When there is a will, there is a way, and then there is a next chapter.

A boutique “by the sea” South Florida practice devoted to wills, trusts, estates, guardianship and family law. Pamela Schatten has done this work for 18 years, trained beside her father, A. Jeffrey Barash, a Super Lawyer now retired after forty years. One attorney reads your file and answers your call.

Schedule a Consultation Call 305-868-7800

Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Also reachable at 1-833-DO-A-WILL.

AV

Martindale-Hubbell peer rating

18

Years of practicing wills, trusts and estates

1

Attorney on every matter, start to finish

2 hrs

Typical response time, at most

The Firm

Honest, thorough, and reachable.

The documents that decide what happens to your home, your accounts and your family deserve an attorney who reads each line.

Barash-Schatten Law Firm, P.A. is an honest, ethical, hard-working practice. We strive for excellence and work to give each client what they are actually looking for, not a form pulled from a drawer. We are very thorough and conscientious with our work.

The practice covers estate planning, estate administration and guardianship for adults and minors, along with family law, real estate, title work and legal directives. Some of our clients are in their seventies and eighties with substantial estates, adult children in different states, and questions no template can answer. Others are in the middle of a divorce and need someone who will explain the choices plainly before anything is filed.

Every matter is scoped in writing, handled by one attorney from the first call to the last signature, and explained in language you can repeat to your family. Consultations are by appointment, and a phone or video call beforehand tells us what documents to gather so no one’s time is wasted.

Practice Areas

What we handle.

Eleven areas, one attorney. Each matter is scoped and quoted in writing before work begins.

  • Family Law

    Divorce and parenting

    Contested, uncontested and collaborative divorce, including parenting plans, timesharing, support and equitable distribution. Collaborative matters are handled with the neutral professionals the process calls for, so the file stays out of a courtroom where that is the better outcome.

  • Uncontested Divorce

    Divorce and parenting

    Contested, uncontested and collaborative divorce, including parenting plans, timesharing, support and equitable distribution. Collaborative matters are handled with the neutral professionals the process calls for, so the file stays out of a courtroom where that is the better outcome.

  • Probate

    Divorce and parenting

    Contested, uncontested and collaborative divorce, including parenting plans, timesharing, support and equitable distribution. Collaborative matters are handled with the neutral professionals the process calls for, so the file stays out of a courtroom where that is the better outcome.

  • Child Custody

    Divorce and parenting

    Contested, uncontested and collaborative divorce, including parenting plans, timesharing, support and equitable distribution. Collaborative matters are handled with the neutral professionals the process calls for, so the file stays out of a courtroom where that is the better outcome.

  • Child Support

    Divorce and parenting

    Contested, uncontested and collaborative divorce, including parenting plans, timesharing, support and equitable distribution. Collaborative matters are handled with the neutral professionals the process calls for, so the file stays out of a courtroom where that is the better outcome.

  • Paternity

    Divorce and parenting

    Contested, uncontested and collaborative divorce, including parenting plans, timesharing, support and equitable distribution. Collaborative matters are handled with the neutral professionals the process calls for, so the file stays out of a courtroom where that is the better outcome.

  • Estate Planning

    Wills and revocable trusts

    Wills, revocable trusts, funding and retitling, beneficiary coordination and plans built for blended families and out-of-state heirs. We walk through how each asset is titled, because a trust that was never funded protects nobody.

  • Estate Administration

    After a death

    Summary and formal administration in Broward and Miami-Dade Circuit Courts, personal representative representation, creditor claims, homestead determinations and distribution to beneficiaries.

  • Estate Law

    Trusts, estates and titling

    How property actually passes: the way each asset is titled, which instrument controls it, and what a spouse, a trust or a beneficiary designation does to the plan. A useful starting point when a family is not yet sure whether the matter is planning, administration or a guardianship.

  • Guardianship

    Adults and minors

    Petitions for incapacity and appointment, guardian advocacy, guardianship of the property of a minor, annual plans and accountings, and the less restrictive alternatives that sometimes make a guardianship unnecessary.

  • Guardianship for an Adult

    Incapacity and appointment

    Petitions for determination of incapacity, appointment of a plenary or limited guardian, guardian advocacy for adults with developmental disabilities, and the annual plans and accountings the court requires afterward. We look first at whether an existing power of attorney or health care surrogate already covers the situation.

  • Guardianship for a Minor

    Property and person of a child

    Guardianship of the property where a child receives an inheritance or settlement above the statutory threshold, guardianship of the person where no parent is available, and the petitions, bonds and annual accountings that follow. Often the last step in closing an estate that names a minor beneficiary.

  • Legal Directives

    Incapacity documents

    Durable powers of attorney, health care surrogate designations, living wills, HIPAA authorizations and pre-need guardian declarations. These are the documents that keep a family out of court while someone is still living.

  • Real Estate Law

    Residential transactions

    Purchase and sale contracts, deeds, homestead and life estate questions, and transfers between family members or into a trust. Buyers and sellers are walked through each obligation before the contract is signed rather than at the closing table.

  • Title Work

    Searches, commitments and closings

    Title searches, commitments, curative work on clouded title, closing coordination and issuance of the owner’s title policy, handled through our of counsel relationship with a Florida title company. Useful where a property is passing through an estate or moving between family members and the chain of title needs a careful reading.

  • Other Practice Areas

    Related matters

    Trust administration questions, document review for clients who planned elsewhere, and second opinions on plans drafted years ago. If a matter falls outside the practice, we will say so and point you to someone who handles it.

Areas We Serve

Along the coast, county to county.

The firm files in the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward and the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade. Consultations and signings take place by appointment at our Fort Lauderdale office at 5100 Northeast 14th Terrace, with phone and video calls available before you come in.

  • Miami Beach

    Estate planning and probate for condominium and waterfront owners, filed in Miami-Dade County.

  • Fort Lauderdale

    Our office. Wills, trusts, guardianship and divorce for clients across the city and the beach.

  • Oakland Park

    Minutes from our office. Directives, deeds and trust funding handled without a long drive.

  • Lauderdale by the Sea

    Homestead questions, life estates and title matters for longtime coastal homeowners.

  • Hollywood Beach

    Estate administration and guardianship for families with property on both sides of the county line.

  • Pompano Beach

    Trust and probate work for retirees, including annual guardianship accountings.

  • Other Areas We Serve

    Additional communities across Broward and Miami-Dade County, including Wilton Manors and Dania Beach.

Not on the list?

Call 305-868-7800 and ask about your city. If we cannot take the matter, we will tell you who can.

A plan is only as good as the questions asked before it was drafted.

That is why a first meeting at this firm is a conversation about your family and how your assets are actually held, not a menu of packages. Estate documents fail in predictable ways: an unfunded trust, a stale beneficiary designation, a co-owned account nobody remembered, a successor trustee who moved away. We look for those before you sign.

Pamela Schatten, Attorney at Law

Client Comments

In our clients’ words.

The Attorney

Pamela Schatten
Pamela Schatten, Attorney at Law

Pamela Schatten

Attorney · AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell

Pamela Schatten has practiced wills, trusts and estates for 18 years, learning the work beside her father, A. Jeffrey Barash, a Super Lawyer with roughly forty years in the field. She prepares estate planning documents, represents guardians appointed by the court in guardianship proceedings, and administers trusts and estates. Her father has recently retired, and she now practices as a sole practitioner, handling every matter the firm accepts from the first call through the last signature.

Family law is an equal part of the practice: contested, uncontested and collaborative divorce for South Florida families.

She is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer review rating the publication issues, based on confidential evaluations by other lawyers and judges of legal ability and ethical standards.

Her office is close to home by design. After years of watching a practice run on ninety-minute commutes each way, she built one where the time saved goes into client files instead of traffic. Clients notice it in how quickly calls come back.

AV Rated

Martindale-Hubbell peer review

Bar admission

The Florida Bar, licensed to practice in all Florida state courts

Peer rating

AV Rated, Martindale-Hubbell

Years in practice

18 years in wills, trusts and estates, trained alongside A. Jeffrey Barash, a Super Lawyer with roughly forty years in the same field, now retired

Focus

Estate planning, estate administration, guardianship, family law, real estate and title work

Courts

17th Judicial Circuit (Broward) and 11th Judicial Circuit (Miami-Dade)

Also

Of counsel to a Florida title company for residential title work

Questions

Asked often, answered plainly.

A revocable trust generally only covers assets that have actually been transferred into it, which is why many people also keep a will in place alongside it. A pour-over will can direct any assets still held individually into the trust and can name a personal representative for the probate estate. The two documents are typically drafted to work together, and titling and beneficiary designations can be reviewed as part of an estate plan to help reduce what might otherwise fall outside the trust.

The firm’s wills, trusts and estates practice spans 18 years, including years spent practicing alongside a second attorney who was recognized as a Super Lawyer in the same field for roughly four decades before retiring. That background continues to inform the approach applied to estate planning and estate administration matters handled today.

Broward County is the primary service area, and estate and guardianship matters may also extend into Miami-Dade County. A full list of the South Florida communities served is available on our Areas We Serve page.

Meetings are primarily conducted virtually, by phone or video, so the documents to bring can be confirmed in advance. When paperwork needs to be signed in person, arrangements can potentially be made to meet at a convenient South Florida location, such as Flanigan’s or the Regus office center at the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale.

Response times are typically within a couple of hours during business days. Because the firm operates with a single attorney, calls and messages are generally handled directly rather than routed through a larger team, and contact form submissions are typically reviewed directly as well.

Whether a divorce moves forward as contested or uncontested often depends on how much is genuinely in dispute. Where the disagreement is narrow, an uncontested or collaborative process can potentially be faster, less costly and easier on any children involved. Where issues such as business valuation, support or time-sharing are more significantly contested, a more involved court process may become necessary. These factors are typically something that can be discussed and weighed before anything is filed.

A guardianship may become relevant when an adult is no longer able to manage their own affairs and does not have a durable power of attorney or health care surrogate designation in place, or when a minor receives assets that require a legal decision maker. Less restrictive alternatives are typically considered first, since guardianship involves ongoing court supervision.

Yes. Title work is part of the practice and can include title searches and commitments, curative work where a gap appears in the chain of title, closing coordination, and issuance of an owner’s policy, carried out through an of counsel relationship with a Florida title company. This can come up when a property passes through an estate or moves between family members.

AV is the highest peer review rating Martindale-Hubbell issues. It is not purchased or self-reported. It reflects confidential ratings submitted by other attorneys and members of the judiciary on legal ability and adherence to ethical standards.

Helpful items can include a list of assets and how each one is titled, any existing will, trust or directive, current beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, and the names of people who might be considered for roles such as trustee, personal representative and health care surrogate. Coming without all of it is also fine, since the rest can typically be gathered together during that first conversation.

Yes. Estate administration is a core part of the practice, spanning summary administration for smaller estates through formal administration, along with creditor claims, homestead determinations, and final distribution to beneficiaries.

Blog

Reading for clients.

  • Is it worth contesting the divorce?

    A candid look at what contested litigation costs in time and money, and the narrow set of disputes that actually justify it.

    Read the article

Contact the Firm

Start the conversation.

Tell us briefly what you need and how to reach you. Messages go directly to Pamela Schatten, and you will hear back within a couple of hours at most during the business day.

Office

Barash-Schatten Law
800 E Cypress Creek Rd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334

Telephone

305-868-7800

Toll free

1-833-DO-A-WILL

Email

attypamschatten@gmail.com

Areas served

Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Lauderdale by the Sea, Hollywood Beach and Pompano Beach, plus the rest of Broward and Miami-Dade County

Office location, Fort Lauderdale

    Please do not include confidential details in this first message. We will arrange a private call.