2479 E. Bayshore Road, Suite 170
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650) 328-7000
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Joan A. LeBlanc

Of Counsel

Estate Planning

Estate and Gift Tax Planning

Charitable Planning

Trust and Estate Administration


Joan A. LeBlanc was a partner at Lakin Spears until 2021 and is currently Of Counsel to the Firm. She has practiced law since 1982. Joan is certified by the State Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law.

Joan’s estate planning practice focuses on the drafting of wills and revocable living trusts, for both married or unmarried couples and singles, that include testamentary transfers to irrevocable trusts for surviving spouses, qualified domestic trusts for non-citizen surviving spouses, and general succession planning for descendants. She also prepares various irrevocable trusts for both lifetime and testamentary transfers including life insurance trusts, generation-skipping trusts, and other irrevocable tax planned trusts.

Joan’s estate and trust administration practice includes the handling of probate and other court supervised fiduciary proceedings, the administration of revocable and irrevocable trusts, and uncontested modification and reform of irrevocable trusts. On occasion, for existing clients, she will handle estate administration.

Prior to joining Lakin Spears, Joan was a partner at Aufmuth, Fox & LeBlanc, Palo Alto, for 10 years and prior to that, a partner with Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper) in Palo Alto. Joan served as Managing Partner of Lakin Spears from 2006 to 2008. She has a peer-review rating of AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale Hubbell. Joan has been named a Northern California “Super Lawyer” every year since 2006 and was named as one of the Northern California’s “Top 50 Women Lawyers” across all practice areas in 2008. Joan is active in the Palo Alto Area Bar, Silicon Valley Bar, and Santa Mateo County Bar Associations.

A native of the Bay Area, Joan is a member of the Stanford Golf Course.


• B.A, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1975
• J.D., University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 1982


• State Bar of California, Trusts and Estates Section
• Silicon Valley Bar Association
• Palo Alto Area Bar Association
• San Mateo County Bar Association

Joan A. LeBlanc