Our Team

Karl Flaccus, Attorney

Karl specializes in estate planning, probates, trusts, and litigation involving wills, probates and trust and guardianship. He has over twenty one years of experience as a lawyer, seventeen of which he has spent preparing wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, other estate documents, and advocating in court for individuals, families, and persons who are vulnerable or financially exploited.

Karl has served as the Chair of the Washington State Bar Association Elder Law Section, and program director for the King County Bar Association Guardianship and Elder Law Section, and has chaired many elder law, guardianship and estate planning CLEs. He lectures on estate planning, elder law, guardianship, trust and related litigation matters. Since the late 1990’s, Karl has offered pro bono legal advice through a free monthly legal clinic he runs at the Shoreline Senior Center, where he is a past board member and former board chairman. He is a member of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys, the Washington State Bar Association and the King County Bar Association.

The Superior Court often appoints Karl as a guardian ad litem to advise judges and commissioners in guardianship, trust and probate cases, and he regularly testifies in jury and non jury Superior Court cases.

Karl grew up in Montana, attended University of Rochester in New York, and lived in Alaska for 11 years practicing tax accounting and representing clients in audits before the IRS. He graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1990 with his JD degree. During law school, he received an internship with Judge Hugh Bownes of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, and clerked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Concord, New Hampshire.

After law school, Karl clerked in Seattle for U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein, and for Judges Marshall Forrest and Jack Scholfield of Division I of the Washington State Court of Appeals. He opened his own practice in 1994.

Sharon Perlin, Attorney

Sharon@flaccuslaw.com
206.523.0297

Sharon’s practice includes estate planning (wills, durable powers of attorney, and health care directives), trusts, probate and probate litigation, guardianships, and IRS tax controversies. She serves on the board of the Guardianship and Elder Law section of the King County Bar Association, and is a member of the board of the Cardozo Law Society. She is also a member of the Washington State Bar Association, and has served on the guardian ad litem (GAL) registry of King County.

Sharon grew up in the Washington DC area. She attended the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate work, spending a semester at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a semester at the University of Utah in an intensive Arabic language program. She has a Master’s degree in International Relations from American University, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School Of Law.

After law school, Sharon worked for the Clinical Law Program at the University of Washington, where she argued in US Tax Court on behalf of the Federal Tax Clinic. She joined Karl in private practice in 2008.

Sharon often gives talks on estate planning and trust issues. She provides pro bono legal advice through a free monthly legal clinic at the Shoreline Senior Center. She is active in the North Seattle community, serving on a number of volunteer community committees.

Julia Lowe, Paralegal

Julie@FlaccusLaw.com
206.523.0297

Julia Lowe began her career working in Seattle area law firms in 1985, first working for the US Environmental Protection Agency, and moving on to private law firms in 1988, working in the areas of real estate and marketing. In 1994, she began working solely in the areas of estate planning, guardianship, probate, and real estate; and has appeared before commissioners of the King County Superior Court to initiate probates. She enjoys taking care of her family, and spending time with her college student daughter, Rachael, and her husband, Scott. She has been employed at Flaccus Law since 2005.