About Thomas N. Shigekuni
GENERAL EDUCATION: Public schools in Los Angeles including 37th Street School, Foshay Jr. High School, Amache High School (WW2 internment camp in Colorado), and Polytechnic high School in L. A. Graduated from Pepperdine University with degree in Business Administration and Accounting and attended the Graduate School of Business at USC. One of the few students in Pepperdine University history who received a scholarship directly as the result of George Pepperdine’s personal decision to offer a scholarship to Tom.
SCHOOLING IN LAW: Graduated from USC law School in 1966, admitted to the California State Bar in 1967, and set up a practice at the same building in Torrance where the office still remains. Of the hundreds of attorneys who were in this building here forty years ago, less than 5 still remain in the practice of law today in the same community. This shows Tom’s commitment to the local community and stability in location. Shigekuni is committed to serving the people of the South Bay area and definitely intends to remain here. Nevertheless, he has many clients from all over Los Angeles and Orange Counties from the early days to the present time. He also has clients from near the Mexican border to as far north as the San Francisco Bay area.
FUTURE INTEREST: Tom today works with young attorneys in the area who were hardly out of high school when he was already drafting advanced living trusts. He is presently training attorneys to draft living trust that will remain viable 20 to 40 years from now when the tax laws will possibly be very different from what they are today. His philosophy remains the same, that is, draft plans that will remain viable and which can be amended from time to time to fit different conditions in the future. Major amendments with Tom’s trusts and estate plans generally have not been necessary except when a person with very modest assets suddenly becomes a super wealthy multimillionaire or a very wealthy person becomes very poor.