Christy Lewis-Traut, J.D., LL.M. is a premier estate, tax and business planning attorney in Orange County, California. Her practice is primarily focused on developing and implementing advanced estate and tax planning techniques for high net-worth and ultra-high net-worth clients and providing business and tax planning representation to owners of closely held businesses and substantial real estate. Ms.Lewis-Traut is licensed to practice law in California and is admitted to practice before the United States Federal Court.

During her career, Ms. Lewis-Traut has developed and implemented advanced planning techniques for numerous clients, co-authored an article published in the August 2012 edition of the Bloomberg BNA Tax Management Real Estate Journal as well as other BNA tax law updates, has been a guest speaker at various financial planning, legal, and tax seminars, including “Estate Tax Updates” for CalCPA and “Maximizing the Benefits of Decanting: A Review and Comparison of Various State Decanting Statutes; Planning Recommendations and Case Studies” for First American Trust.

Ms. Lewis-Traut earned her Juris Doctor at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where she was admitted as a merit scholar. After law school, Ms. Lewis-Traut completed extensive post-graduate coursework in Federal Income Tax, Taxation of Exempt Organizations, Tax Ethics, Tax Procedure, Federal Tax Accounting, Corporate Tax, Real Estate and Partnership Tax, and Taxation of Trusts and Beneficiaries. In 2015, Ms. Lewis-Traut obtained her Master of Laws in Taxation (LL.M.) degree from Chapman University’s Tax LL.M. program.

Prior to law school, Ms. Lewis-Traut earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, with an emphasis in International Relations, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and spent five years running a successful real estate business where she represented clients in commercial and residential sales and finance and successfully closed millions of dollars in real estate transactions.

Ms. Lewis-Traut has served on multiple non-profit boards and/or committees, including for the YMCA, Laura’s House, and the Orange County Classical Academy Foundation. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, riding her horse (“Prince”), and spending quality time with her husband and four (4) young children.