Alton "Biff" Bayard, a shareholder in the Firm's Baton Rouge office, concentrates his practice in the areas of tax, estate planning and business law. Mr. Bayard has experience in estate planning, tax planning, family business planning, probate, estate disputes, audits, succession matters, and business acquisitions and break ups. He received his LL.M. from Southern Methodist University in 1980, is Louisiana board certified in tax law since 1985 and in estate planning since 1997, and is recognized in Best Lawyers in America® since 1996 in the areas of Trusts and Estates, Non-Profit/Charities Law, Closely Held Companies and Family Businesses Law.
Representative Matters
- Advised a commercial and industrial service company and its sole owner on personal estate planning and business transition planning, including selecting the appropriate entities, creating operating agreements, preparing personal planning documents and consideration of transition plans including an ESOP, potential sale to an outside entity and sales of business interests to family members.
- Represented an executrix in litigation concerning the validity of testamentary dispositions.
- Defended the executor of an estate in litigation invalidating an attempted amendment to a trust document upsetting the decedent's testamentary transfer plan.
- Represented the executrix of an estate in the negotiating, drafting and closing the sale of the estate's interest in a limited liability company to the surviving member.
- Converted a C corporation to a limited liability company to be taxed as an S corporation for federal purposes free of state franchise tax.
- Assisted two related corporations in the liquidation and distribution of its remaining assets to its shareholders.
- Speaker – "The Estate Tax under the 2010 Tax Relief Act," the Baton Rouge Chapter of the Financial Planning Association, May 12, 2011
- Speaker – "Estate Tax Changes and Planning," the Baton Rouge Chapter of the Financial Planning Association, June 2010
- Speaker – "Estate Tax... Where Are We Now?" Baton Rouge Estate and Business Planning Council, April 2010
- Co-Chair – "Estate Planning: Back to Basics," Louisiana State Bar Association seminar, March 2010
- Speaker – "Living Wills & Other Directives," 2006 Recent Developments in Legislation & Jurisprudence, LSU Law School, September and November 2006
- Speaker – "Incapacity Planning," Elder Law Seminar, LSU Law School, March 2006
- Speaker – "Elder Law," 2005 Recent Developments in Legislation & Jurisprudence, LSU Law School, September 2005
- Speaker – "Living Wills and Other Advance Directives," 2005 Recent Developments in Legislation & Jurisprudence, LSU Law School, September 2005
- Speaker – "Elder Law," 2004 Recent Developments in Legislation & Jurisprudence, LSU Law School, September 2004
- Listed in Best Lawyers in America® since 1995 in the areas of Trusts and Estates, Non-Profit/Charities Law, Closely Held Companies and Family Businesses Law
- Listed in Louisiana Super Lawyers since 2007
- American Bar Association
- Louisiana Bar Association – Past Chairman of Estate Planning and Administration Advisory Commission
- Baton Rouge Bar Association
- Baton Rouge Estate and Business Planning Council
- Board Certified Tax Law Specialist, certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization, 1985-Present
- Board Certified Estate Planning and Administration Specialist, certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization, 1997-Present
- Fellow – The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
- Southern Methodist University, LL.M. in Taxation, 1980
- Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University, J.D., 1976