James D. Lamm
Attorney-at-Law
500 IDS Center
80 South Eighth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Phone: (612) 632-3404
Fax: (612) 632-4404
James Lamm is a third-generation Minnesota estate planning attorney. He focuses his practice on estate planning, family business succession planning, probate and trust administration, and charitable giving. James Lamm works with executives, entrepreneurs, high-net-worth families, and family offices to achieve family goals, pass on family values, and plan for family businesses.
James Lamm plans and prepares foundational estate planning documents for families such as wills, revocable trusts (living trusts), financial powers of attorney, health care directives (living wills), and beneficiary designations for life insurance and retirement plans. James Lamm also works with families and family business owners to plan and implement trusts for children or grandchildren, irrevocable life insurance trusts, dynasty trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), intentionally defective grantor trusts, installment sales, split-dollar life insurance agreements, private foundations, charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts, prenuptial agreements, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, and buy-sell agreements.
James Lamm works with families, family offices, and other professionals to help them through the probate and estate settlement process, to administer trusts, to prepare tax returns, and to resolve trust and estate disputes. He is active in the community and a frequent lecturer on advanced estate planning, tax, and business succession planning topics.
James Lamm blends a strong background in technology and computers with his estate planning practice. He took his first computer programming class in 1982. Jim works with clients to plan for access to and transfer of their passwords and digital property, including electronic data, online accounts, and intellectual property rights. He also writes and speaks about estate planning for passwords and digital property, including authoring the Digital Passing blog and being interviewed and quoted by Forbes magazine, Intellectual Property Magazine, MSNBC, and public radio.
James Lamm is a Fellow in The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated¹ attorney. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (2010-2012) in the area of Trusts and Estates, and he was named a 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011 “Rising Star” by Minnesota Law & Politics magazine. Prior to joining the Trust, Estate & Charitable Planning practice group of Gray Plant Mooty, James Lamm was an attorney in the Trusts & Estates Department of Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel, LLP, for ten years.
Practice Areas
- Estate Planning
- Family Business Succession Planning
- Probate and Trust Administration
- Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Planning
Admissions
- Minnesota, 1997
- North Dakota, 1998
- South Dakota, 1998
- U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, 1999
- U.S. Tax Court, 1999
Education
- St. John's University, B.A., summa cum laude with All-College Honors and Distinction in the Field of Management
- University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., cum laude
¹AV, BV and CV are registered certification marks and AV Preeminent and BV Distinguished are certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. Martindale-Hubbell is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and the Judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell Ratings fall into two categories - legal ability and general ethical standards.