Introduction

John P. Glowacki’s litigation practice focuses on trust and estate lawsuits and trials throughout California, including: trust and will contests; fiduciary accounting disputes; breach of fiduciary duty claims; and financial elder abuse.

Expertise

Specializing in trust and estate litigation, John’s practice spans California including: trust and will contests; fiduciary accounting disputes; breach of fiduciary duty claims; and financial elder abuse.

He is also an accomplished mediator and coach for when families are ready to resolve their disputes, reconcile their grievances, and even plan thoughtfully for avoiding drama.

He brings both legal acumen and empathy to each case, understanding the complex emotions and intricate relationships at play during times of familial distress.

Honors & Awards

• Martindale-Hubbell AV Rated
• Southern California Super Lawyers®, Estate & Trust Litigation, 2023–2025

Community & Pro Bono Service

Since 2016, Mr. Glowacki has volunteered as a mediator to help people resolve their litigated trust and estate conflicts without trial.

He has devoted years of service to the Orange County Bar Association as a Member of the Board of Directors (2023-2025) governing the organization of more than 6,000 members. In 2016 he served as Chair of the Board of the Trusts & Estates Section of the Orange County Bar Association, on which he sat for several years.

Representative Examples of Client Successes

Mr. Glowacki prevailed at trial enforcing a no-contest clause on behalf of one beneficiary against a trust beneficiary who unsuccessfully tried to contest a substantial charitable gift that their father had repeatedly affirmed in his thoughtfully-crafted estate plan.

In a trust contest, Mr. Glowacki obtained a near-complete win for his client through settlement shortly before trial where the a child machinated for his parents to completely change decades of consistent planning to give the lion’s share of the assets to that child at the expense of the others in a trust amendment that was confusing to the point of nonsensical on its face.

At trial on objections to a client’s trust fiduciary accounting, Mr. Glowacki completely defensed several hundred thousand dollars worth of claimed breaches of trust through a motion for judgment at the close of the objector’s case in chief.

Mr. Glowacki successfully enforced a testamentary power of appointment in a will executed by one sibling shortly before he died, appointing assets in the parents’ trust in favor of one of the remaining siblings over the other two, after decades of disharmony among the four siblings who inherited a substantial asset from their parents. (Estate of O’Connor (2018) 26 Cal.App.5th 871.)

In a hotly-contested conservatorship trial, Mr. Glowacki obtained a judgment removing a conservator in charge of the personal and medical care of her elderly mother suffering from a major neurocognitive disorder for taking needless risks with the health and safety of her mother.

Speaking Engagements

• Speaker, Difficult Administrations: How to Avoid Litigation While Preparing For It (Orange County Bar Association, Elder Law Section, August 2017).
• Speaker, Difficult Administrations: How to Avoid Litigation While Preparing For It (First American Trust Company, eight times in 2018).
• Speaker, Trying a Will or Trust Contest Based on Undue Influence or Incapacity; and, Intentional Interference with Expected Inheritance (AKA, “For Every Wrong There is a Remedy” (Orange County Bar Association, Elder Law Section, May 2012).
• Speaker, I’ve Got a Trial Date in Probate Court. Now What? (Orange County Bar Association, Trusts & Estates Section Annual Seminar, October 2011).
• Speaker, Know When (and How) to Hold ‘Em – From a Legal Perspective (Professional Fiduciaries Association of California Annual Conference, November 2010).

Education

Mr. Glowacki has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from University California, Berkeley, a Juris Doctor from University of California, Hastings College of Law, and a Master of Laws focusing on Mediation from the Straus Institute at Pepperdine University’s Caruso Scholl of Law. He has completed Orange County Bar Association’s College of Trial Advocacy.