Free
Member Since 2023
Free
2023
Benjamin J. Burnside
Professional Biography
Ben is a Certified Specialist in Estate & Trust Law by the State Bar of Arizona and a Certified Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation. Ben has been elected as a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. He joined Bogutz & Gordon, P.C. in 1999, after having practiced with a Tucson estate planning firm since 1994. He serves on, and is past Chair of, the State Bar of Arizona Probate & Trust Section Executive Council. Ben earned a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, a J.D. from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, and an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
He is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the Pima County Bar Association. He writes and lectures frequently and is active in numerous community organizations, including formerly serving as Chair of the Board of Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, Inc., and as a member of the Board of the Southern Arizona Estate Planning Council. Ben and his wife, Dena, a CPA, have traveled extensively to all seven continents, and they now have two children, Josephine and Ethan, who keep them closer to home.
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About Bogutz and Gordon
Bogutz & Gordon, P.C., has been proudly serving the Tucson, Arizona, area since 1984, providing sophisticated services to meet our clients’ estate planning and elder law needs. From the beginning, the goal was to help people in need.
In 1984, Allan Bogutz, who had served as Pima County Public Fiduciary, incorporated his own law firm. A few months later, Allan asked Craig Gordon, then working as an attorney at Southern Arizona Legal Aid (SALA), to join him, and the two combined forces. Both were deeply committed to helping people, especially those who cannot help themselves. Allan not only had served as public fiduciary, but he also had worked at SALA and served in the Peace Corps. Before joining SALA, Craig had used a federal grant from the Administration on Aging to develop a legal education and referral program for senior citizens in rural Iowa. With strong backgrounds in public service, these two lawyers brought a unique vision to the firm.
Allan and Craig went on to build a law practice centered on planning, serving, and advocating. The succeeding 30+ years have seen Bogutz & Gordon, P.C., prosper as one of the preeminent elder law firms in the Southwest. Both Allan and Craig have, for the most part, moved on, but their goals and ideals carry on among the current staff of attorneys, care managers, paralegals, and support staff.
We Serve a Diverse Clientele
Our firm advises families at all levels of wealth regarding how to pass whatever it is they cherish to the next generation and beyond. Likewise, we help clients assert their rights with regard to estates and trusts, and advocate for them in many different roles. For example, we guide executors in their duties and challenges. We help clients resolve disputes over wills and other estate matters.
The firm’s structure remains unusual among law firms. In the planning arena, we help clients with traditional estate planning needs, creating wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, as well as planning regarding benefits and taxes.
The firm also serves as “fiduciary.” A “fiduciary” is typically a person in a position of trust, one who is legally empowered to make decisions for other persons. In our case, the firm collectively works to serve clients as trustee, agent under power of attorney, guardian, conservator, and personal representative, making decisions in their best interests when they cannot, or carrying out their final wishes.
The firm is well-suited to advise and assist clients who are facing the realities of aging or disabilities, or recovering from injuries as a result of accidents or medical malpractice.
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