When Renee Gabbard settled her very first estate case out of court, the family involved in the case sent her flowers.
Now, 15 years later, she still is settling cases, but she? the one who is sending the flowers.
Gabbard is a partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP? Costa Mesa office who specializes in tax and estate planning and owner of De La Rose Florist in Laguna Beach, which does flowers for special events.
She also was one of five executives and entrepreneurs honored at the Business Journal? 15th annual Women in Business awards luncheon held May 21 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
?verything all kind of really dovetails nicely where my life is currently,?Gabbard said.
Gabbard, a partner in the tax department, leads Paul Hastings?West Coast private client practice group, which focuses on privately held businesses, high-net-worth clients and charitable organizations.
Her areas of practice include income, capital gains and estate tax planning and she works with some of the more powerful families in Southern California.
?he best part of my job is giving advice to clients who are the real power brokers and seeing how they make their decisions,?Gabbard said.
Gabbard admits she didn? go to law school for what she? doing now. She started practicing law in Orange County in 1992 fresh from New York University School of Law.
? came out during a recession working for a law firm (Paul Hastings) that had no corporate jobs and I really wanted to do corporate,?she said.
The firm assigned her to a long-running case involving an estate dispute.
?hey kind of gave me the dog case, the one that had been going on for seven years, part of an inner-family fight that was in probate court,?Gabbard said.
When she settled the case out of court, it appeared she had found her calling.
? worked hard to settle it because I
didn? want to do litigation,?Gabbard said. ?lowers were coming in from the family members, saying ?ou saved us.?
The firm moved her to Chicago for five months to train with its office there on estate tax planning. She returned to OC to work in the tax department where she quickly rose up the ranks to partner in 2003.
?t was the greatest move because this is definitely my niche,?Gabbard said.
Gabbard remembers the challenge of being a woman in one of the most male-dominated professions here.
?t was tough to try to figure out how to be a female lawyer in a profession dominated by men,?Gabbard said. ? didn? have a role model being part of the first wave of female attorneys graduating from large law schools coming back to OC.?
Among the things she did to succeed in her profession was learning to golf so she could play like one of the boys.
? took up golf, which I love to this day,?Gabbard said.
But her girly side comes out in her florist business, which she started in her native Laguna Beach in 2005.
? wanted to do something to touch people lives out in the community,?Gabbard said.
But don? expect to see Gabbard arranging bouquets in her downtime.
?elieve me, I don? have any technique with flowers whatsoever,?Gabbard said.
The florist shop is run by her two employees.
? was there on the ground for the first month or two just so I knew the business and the vendors and set up the accounts,?Gabbard said. ?? not there day-to-day anymore. I have two great employees who run it and I just cover the bills and encourage them to do what they need to do.?enews_Column=0
