Email

kolb@emisonlaw.com

Legal Assistant – Susan Wittmer

wittmer@emisonlaw.com

Practice Areas

• Appellate Practice
• Estate Planning
• Estate and Trust Administration
• Estate and Trust Litigation
• Levees and Ditches
• Solar Leases
• Coal, Oil, and Gas
• Elder Law (Medicaid)
• Tax Planning
• Business Organizations
• Real Estate
  • Sales and Leases

Jeff was born in 1951. He graduated from Indiana University – Bloomington in 1973 and from its school of law in 1976 which is the year he joined the law firm.

Jeff is Board Certified Indiana Trust and Estate Lawyer by the Trust and Estate Specialty Board and supervises the firm’s estate planning and estate administration practice. Jeff also does considerable work in elder law, oil and gas, coal, estate litigation, property, and business entities. Jeff practices in Indiana and Illinois.

Jeff has served on the Probate Trust and Real Property Section council since 1979.  In 1981, he began a quarterly newsletter for the Section which he still edits today.  In 1986-1987, he chaired the Section.  In 1991, Jeff wrote the Indiana Power of Attorney Act.  From 1996 to 2022, he chaired the Probate Review Committee, which is responsible for almost all legislation during that period of time related to trusts and estates.  He served on the Indiana State Bar Association Board of Managers and the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee.  He was president of the Indiana Bar Foundation from 2000 to 2002 and has been a Foundation fellow and Master fellow since 1988.  He also served on the Board of Directors of the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Foundations.  In 2012, he was instrumental in the repeal of all Indiana Death Taxes.  In 2019, he wrote the Indiana Legacy Trust Act.

From 1988 to the present, he has been a member of the American College of Trust and Estate Council. From 1990 to the present, he has been a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. He has served in the Volunteer Lawyer Program of Southwestern Indiana from 1999 to 2015. In 1980 to 1982 he was appointed to the Probate Code Study Commission by Governor Bowen. He became a Board Certified Indiana Trust and Estate Lawyer in 2006 when he drafted the first test to certify lawyers in that specialty. In 2019, he was again appointed to the Probate Code Study Commission by Governor Holcomb.

Jeff received numerous awards and recognitions for his legal work. In 1980, he received a Citation of Merit from the Indiana State Bar Association for an article written for its magazine “Res Gestae.” In 1995, he received the ISBA award for the Probate Newsletter. From 2000 to present, he has been in Who’s Who in American Law. From 2001 to the present, he has been in Best Lawyers in America. In 2015, he was selected by Best Lawyers as Lawyer of the Year in Indiana for estates, trusts and planning. In 2004, he received the Probate Trust and Real Property Section Lifetime Service Award of which he is the only recipient. From 2005 to present, he has been selected as a Super Lawyer by the Indianapolis monthly magazine and was in the Top 10 lawyers in Indiana in 2008 and the Top 50 lawyers in Indiana in 2007, and 2009 to 2013. In 2006, he was selected to the Hall of Fame by the General Practice Section of the Indiana State Bar Association. From 2009, he received a Presidential Citation for his work on the Unauthorized Practice of Law from the Indiana State Bar Association. In 2015, Jeff received the Top Lawyer in Indiana Trusts and Estates. In 2019, Jeff received the Sagamore of the Wabash which is Indiana’s highest civil award.

2019 Sagamore of the Wabash
(Indiana’s Highest Civil Award)

Jeff has served on the YMCA Board of Directors since 1993 and was President from 1999 to 2001. From 1993 to 2010, he was a member of the Vincennes Education Foundation. He served on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 2010 and was President from 1998 to 1999. From 1998 to the present, he has served on the Knox County Community Foundation and on the Board of Directors from 1998 to 2002 and 2008 to the present. In 2000, he served as president. From 1989 to the present, he served on the Board of Directors of the Lincoln High School Academic Society. From 1988 to 2010 he served on the Wabash Valley Estate Planning Council, being a founding member and first president. In 1986, he was appointed and later reelected to the Vincennes Community School Corporation School Board where he served until 1997. He was president in 1989, 1991, and 1996. He served on the Knox County United Way as president in 1989 and the Vincennes Civitan Club where he was president in 1980. He also served on Old Town Players, Inc., Old Northwest Corporation and Fort Knox II Committee, an Ad Hoc Committee of the Indiana Historical Society. He is a founding member and first president of the Old Northwest Running Club in 1979.

He is married to Deborah with whom he celebrated their 50th anniversary.  His three children; Justin, Joanna, and John, live in St. Paul, Minnesota; Pelham Manor, New York; and New York City, New York respectively.