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 planning, trusts, 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 plans; probate 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