Helen Crump Wells

A background of years in trust administration, banking, and bank holding company legal administration gives Mrs. Wells a wide range of experience in corporate mergers and other transactions, securities issuance and disclosure, bank regulatory matters, corporate governance, and estate planning and trust and estate administration.

Mrs. Wells’ practice includes corporate, partnership, and personal financing and real estate transactions, taxation, entity formations, corporate transactions including purchases, mergers and reorganizations, and corporate buy-sell agreements, and other business succession planning. Her probate and estate planning practice has included innovative tax and personal planning for complex estates involving closely-held businesses, generation-skipping tax problems, minimization of estate and gift taxes by various techniques, securing IRS private letter rulings, and numerous other issues. She has been a shareholder of the firm since 1992.

Presentations

“Planning for the Second Marriage (Pre-nups and Beyond)” – Alabama Bar Institute

“Administration of the Estate in Alabama” and “Planning Opportunities with Living Trusts” – National Business Institute

Cumberland Law Review, “Lending under Alabama’s Mini-Code: Proceed at your Own Risk”

“Disclaimers – The Basics with Some New Wrinkles,” Alabama Bar Institute

Frequent lecturer on estate planning, estate administration, and other tax issues

Honors and Awards

Mrs. Wells is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and has been recognized in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers with an AV Preeminent rating in 2012 and in 2013.  This honor is awarded to less than 5% of women lawyers with the highest possible rating in both legal abilities and ethical standards.  She has also been selected for inclusion in the list of The Best Lawyers in America® for the last 20 years, and has been named to Super Lawyers and as Corporate Counsel Magazine’s Top Lawyers in America. She has been recognized by Business Alabama as one of the Top Attorneys in Alabama and as one of the Top 25 Women Attorneys in Alabama.

Mrs. Wells has recently been elected to the Board of Trustees of The American Institute on Federal Taxation. Board members are elected by the existing board from experienced tax attorneys and accountants. The Board of Trustees is composed of certified public accountants and attorneys representing the entire spectrum of tax practice.
The American Institute on Federal Taxation is a tax-exempt organization whose function is to advance the knowledge of federal taxation through programs of study. The Board of Trustees ensures that all viewpoints are represented in planning each program. The speakers chosen are highly proficient in their respective area of federal taxation and, of equal importance, are outstanding public speakers.

Mrs. Wells has also been selected for inclusion in Alabama Super Lawyers 2012 for Estate Planning & Probate, Business/Corporate, and Tax.

Best Lawyers has chosen Mrs. Wells for the 2013-2019 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® for Tax Law and Trust & Estates.

Mrs. Wells was included in the January 2013 issue of The American Lawyer Magazine feature “Women Leaders in the Law”.

Community Involvement

Mrs. Wells is a former vestry member of St. John’s Episcopal Church of Montgomery and has served as its treasurer since 1994. She is on the founding board of directors and is immediate past chairman of Holy Cross Episcopal School. Vice chairman of  the Boys & Girls Club of Montgomery Foundation, she is also a board member of Working Women’s Home Association and The Montgomery Academy Foundation and a former board member for many years of The Salvation Army and of the Central Alabama Community Foundation. She is past chairman of the Professional Division and the Special Gifts Division for United Way.  She is a member of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Directors Circle, a founding member of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, a member of many other community organizations, and is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Montgomery, Inc., after having served on the Board for many years and held a number of offices.

• Estate Planning and Probate
• Corporate and Business Practice
• Federal, State and Local Taxation
• Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions of Businesses
• Nonprofit and Tax Exempt Organizations

• Hollins College
• B.A., University of Alabama, 1965
• Graduate, National Graduate Trust School, 1973
• J.D., Cumberland School of Law (summa cum laude), 1988
• Cumberland Law Review, 1986-88

• Alabama State Bar
• Montgomery County Bar Association
• American Bar Association, Taxation and Real Estate and Probate Law Sections
• American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
• Montgomery Estate Planning Council, Former President
• Alabama Law Institute Committee to Revise Article 8, UCC
• The American Institute on Federal Taxation (Board of Trustees)