Welcome.  I am Jennifer Todd, a lawyer in Salem, Oregon. 

My goal is to provide excellent, client-focused legal services with integrity and a human touch. I give my clients personal attention and have compassion about the challenges they face.  I seek practical solutions.  Professionalism and confidentiality are high priorities.

Experience in private practice and as a pro-tem probate judge have equipped me to help clients plan and administer estates.  Using this experience, I also help clients assist family members who have disabling conditions that interfere with making financial and care decisions.  I also have experience in helping parties resolve disputes.

Communication is one of my strengths.  As a former law professor, I am skilled at making complex topics understandable to those unfamiliar with the law.  I strive to help clients understand the work I do for them and to keep them informed as work progresses.

My practice areas include:

• Estate planning (wills, trusts, and other planning documents)
• Probate and trust administration (dealing with assets of a person who has died)
• Guardianships (court cases to appoint a person to make life decisions for an incapacitated person or minor)
• Conservatorships (court cases to appoint a person to make financial decisions for an incapacitated person or minor)  
• Adoptions
• Dispute resolution (mediation and arbitration)

My personal life provides a basis for deep understanding of the challenges my clients face.  I have first-hand experience with planning for and helping elderly parents, including the challenges of dementia.  I have also experienced the loss of a parent, so I have empathy for those suffering that loss, and understand the responsibilities they face.  I have two grown children, so I understand many issues that parents face. 

My roots in the Salem area are deep.  I am a third-generation native Oregonian.  My parents met at Willamette.  I grew up in Salem and graduated from South Salem High School.  After graduating from Whitman College, I returned to Salem, where I graduated from Willamette law school.  Since then, I have lived and worked in the Salem area.