Bringing more than four decades of experience and an accounting background to his practice, Jon Karp advises an array of clients on business succession planning, income tax planning, estate and gift taxation and corporate transactions, as well as estate planning and postmortem administration.

Jon’s clients include mid-sized, closely held businesses and their owners in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, and retail sales. He also counsels high-net-worth individuals in estate planning. Jon draws on his perspective as a CPA to provide his clients with astute, relevant counsel. He also counsels professional service companies such as accounting firms, law firms, and medical practices.

Clients rely on Jon’s guidance to help them navigate all aspects of their operations, respond to challenges, and plot paths to achieving objectives in the short and long terms. Serving as an outside general counsel to businesses, he prepares shareholder buy-sell agreements, partnership agreements, agreements to add partners or transition them out, and reviews and drafts transactional documents. Jon also advises on complex, major deals including company sales, purchases, and mergers and acquisitions.

Business owners turn to Jon to assist them in creating holistic succession documents. He works with them to balance competing or sensitive family interests by devising fair and equitable plans that transfer company ownership to involved family members and distribute other assets to family members outside the business. This approach helps prevent disputes and preserves the legacy of the company.

With a relatable, congenial personality, Jon listens carefully to clients and provides straightforward, jargon-free explanations of legal concepts. His knack for predicting developments and his habit of keeping an eye out for potential problems help him chart paths that aim to maximize the financial well-being of clients, their families, and their businesses.

experience

  • Prepared complex estate planning documents for clients with significant wealth and/or complex family situations and implemented those plans following the passing of the client.
  • Represented buyers and sellers of closely held businesses, including clients selling their businesses to publicly traded companies, integrating and explaining tax complexities in understandable language.
  • Handled multiple sales and mergers of accounting firms and medical practices, for large and smaller firms.

  • University of Michigan Law School, J.D., 1976
  • University of California, Berkeley, California, B.S., summa cum laude, 1973
    • Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

Bar Admissions

  • California

Professional

  • Adjunct professor at the University of Southern California (USC) in the Master of Business in Taxation Program
  • Guest lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Law School

Community

  • JVS SoCal, Board of Directors, Finance Committee, Executive Committee, Co-chair of Scholarship Committee

  • Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® (by BL Rankings), 2021-2024
  • Listed in Southern California Super Lawyers (by Thomson Reuters), 2005-2006, 2009-2022

I love to spend time with my wife and family, including my two young adult children, and we still take family vacations together. I also enjoy reading, especially mystery and suspense books, including those authored by James Patterson. In addition, I’m very involved with JVS SoCal, a charity that helps people overcome obstacles to employment and am serving as its board chair in 2025.