SCHIFF ESTATE PLANNING
AMY SCHIFF
Attorney at Law
About Me
​I grew up and went to high school in San Diego, California. In an unusual move for a California girl at the time, I attended college at Washington University in St Louis, where I graduated in 1993 with a B.A. in English Literature.
After graduating from college I returned home (well, almost home) to attend Law School at UCLA. My first job out of law school was as a litigator representing pharmaceutical companies in general commercial disputes and in product defect cases. I quickly realized that I did not want to spend my life fighting on behalf of big corporations. I began the process of interviewing every attorney in every other specialty who was willing to speak with me before deciding that I wanted to become an estate planner. I started taking estate planning classes and in 2000 was lucky enough to land a job with McDermott, Will & Emery LLP. I worked at McDermott in the private client department for 13 years, representing high net worth individuals in all areas of estate planning, business succession planning and trust administration.
Shortly after joining McDermott, I married David. David and I went to the same high school. We were not, however, high school sweethearts. In fact, David and I are not sure if we ever said two words to each other in high school. We met 10 years after I had graduated from high school at the home of a mutual friend who was also living in Los Angeles and who had found me through a series of fortunate coincidences. It was through this mutual friend that I met (or perhaps re-met) David.
David and I were married in 2001. In 2003 we had our first child (Aaron) and in 2006 we had a second (Jonah). When our kids were born we lived in Sherman Oaks and I continued working part-time at McDermott in Century City.
In 2012 David and I moved our family to Calabasas. Less than a year later I decided to leave my long commute behind. In 2013 I opened my own estate planning practice dedicated to providing reasonably-priced, high-quality estate planning services to everyone.
I now work primarily out of my Calabasas home, but meet with clients in the City National Bank Building in Encino.
When I am not working, I can be found watching my kids play sports, reading, hiking, and skiing.