Representative Matters

Mr. Ruml's recent significant representations include: 

• Representing beneficiaries in a contested Florida and Kentucky estate administration involving disputes over the personal representatives' qualifications and management of the estate's real property.
• Advising an educational institution on endowment spending policy questions relating to donor intent under a will.
• Transitioning control of over a dozen affiliated real estate development companies owned by three generations and several trusts to be the founding family's third generation, and transferring wealth to the family's fourth generation using recapitalizations and grantor retained annuity trusts.
• Consolidating the holdings of a real estate and natural resource development company with holdings throughout the U.S. and Canada in a series of asset sales, asset transfers and complex disputes with non-family co-investors to prepare for succession to the founding family's third generation and implement the family's charitable plans.
• Achieving liquidity objectives for a manufacturing company's second generation of family owners by advising the company throughout the entire valuation, negotiation and transaction execution process.
• Counseling a number of closely held growth businesses in their first generation regarding entity formation, buy-sell planning, contract negotiations, acquisitions and joint ventures.

Professional Experience

• Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP (2004 - present)
• Summer Associate, Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP (2002-2003)

Honors

• Woodrow Wilson School Senior Thesis Prize (2000).
• Edward Sampson Class of 1914 Prize in Economic Geology (2000).

Education

2004 - J.D., with distinction, Stanford Law School. Managing Editor; Stanford Journal of International Law; teaching and research assistant in corporate and securities law

2000 - A.B., summa cum laude, Princeton University; Phi Beta Kappa

Seminars

• "Recent Developments of Interest to Estate Planners" (37^th Annual Midwest Estate, Tax & Business Planning Institute, Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum, Indianapolis, June 2010)
• "Buy-Sell Planning for Business Entities" (National Business Institute, June 2010)
• "Corporate and LLC Organization and Operation" (National Business Institute, June 2010)
• "S-Corporations: Organization, Operation, and Estate Planning Considerations" (National Business Institute, June 2010)
• Assistant instructor (with Adjunct Professor Turney Berry) at Vanderbilt Law School for seminar "Representing the Family Business" (2007, 2008, 2009)
• "Your Client Moved to Florida - Now What? Florida Issues for Kentucky Estate Planners" (Louisville Bar Association, December 2009)
• "Recent Developments of Interest to Estate Planners" (20^th Annual Estate and Business Planning Institute, Evansville Bar Association, November 2009)
• "Transfer Tax Issues in Estate Administration (National Business Institute, November 2009)
• "Tax and Non-Tax Recent Developments of Interest to Estate Planners" (12^th Annual Estate Planning Institute, University of Louisville-Brandeis School of Law, April 2009)
• "Recent Developments of Interest to Estate Planners" (Louisville Bar Association, September 2008)
• "Transfer Tax Considerations in Drafting an Effective Estate Plan" (National Business Institute, September 2008, September 2009)
• "Evaluating Risks and Rewards of Testamentary and Revocable Trust Planning" (35^th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute, University of Kentucky College of Law, July 2008) (Co-presenter)
• "Trust Administration in Kentucky" (Lorman, May 2008)
• "Planning for the Non-Taxable Estate" (National Business Institute, May 2008)
• "Estate Planning Considerations in Corporate Liquidity Events" (Kentucky Bar Association - Corporate Counsel Section, April 2008) (Co-presenter)
• "Non-Tax Aspects of Family Business Succession Planning" (Louisville Bar Association, September 2007) (Co-presenter)
• "Considerations in Planning for Incapacity" (National Business Institute, March 2007, September 2009)
• "An Introduction to the Use of Charitable Techniques in Estate Planning" (National Business Institute, March 2007)

Publications

• Estate Planning Issues for S Corporations, in Kentucky Estate Planning, 3rd ed. (UK/CLE)(2009).

• The Coase Theorem & Western U.S. Appropriative Water Rights, 45 Nat. Resources J. 169 (2005).

Professional Activities and Memberships

• Louisville Bar Association (Probate Section; Vice Chair 2010)
• Kentucky Bar Association (Probate Section; Member, Legislative Committee, 2010 - present)
• Florida Bar Association

Admissions

• Kentucky (2004 - present)
• Florida (2007 - present)

Civic Involvement

• St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church, active member
• Louisville Rowing Club (Director)
• Ignite Louisville (2006)
• Princeton Alumni Association of Louisville

Interests

• Competitive sculling with the Louisville Rowing Club
• Investing
• Politics
• Gardening