Jill Willard Young,northwest asthma and allergy everett counsel, left, and Chris Hanslik, chairman, right, of BoyarMiller. Courtesy photo.

Jill Willard Young, counsel, left, and Chris Hanslik, chairman, right, of BoyarMiller. Courtesy photo.

Houston litigation and business law firm

BoyarMiller

on Jan 1. acquired Young, Graves & Burt, a probate and estate litigation firm in Houston, adding two lawyers and a new practice handling estate planning and probate litigation.

Jill Young joined BoyarMiller as of counsel, and Christopher Burt joined as a senior associate. The other lawyer at Young Graves, Adrianne Graves, is now at Graves Law PLLC in Houston.

The acquisition unites Young, who founded Young Graves in 2018, with BoyarMiller

chairman Chris Hanslik

, a longtime friend and moot court partner in law school at South Texas College of Law Houston.

Young said she and Hanslik had for several years discussed the possibility of practicing together again—they were both associates at Brown, Parker & Leahy in Houston after law school—and it came together recently.

"Everything just fell into place. The culture at BoyarMiller, which Chris has built, is something I know and have seen. It's just a wonderful opportunity for Chris and I to practice together again and to build the practice," said Young, who is the godmother to Hanslik's two daughters.

Young said her probate litigation clients include wealthy individuals with businesses and real estate interests, and BoyarMiller's strength in the corporate and real estate areas provides much-needed in-house support for her clients.

Hanslik said adding a probate litigation practice to the firm's offerings also provides an opportunity for the firm's litigators along with cross-selling opportunities for the 29-lawyer firm.

"It just made a lot of sense," Hanslik said.

Before forming Young Graves in 2018, Young and Burt practiced at MacIntyre, McCulloch, Stanfield & Young, now

McIntyre McCulloch & Stanfield

.

Further Reading:

Succession Plan: How Firms Transfer Power From One Leader to the Next

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