Law Firm Overview

Ikard & Golden, P.C. was formed in 1992 by Frank N. Ikard, Jr. and Alvin J. Golden. Both of us had practiced during our legal careers with large law firms and sought a change from that practice environment. When we formed Ikard & Golden, P.C., our vision was to create a boutique law firm with a primary emphasis on providing personal, sophisticated legal services at a reasonable cost in the field of estate planning, probate and trust law.

We limit our practice to estate planning, probate and trust law. Many of our clients are other law firms which lack such expertise.

The senior attorneys in our firm have decades of experience in this field and are members of nearly every professional association related to estate planning, probate and trust law. All of them are board certified in estate planning and probate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and are Fellows of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Our senior attorneys routinely lecture at continuing legal education programs sponsored by the State Bar of Texas, local bar associations and various colleges and universities. They have written numerous research papers that have been cited in legal periodicals and court opinions.

Our firm has worked, pro bono, with the Real Estate, Probate And Trust Section of the State Bar of Texas, and the Texas Academy of Probate and Trust Lawyers, in the drafting, analysis and passage of nearly every piece of legislation affecting probate, guardianship and trust law since the 1970's. Two members of our firm were on the committee that drafted the current Texas Trust Code. This experience has given us a unique perspective on not only what probate, guardianship and trust law is, but why it exists and how it evolved.

Our firm is committed to remaining small. Experience has taught us that senior lawyers in large firms invariably must "farm out" work to associates to maintain their firm's economic structure. This results in less personal service from the senior attorneys and a greater distance from the client. We have consciously declined to build the economic pyramid that causes partners to be more responsible for associate work than for client matters. We feel that these factors allow us to provide more personal service and more value to our clients because of that service.

Even though we are small, we handle, on a routine basis, a variety of very large and complex legal matters in every aspect of our practice. Our target market area is the State of Texas. We handle numerous legal matters in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and other cities throughout the state.

We are a proud member of the International Network of Boutique Law Firms, which is an organization of the most highly credentialed and preeminent single-discipline law firms throughout the United States and some of the world's most prominent full-service law firms in foreign nations.

West Practice Categories

Estate Planning, Trusts, Wills, Probate & Estate Administration