E and Elder Law Leader on Remote Online Notarization
- Presenter, Litigating E-Wills, Will Contest CLE, CBA-CLE, October 6, 2022
- Co-Presenter, Is it Admissible to Probate: The 11 Types of Colorado Wills, Domestic Relations and Probate Institute, Colorado State Judicial Branch, June 8, 2022
- Co-Presenter, E-Wills: Self-Proved and Beyond – Best Practices for Planners to Avoid E-Wills Controversies, 41st Annual Estate Planning Retreat, CBA-CLE, June 10-12, 2021
- Co-Presenter, E-Wills and Remote Online Notarization: Practical Mechanics for Planners and Probate Practitioners, CBA-CLE, February 24, 2021
- Co-Presenter, Legislation Affecting Guardianship and Conservatorship in Colorado, Elder Law Section, CBA-CLE, November 3, 2020
- Co-Presenter, Remote Notarization, Remote Witnessing and Electronic Will Legislation, 12th Annual Rocky Mountain Region Elder Law Retreat, CBA-CLE, August 27, 2020
- Presenter, Remote Notarization, Remote Witnessing and Electronic Will Legislation and Ethics of Advising a Fiduciary, Law in the Trenches, CBA-CLE, November 11, 2019
- Presenter, Uniform Electronic Wills Act, Larimer County Bar Association, September 25, 2019
- Presenter, Ethics of Advising a Fiduciary, Colorado Western Estate Planning Council, May 29, 2019
- Co-Presenter, Ethics of Advising a Fiduciary, Basic Estate Administration Skills, CBA-CLE, February 1, 2019
- Co-Presenter, Litigation Issues Regarding Decanting, CBA-CLE, December 14, 2017
- Co-Presenter, Law Meets World: Post-Adjudication Right to Counsel in Practice, 9th Annual Elder Law Retreat, CBA-CLE, August 25, 2017
- Co-Presenter, Decanting: What it is and What is Does and Decanting in the Real World, Trust and Estate Fall Update, CBA-CLE, December 1, 2016
- Co-Presenter, Best Practices: Post-Adjudication Right to Counsel and Representing a Client who has a Guardian and/or Conservator, 8th Annual Elder Law Retreat, CBA-CLE, August 25, 2016
On behalf of the Colorado Bar Association, T&E and Elder Law Sections:
- SB16-131, Right to a Lawyer Post-Adjudication
- SB17-124, Colorado Uniform Trust Decanting Act
- SB20-129, Concerning the Protection of Individuals Subject to Fiduciary, effective September 1, 2020
- R.P.P. Rule 91
- R.C.P. Rule 92
- CO SOS Temporary Rule 5 of 8 CCR 1505-11
- SB21-0004, Colorado Uniform Electronic Wills Act
- SB20-96, Remote Notaries Protect Privacy