JoAnne “Joleen” Searles is a Partner in the Sarasota office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where she is a member of the Private Client Services Practice Group.
Joleen focuses her practice on complex estate planning, trust and estate administration, settlement and probate, high net worth planning, as well as federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning. She leverages her in-depth knowledge of estate planning to design plans for her clients, no matter how simple or complex the necessary estate plan might be.
Joleen also teaches continuing education seminars for financial advisors and attorneys regarding estate planning, wealth preservation, estate settlement, and relaying the latest changes in the law impacting estates and taxes.
Credentials
Education
- University of Miami School of Law, LL.M., Taxation, 2005
- Hofstra University School of Law, J.D., 2004
- University of Virginia, B.A., 2000
Bar Admissions
- Florida
- New York
- Tennessee
Court Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
Languages
- German
Professional and Civic
- Forty Carrots Family Center, Board of Trustees
- Suncoast School for Innovative Studies (SSIS), Board of Directors
- Sarasota Bar Association, Member
- Southwest Estate Planning Council
- Florida Bar
- Real Property Probate and Trust Law Section
Publications
Publications
- Co-Author “The Pocket Guide to Trusts & Estates,” January 2013
Practice Areas
Accolades
- SRQ Magazine, “Elite Top Attorneys” Award Guide, 2023, 2024
- Florida Trend, Florida Legal Elite, 2022, 2023
- Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ Rated
