Karina M. Thomas, Attorney
Karina M. Thomas has been an estate and business planning attorney with Schafer Thomas Maez PC since 1999. She became a Shareholder and Director in 2003. Karina works with clients from all walks of life, including business owners, senior executives, retired individuals, and young families on a range of estate and business planning projects including the use of wills, trusts, business entities, and charitable devices to accomplish their objectives. She also helps clients to plan for asset management and protection in advance of incapacity or creditor claims, reduce the burden of income and estate taxes payable at death, and administer the estates of deceased family members through probate or private trust arrangements.
In addition to providing these core estate and business planning services, Karina counsels clients on marital agreements, shared equity agreements, business contracts, employment and independent contractor agreements, buy-sell agreements, and business succession strategies.
Karina works with each client to develop a plan that achieves his or her objectives, outlines the structures to implement such objectives, and then completes the planning and documents to establish the structures in a timeframe appropriate for each client.
Prior to her association with Schafer Thomas Maez PC, Karina practiced environmental law from 1992 to 1999. In that capacity, she represented clients on legal matters relating to contaminants in soil or groundwater, civil liability to adjacent landowners, and violations issued by state and federal agencies. Many of her clients were family businesses of the kind whose owners she now provides estate and succession planning services to.
Karina has written and lectured on a wide variety of topics relevant to her current and former practices. She has published articles in The Colorado Lawyer, the Colorado Business Journal, and the Environmental Technology Journal. She is a member of the Trust and Estate Section of the Colorado Bar Association, the Denver Bar Association, and the Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council. She is admitted to practice before all state courts in Colorado, and several federal courts in Denver and Washington, D.C., including the U.S. District Court, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Federal Court of Claims.
Karina received her undergraduate degree, with honors, from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, in 1984, and her law degree, cum laude, from Albany Law School at Union College in Albany, New York in 1992. Karina splits her time between Denver and Breckenridge, Colorado. She is an avid sailor, mountain biker, and skier. She is a former board member and longtime supporter of the regional contemporary dance company, Ballet Nouveau Colorado/BNC.
Print