The Harborview Approach

Catherine's practice began at Morrison & Foerster, where she spent six years in the private client group advising ultra-high-net-worth families on trust design, charitable planning, and generation-skipping strategies. She left to found Harborview because she believed the best estate planning work happened in a smaller, more deliberate practice — one where the attorney knows the family well enough to anticipate what the documents cannot say.

Over 27 years, she has guided families through first estate plans, blended-family trust restructuring, incapacity planning for aging parents, and multi-generational business succession. Her clients include technology founders, multigenerational real estate families, physicians, and family office principals throughout the Bay Area.

She is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and has lectured at the California State Bar's Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law Section. She limits her practice to a maximum of 60 active client families at any time.

“My best work happens when I understand what the family actually needs before any document is drafted. The intake is not a formality — it is where the plan begins.”