Erika Gasaway is Co-chair of Hopkins & Carley's Trust and Estate Litigation practice and is based in the firm's San Jose office.
She represents and advises professional fiduciaries, trustees, beneficiaries, high net-worth individuals, families, and their businesses on a range of trust and estate litigation matters including:
- Trust contests including undue influence, lack of capacity, forgery, lack of due execution
- Disputes over trustee accountings, fiduciary duties, breach of trust and actions for suspending or removing trustees
- Disputes over ownership of trust property pursuant Probate Code section 850
- Financial elder abuse
- Real estate matters including unlawful detainers, quiet title actions, partitions and easements
- Corporate matters including fiduciary and shareholder duties and bequests of ownership interestss
- Prevailed in a trial on undue influence claims brought against beneficiaries who received millions of dollars worth of intervivos and testamentary gifts of real property and business assets from the decedents.
- First chaired a bench trial in which dispositive motions in limine were granted, resulting in a multi million dollar judgment for the Plaintiff.
- Successfully obtained a permanent restraining order and a full award of attorney’s fees after an evidentiary hearing that spanned several months on behalf of an ailing elderly client who was being targeted for elder abuse.
- Obtained a judgment after trial for millions of dollars in mesne profits generated by a commercial property after the trustee was found to have breached his fiduciary duty and unduly influenced the settlors of the trust, which also resulted in quieting title in favor of clients.
Publications
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Case Alert on Hamilton v. Green
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Case Alert on Zahnleuter v. Mueller
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Case Alert on Starr v. Ashbrook
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Case Alert on Tedesco v. White
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Case Alert on Städel Art Museum v. Mulviill
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Legislative Alert on AB 1663 regarding supported decision making as an alternative to the probate conservatorship system
- Money Matters video on trustee notifications pursuant to Probate Code section 16061.7 and 16061.7
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Case Alert on White v. Davis
- Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association Case Alert on Parker v. Schwarcz
Speaking Engagements
- “Taking the ‘Ick’ Out of Litigation,” Placer County Chapter of the Professional Fiduciaries Association of California, March 26, 2024
- What to Count on in an Accounting for the “Trust Me!” podcast of the Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association, December 2023
- “Honing Your Spidey Senses: Navigating the Web of Fiduciary Duties,” Society of Financial Service Professionals - Silicon Valley Chapter, August 11, 2022
- Professional Fiduciary Association of California, affiliate member
- California Lawyers Association, Trusts and Estate Section, Executive Committee volunteer
- Silicon Valley Bar Association, Member
- San Mateo County Bar Association, Member
- Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, Contentious Trusts and Estates Special Interest Group, Member
- Rotary Club of San Jose, Member
- State Bar of California (2009)
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- J.D. (Magna Cum Laude), Santa Clara University School of Law
- B.A., University of California, Davis
- Best Lawyers Award – Litigation - Trust & Estates 2023
- Super Lawyers Rising Star 2013-2019
