About Patsy K.
Patsy K. Schiff built a legal life from a combination of formal training and an interest in how people make decisions. Her academic path began at the University of California, Riverside, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1972. A decade later she completed a Juris Doctor at UCLA School of Law, studying estate planning and community property.
Her education set the tone for a long legal career that has spanned more than four decades. After finishing law school in 1982, she entered private practice and spent years handling matters tied to ownership, succession and family financial arrangements. The precise roles and employers across that span vary, but the steady through-line has been an emphasis on planning for transfers of wealth and resolving property questions that arise in family contexts.
Schiff's legal work centers on estate planning documents such as wills and trusts. She has experience preparing durable powers of attorney and advance health care directives. She also handles the administration of estates and the issues that surface in probate. On the civil property side, she has addressed community property matters that commonly affect married couples and domestic partnerships under California law.
Her undergraduate training in psychology has informed how she approaches client interactions. She takes time to explain legal options in terms that people can understand. That approach helps when clients are making choices about inheritance, incapacity planning or property division—situations that often involve emotion and competing interests.
Colleagues describe her style as pragmatic and attentive. In practice she balances technical legal work—drafting documents and preparing filings—with the interpersonal tasks of listening, clarifying priorities and managing expectations. That mix matters in estate work, where a clear document can prevent future disputes, and in property matters, where agreements often depend on finding practical resolutions.
Throughout her career she has kept the legal mechanics of estate planning and community property at the center of her practice. Her background combines training at two University of California campuses and years of hands-on work in private practice. She currently focuses on estate planning and community property matters.
