For nearly three decades Randall D. Van Dolson practiced law with several large international and regional law firms. Recently, he has created his own boutique firm focusing on estate planning, probate, charitable gift planning, tax-exempt/nonprofit organizations, general tax matters and business entities.
After receiving a B.A. degree from Loyola University in 1970 and an M.A. degree in history from UCLA in 1972, Mr. Van Dolson attended the University of Southern California Law Center, received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Maryland in 1977, and earned a Master’s Degree (LL.M) in Taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983.
Mr. Van Dolson, whose articles have appeared in such national professional journals as Estate Planning, Trusts & Estates, and Probate & Property, lectures at various tax conferences including the Southern Federal Tax Institute, the Duke University Estate Planning Conference, the Tennessee Federal Tax Institute, the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants Federal Tax Conference, the Georgia Federal Tax Conference, the University of Alabama Annual Federal Tax Clinic, the University of Tennessee’s Singleton Wolfe Federal Tax Conference, and annual meetings of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
A former President of the Greater Chattanooga Planned Giving Council, Mr. Van Dolson is a past chair of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Tax, Probate and Trust Law Section, and is the current chair of the Trusts and Estates Section of the Chattanooga Bar Association.
Mr. Van Dolson is a Fellow of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a professional association consisting of approximately 2,700 lawyers from throughout the United States. Fellows of the College are selected by their peers on the basis of professional reputation and ability in the fields of trusts and estates and on the basis of having made substantial contributions to these fields through lecturing, writing, teaching, and bar activities. Fellowship in ACTEC is widely considered to be the highest honor accorded to an estate planning attorney.
Mr. Van Dolson also is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (trusts and estates), and has been awarded the highest possible rating for legal ability and ethical standards – "AV" – from Martindale-Hubbell, the world’s leading guide to the legal profession. The AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell and selection for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America are based on confidential evaluations of other lawyers. By a vote of regional lawyers, Mr. Van Dolson has been selected to be listed in Mid-South Super Lawyers since such listings began in 2006.
Appointed by the governor of the State of Maryland as a member of the Task Force on Long Term Planning for Disabled Persons, Mr. Van Dolson was one of the principal authors of Maryland’s statutory Discretionary Trust Act, a first-of-its-kind statutory trust that provides for a disabled child’s supplementary needs while preserving the child’s need-based government program support.