Working with Us

We are located in Washington DC and travel regularly to Germany on business. We advise clients from all over the United States on German law and federal US law. In addition, we advise clients based in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia on the laws of these jurisdictions.

As an attorney licensed to practice law in the entire Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Ashford represents clients before all local and regional German courts.

Most inheritance matters in Germany are handled by mail and phone with the appropriate courts, banks, notaries, offices of land records and tax authorities. Usually only litigation requires the attorney’s personal appearance.

Ms. von Kessel is based in Munich and makes site visits when households needs to be liquidated and real estate sold.

For a thorough evaluation of your particular circumstances feel free to contact us at info@internationalestatelaw.com to book an Initial Consultation Package.

INITIAL CONSULTATION PACKAGE

We offer an Initial Consultation Package that consists of the following:

Before our meeting:

  • We set up a secure client portal for you.
  • You upload copies of the relevant documents to your client portal.
  • We review your documents prior to our appointment.

During a one-hour meeting in person or via video conference we:

  • Analyze your situation,
  • Identify your options,
  • Recommend a course of action, and
  • Answer your questions.

After the meeting we:

  • Send you a written summary of the legal analysis and our recommendations;
  • Reply to unlimited follow-up questions for two days after our appointment.

The flat fee for this initial consultation package is USD 1000 in estate settlement matters and USD 1500 in estate planning matters.

ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

Based on this initial consultation both you and we can decide if we would like to establish an attorney-client relationship to assist you with your matter.

Our work on inheritance matters in Germany is billed based on the time spent on the case. A part of the work is handled by our highly-trained and experienced bilingual paralegals.