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Lee A. Summerford Partner PO Box 10186 |
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Lee A. Summerford is a partner in the Tax and Corporate Department. His primary areas of practice are trusts and estates and business law. His trust and estate practice encompasses simple wills, a full range of complex tax-motivated estate planning, preparing estate and gift tax returns, dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, advising banks and other professional fiduciaries and handling all aspects of probate and estate administration. His business practice includes corporate, partnership and LLC formation, contract preparation and negotiation, sales and acquisitions, buy-sell agreements and succession planning. |
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Mr. Summerford also handles a number of issues peculiar to physicians and medical practices including employment contracts, buy-ins and buy-outs, covenants not to compete, hospital privileges and state and federal regulatory issues and compliance.
While at Mercer, Lee was Grand Master (President) of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and was awarded the Kappa Sigma National Scholarship-Leadership Award. He also received the Georgia Baptist Heritage Scholarship, and the Clifton Forrester Memorial Scholarship.
In law school Lee served as Senior Managing Editor of the Mercer Law Review and was a member of the Brainerd Currie Honor Society and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Graduating in the top two percent of his class, he received American Jurisprudence Awards in Property, Torts, American Legal History, Civil Procedure II, and Secured Transactions (Article 9). Lee also received the James C. Rehberg Academic Scholarship and was also named the 1996 Tax Scholar by the Georgia Federal Tax Conference.
Mr. Summerford has been selected by his peers in the legal community for inclusion in "The Best Lawyers in America" (10th-12th editions) in the area of Trusts & Estates, as well as being named in its companion publication "Best Lawyers Consumers Guide" for both Small Business Law and Trust & Estates. In 2001, he was selected by the Savannah Business Report and Journal as one of the top young business leaders in the Savannah - Hilton Head area in their 2nd annual list of "40 under 40," and in 2006 he was named a Super Lawyer Rising Star in the area of Closely Held Businesses by Law & Politics and Atlanta Magazine.