International law firm Withers LLP has added a team of attorneys to its strategically important Los Angeles office, known as Withers Bergman LLP, which advises high-net-worth clients in the entertainment field.
Attorneys Charles Kolstad, S. Eva Wolf and Kim Jackson, specializing in corporate, income tax and estate planning law, join Withers from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP.
Kolstad, a former partner at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, has 40 years of legal experience. He joins Withers as a partner. Kolstad advises on international, corporate and partnership tax issues and tax controversy cases. He has represented many clients in the film and music industries on a wide range of tax and corporate matters.
Kolstad earned a B.S. degree in mathematics from Villanova University; an M.B.A. degree from Columbia Business School; and a J.D. degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Kolstad will provide expanded corporate and income tax capabilities to the Los Angeles office that complement those of partner Michael Brophy, who has expertise in trust and succession disputes, family business and commercial litigation, and intellectual property practice.
Wolf, also a former partner at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, joins Withers as a private client and tax partner. She advises on a wide range of transfer tax compliance issues and has four years of experience as an estate tax attorney with the Internal Revenue Service.
Wolf earned a B.A. degree with a major in sociology and a minor in philosophy from Arizona State University in Tempe and a J.D. degree from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. Wolf also earned an LL.M. degree in tax from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Jackson earned her B.F.A. degree in fine art from San Diego State University—California, and her J.D. degree from Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles. She started her career as a legal assistant at Warner Bros. Studios before later joining Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP as an attorney. She joins Withers as an associate.
Partner Elizabeth Bawden, an estate and charitable gift planning attorney at Withers in Los Angeles, will work alongside the new team. So will Paul Sczudlo, specializing in cross-border and entertainment tax planning.
Ivan Sacks, Withers’ chairman, said that the new team’s skills and network of clients and contacts across the entertainment, technology and wealth planning sectors would provide more comprehensive services to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth California clients. He also said that the firm’s Los Angeles office would be expanding its services even further in the future to meet growing client demand for them.