MARGARET LODISE, 46
FIRM: Sacks Glazier Franklin & Lodise LLP
LAW SCHOOL: UCLA
CLIENTS: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Northern Trust, Wells Fargo, Michael Jackson’s children
Margaret Lodise can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a lawyer.
“I think I always thought I’d be one,” said Lodise, who specializes in trusts and estates. “My dad is an attorney and I used to follow him around the courthouses up in Stockton.”
She chose trusts and estates as a specialty, but just because there was a job opening. But it turned into a perfect fit.
“I love it,” she said. “The stories make far more interesting cocktail conversations than doing insurance defense work.”
One case she’s involved in now is prime cocktail fare: representing Michael Jackson’s children in the probate proceedings determining the division of his estate. Lodise got the job on the recommendation of a judge. But she didn’t jump at it when she first got the offer.
“I told the clerk I’d have to think about it,” she recalled. “I think I knew I was going to do it, but it was sort of overwhelming.”
The case may not be resolved for years, and she finds it fascinating – not so much because of the issues it involves as the immense amount of attention it has generated.
“It’s a standard probate case,” Lodise said. “It’s something that happens to lots of people every day, but I’ve never been involved in a case where I have three rows of journalists sitting behind me.”
Though she hasn’t actually met Jackson’s children yet, she expects to at some point in the process.
When she isn’t working, she likes to travel: She’s been to Africa, India, Russia, China, Tibet and soon will go to Japan. She also enjoys cooking, attending concerts and sporting events (especially involving the Kings hockey team) and hanging out with friends.
“I work as hard as I need to,” Lodise said. “But I also take plenty of time off. Right now I’m excited because the hockey season is about to start.”
She’s not a big estate planner herself.
“I’m like the cobbler whose children go without shoes,” Lodise said, “I have a will that’s holographic.”
