Eliot S. Nahigian

Eliot S. Nahigian

  • Partner
Rated By Super Lawyers
Martindale-Hubbell | Preeminent | Peer Rated for Highest Level of Professional Excellence | 2024

Biography

Eliot, a member of the business and personal transactions department, has significant experience in business and personal transactions. He is certified by the State Bar of California as a specialist in estate planningtrusts, and probate law and in taxation law. Mr. Nahigian is also a certified public accountant.

Eliot represents individuals and businesses in estate planning and business transactions including the formation, structuring, and advising of corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies; preparation and advice on trusts, wills, and estate plansprobate and trust administration; real estate transactions, including 1031 exchanges; buy-sell agreements; and sales, purchases, and mergers of business. He has extensive experience in sophisticated estate plans and complex probates.

Eliot is rated AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell® and has been consistently recognized by his peers as a Super Lawyer, each year from 2012 to 2019. Mr. Nahigian also has extensive experience in probate and trust litigation. Eliot works primarily out of the Firm’s Fresno office.

Martindale-Hubbell® is a registered service mark and trademark and AV®, BV®, AV Preeminent® and BV Distinguished® are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. Martindale-Hubbell® is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the anonymous opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.

Practice Areas

  • Agricultural Law
  • Business Transactions
  • Environmental Law
  • Estate Planning, Probate & Tax
  • Real Estate

Education

  • Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California
    • J.D.
    • Honors: cum laude
  • California State University, Fresno
    • B.S.
    • Honors: summa cum laude
    • Major: Accounting

Bar Admissions

  • California, 1979
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1980
  • U.S. Tax Court, 1980
  • U.S. District Court Eastern District of California

Professional Associations

  • California State Bar Association, Real Property Law; Taxation; Trust and Estates Sections
  • Fresno County Bar Association, Member, Business Law, Estate Planning and Real Property Law Sections
  • California Society of Certified Public Accountants

Honors

  • AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell
  • Selected to Super Lawyers: 2004 - 2006, 2012– 2024
  • BV Distinguished

Representative Cases

  • Real estate acquisitions and refinancings for a local family and leasing of the real estate to their closely held corporation and unrelated tenants
  • Sale of a sole proprietorship to a New York Stock Exchange listed company
  • Sale of a decedent’s interest in a food processing business and the real property used in the business
  • Transfer of family limited partnership interests to second and third generation family members by sales and gifts, including substantial valuation discounts
  • IRC §1031 exchanges of investment real estate
  • Sale of a family farm from father to son
  • Independent representation of a beneficiary in a probate estate of over $10 million
  • Representation of co-executors in a complicated probate administration involving eight remainder beneficiaries
  • Representation of co-trustees in trust administration involving over 90 beneficiaries
  • Sale of an established family-owned grocery business to second generation family members
  • Estate planning transactions involving continuing the business with some family members and provision for other family members not involved in the business
  • Formation of a corporation with four shareholders and the purchase of a convenience store