Frazer Ryan Goldberg & Arnold: The Phoenix Firm Built Over Breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton

Inside Frazer Ryan Goldberg & Arnold LLP, the Phoenix firm that traces its founding to a 1989 breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton, where an estate planning attorney and a tax attorney decided to build something together — and grew it into a rare concentration of both Estate & Trust and Tax Law specialists under one roof.

Frazer Ryan Goldberg & Arnold — At a Glance

Origin: A Breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton

In the summer of 1989, estate planning attorney Jim Ryan invited tax attorney Dave Frazer to breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton to discuss launching a firm together — a founding story the firm still tells about itself. Yale Goldberg, who had been practicing at a large Phoenix firm, joined the pair that same year as a third co-founder; Chick Arnold later became the fourth name partner. Dave Frazer retired in 2005. Yale Goldberg was the first of five Frazer Ryan attorneys inducted as a Fellow of ACTEC and helped establish the State Bar of Arizona’s legal specialist certification program itself — the same certification system this profile relies on to verify the firm’s current specialists.

Practice Areas

The firm’s practice spans estate planning, civil and criminal tax controversy, estate and trust litigation, probate and trust administration, guardianship and conservatorship, elder law, mental health law, business formation and M&A, real estate transactions, employee benefits, and commercial litigation. Today the firm is led by 12 senior attorneys, including Jim Ryan — a Certified Specialist in Estate and Trust Law and Fellow of ACTEC who focuses on high-net-worth and complex estate administration, and a former Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” (Phoenix) in Trusts and Estates.

Track Record

As with most estate planning and tax-controversy practices, the bulk of this firm’s work is private and doesn’t generate a public verdict record. Awesome Attorneys was not able to independently source specific litigated case outcomes for citation here; the firm’s public record instead runs through its attorneys’ professional credentials, institutional history, and leadership roles — including Yale Goldberg’s role in helping build Arizona’s own specialist-certification system.

Note: Past results, where applicable, do not guarantee a similar outcome in any future matter.

Client Voice

Reviews on Lawyers.com describe attorneys as thorough and easy to work with on complex trust matters. One reviewer specifically praised partner Kelsi Lane for explaining detailed, complex regulations in terms that were easy to follow during an estate planning matter.

Community

Dave Frazer, now a partner emeritus, established and served for years on the board of the Flinn Foundation, chaired the Arizona region of the National Conference of Community and Justice, and served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and vice president of the Phoenix Symphony Association — institutional ties the firm still references in its own history. Current partner Kelsi Lane has been re-elected to the State Bar of Arizona’s Board of Governors.

Recognition

Genuine, peer-reviewed and examination-based credentials: three Arizona Board-Certified Estate & Trust Law Specialists and four Board-Certified Tax Law Specialists on staff (State Bar of Arizona Board of Legal Specialization); an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell; six attorneys listed in Best Lawyers in America; and Jim Ryan’s ACTEC fellowship and past Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” honor.

The firm also markets itself as “voted a top law firm in six Ranking Arizona categories” — a local business publication’s reader poll, worth distinguishing from the Board Certification and Best Lawyers credentials above, which involve independent vetting rather than reader voting.

The Arizona Legal Backdrop

What follows is general legal information, not legal advice.

Arizona wills are governed by A.R.S. § 14-2501 et seq., and intestate succession by A.R.S. § 14-2102. Most Arizona probate proceeds informally under A.R.S. § 14-3301. Trusts are governed by the Arizona Trust Code, A.R.S. § 14-10101 et seq., and durable powers of attorney by A.R.S. § 14-5501. For the firm’s higher-net-worth clientele, federal estate and gift tax exposure — layered on top of this state-law framework — is frequently the more consequential planning question, which is where the firm’s dual concentration of Estate & Trust and Tax Law specialists is most directly relevant.

The Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Frazer Ryan’s genuine differentiator is the combination of three Board-Certified Estate & Trust specialists and four Board-Certified Tax specialists inside one firm — a concentration few Arizona firms match — plus a multi-generational institutional history that includes literally helping build the state’s own specialist-certification system. That makes it a strong fit for complex, high-net-worth estates with real tax-controversy exposure.

The honest caveat: this is a larger, higher-overhead boutique built around complexity and tax controversy, not a low-cost option for a straightforward will or a simpler estate — clients with uncomplicated needs may find a smaller, more narrowly-focused practice a better fit on cost alone.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched in August 2026 from frgalaw.com (firm site, partner and partners-emeritus bios, firm history pages), Martindale, Lawyers.com, and Yelp. Frazer Ryan Goldberg & Arnold LLP did not commission, review, or pay for this profile.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

This profile is an independent editorial article published by Awesome Attorneys. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any lawyer or law firm profiled on this site, and inclusion in this series is not paid placement.

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