Sally Stolen Grossman counsels individuals, business owners, and their families nationally on business succession planning, estate planning, estate and trust administration, and fiduciary litigation. She helps clients determine their objectives and then develop strategies to meet those objectives. Those objectives often include preserving wealth for future generations, transitioning the family business, providing sufficient liquidity for a spouse, protecting children’s inheritance, benefitting charity, and minimizing gift, estate, and income taxes. Sally’s clients appreciate her ability to keep them focused on their legacy and to simplify the often complex tools that could be used to implement their plans. She connects with her clients on a deeply personal level and jokes that she helps them avoid “analysis paralysis.”
As the oldest of four girls, Sally was fortunate to be raised by parents who encouraged each of their daughters to follow her dreams. This was at a time when the most common question Sally encountered as a child, after “How old are you?”, was “Do you want to be a teacher or a nurse?”. Both noble professions, certainly, but obviously these are not the only ones to which young women can or should aspire. “I did not realize until I was an adult,” Sally muses, “how unusual my parents’ support of strong young women was.”
A former ski racer, Sally initiated both her high school and college women’s alpine ski teams at a time when very few sports were available to young women. Sally was one of just five female economic majors in her college and was only the second female law clerk ever hired by the federal judge for whom she clerked after law school. She began the private practice of law not so long ago, but still in a day when most major law firms had no maternity leave policies, one or possibly two female partners, and absolutely no women in firm leadership. Fortunately, great strides have been made in providing equal opportunities to women, but Sally notes that there is still much progress to be made and much work to be done. As a trailblazer for women throughout her career, Sally is delighted to be involved with an organization that empowers, motivates and inspires young women.
In her spare time, Sally serves on nonprofit boards, indulges her passion for travel, and sings in two select chamber choirs. She loves to hit the slopes each year with a group of equally ski-crazed fellow firm lawyers. She is also a former board member and chair of the St. Olaf College Alumni Board.
