Sirote > Our People > Craig M. Stephens

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Craig M. Stephens

Shareholder
Birmingham
cstephens@sirote.com
Tel: 205.930.5246
Fax: 205.212.3858
 Assistant
Beverly Stradford
bstradford@sirote.com
205.930.5104

Craig is the Chair of the firm's Estates, Wills, and Trusts practice group. Craig's practice focuses on representing individuals in the estate planning process, with a focus on tax minimization strategies. Craig represents families in connection with implementing wealth transfer strategies for closely held business interests as part of an overall business succession plan. Craig's trust and estate administration practice is designed to help families carry out their testamentary goals, with careful attention to tax implications and family relationships.

  • Practice is focused on taxation, estate planning, charitable planning and trust and estate administration
  • Has represented clients in connection with family wealth transfer planning, including planning with Family Limited Liability Companies and Family Limited Partnerships, tax planning with retirement assets and other taxation minimization strategies
  • Advises clients regarding the probate administration process, including income taxation issues surrounding administration of trusts and estates
  • American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), fellow
  • Recipient of the highest rating attainable by Martindale-Hubbell, a reflection of having achieved preeminent status in the areas of professional skill and integrity
  • Best Lawyers in America, Trusts and Estates Law
  • Alabama Super Lawyers, Estate Planning and Probate
  • Birmingham Magazine, Top Attorney, Trusts and Estates, 2009; 2011 
  • Cumberland Law School, Adjunct professor in estate planning courses
  • Past faculty member, and current planning committee member for the Annual Estate Planning Seminar presented by the Alabama Bar Institute for Continuing Legal Education
  • Alabama Planned Giving Council, past president and current board member
  • Birmingham and Alabama State Bar Associations
  • American Bar Association
    • Real Property and Probate Section
  • Project Corporate Leadership, 2003-2004 
  • Clerked for US District Court Judge Virgil Pittman in the Southern District of Alabama

Schools

  • University of Florida School of Law
    LLM in Taxation, 2000
  • Cumberland School of Law
    JD, 1997
  • Stetson University
    BA, 1993

Additional Accolades

University of Florida Levin College of Law

  • Florida Tax Review, Student Editor

 Cumberland School of Law

  • American Journal of Trial Advocacy
  • Cordell Hull Teaching Fellow

 

  • Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama, Past Member of the Board of Directors

 

 



 
  • Contributing editor, J.K. Lasser's "New Rules for Estate and Tax Planning", Second Edition (2005 ed.)
  • Co-author, "Now You See It, Now You Don't - NOW YOU SEE IT AGAIN: The Federal Estate Tax", Senior Living, August 2002
  • Author, "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: Favorable Tax Treatment for MSAs", 20:2 Am. J. Trial Advoc. 457, 1996
  • Author, "ERISA, The Inevitable But Unexpected Hurdles of the Plaintiff's Welfare Benefit Plan", 20:1 Am. J. Trial Advoc. 151, 1996

Sirote Legal Alert: The Changing Tax Climate - 12/10/2012

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Best Lawyers Recognizes 43 Attorneys from Sirote & Permutt as the "Best Lawyers in America" for 2013 - 11/5/2012

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Corporate, Tax and Estate Planning Attorneys Speak at ASCPA Annual Meeting - 6/22/2012

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Birmingham Magazine Names 14 from Sirote as Top Attorneys - 2/2/2012

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The Latest in Estate Planning from Sirote Co-authors Apolinsky and Stephens - 12/22/2011

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Craig Stephens Fellow in the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel - 4/25/2011

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Best Lawyers has selected 32 attorneys from Sirote & Permutt for recognition in The Best Lawyers in America for 2011 - 8/27/2010

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Birmingham Magazine Recognizes 17 From Sirote As Top Attorneys - 3/10/2009

Birmingham law firm, Sirote & Permutt, is pleased to announce that 17 attorneys from the firm were selected by their peers for inclusion in the list of “Top Attorneys” published in Birmingham Magazine. Read More