Dickinson Wright: Six Verified Specialties, From Board-Certified Family Law to a USCIS-Insider Immigration Bench

Dickinson Wright Phoenix pairs the local office of a national law firm with a rare dual board-certified Tax Law and Estate & Trust Law specialist, two independently verified Real Estate Law specialists, a Chambers Band 1-ranked intellectual property practice, three board-certified Family Law specialists, and a 30-year immigration practice group with Super Lawyers-recognized Phoenix attorneys.

A NOTE TO READERS. This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys’ editorial team. Dickinson Wright PLLC did not pay for, request, or review this article prior to publication, and placement on Awesome Attorneys’ editorial pages cannot be purchased. Nothing in this article is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of any future case.

At a Glance

Sources: dickinson-wright.com, Super Lawyers’ hosted directory, Best Lawyers, Martindale, Chambers USA, IP Stars (Managing Intellectual Property), azbar.org Estate & Trust Law, Tax Law, Real Estate Law, and Family Law Certified Specialists rosters. Compiled August 2026.

Origin

A CPA-Trained Tax Attorney With a Rare Dual Certification

Les Raatz earned his B.S. in accountancy from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1974 and his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1977, and practiced as a Certified Public Accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick before entering private legal practice. He was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1979 and the Arizona Bar in 1986, and holds a rare dual State Bar of Arizona board certification — Tax Law, and, since 2019, Estate & Trust Law. He practices in Phoenix at Dickinson Wright PLLC, a national firm’s local office that also carries a Chambers USA Band 1-ranked intellectual property practice, a genuinely deep family law bench, and an immigration practice group with more than three decades of firmwide experience.

Practice

Six Separately Verified Specialties Under One Roof

Raatz’s practice centers on estate planning, probate and trust administration, and divorce-related tax and asset planning. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). Awesome Attorneys confirmed two Dickinson Wright Phoenix attorneys — Fred C. Fathe and James H. Patterson — against the State Bar of Arizona’s Real Estate Law Certified Specialists roster, both certified since 1986. On the IP side, Phoenix attorney Andrew D. Dorisio was individually named a Patent and Trademark Star in Managing Intellectual Property’s 2025 IP Stars guide, and Chambers USA ranks the firm’s Arizona IP practice Band 1. On family law, Awesome Attorneys confirmed three additional Dickinson Wright Phoenix attorneys against the State Bar’s Family Law Certified Specialists roster: Marlene A. Pontrelli, Robert L. Schwartz, and Steven D. Wolfson. On immigration, Phoenix attorney Susan Ramos represents individuals, businesses, and institutions in employment-based and family-based petitions, naturalization, and compliance matters; before joining the firm, she served as Associate Counsel in the Regulatory and Verification Division at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security, advising on rulemaking and employment-based immigration regulations. Fellow Phoenix immigration attorney Ian Nesteruk handles employment-based cases including outstanding-researcher and extraordinary-ability petitions and national interest waivers, and co-authors the firm’s immigration blog. Firmwide, Dickinson Wright’s immigration group has built its bench over more than 30 years, with offices spanning the U.S.-Mexico border region and Canada.

Track Record

As with most estate planning, tax, real estate, family law, and immigration practices, individual client matters are not publicly filed or itemized in a results table. Each practice group’s independently verifiable record rests on the certifications, fellowships, and named credentials described throughout this profile, including one disclosed IP result: a successful Inter Partes Review petition filed on behalf of Rassini International challenging a competitor’s patent on a composite leaf spring for vehicle suspension systems.

Past-Results Disclaimer: Every matter is different, and no past result guarantees a similar outcome in any future matter.

Client Voice

Martindale lists Raatz among attorneys who have received the platform’s Client Champion recognition, based on client review volume and quality. Awesome Attorneys did not identify individually attributable, quotable client narratives independent of that aggregate rating for the other named attorneys in this profile.

Community

Raatz is a former president of the Central Arizona Estate Planning Council. Pontrelli acts as a private mediator and teaches the family law course at ASU’s law school. Wolfson serves as a Judge Pro Tem for family law matters. Susan Ramos has spoken publicly on the moral and legal complexities of immigration policy and has been quoted by national media, including CNN Politics, on naturalization policy changes — genuine public-facing subject-matter engagement distinct from client-facing marketing.

Recognition

All named certifications in this profile — Tax Law and Estate & Trust Law (Raatz), Real Estate Law (Fathe, Patterson), and Family Law (Pontrelli, Schwartz, Wolfson) — were confirmed directly against the State Bar of Arizona’s own certified-specialist rosters. Chambers USA’s Band 1 Arizona IP ranking and Dorisio’s IP Stars recognition are independent, research-driven credentials. On immigration, Dickinson Wright Phoenix attorneys have been recognized in both the Super Lawyers and Rising Stars tiers — Arizona does not offer a state specialty certification in immigration law, so peer-review recognition through Super Lawyers and Chambers USA (which separately recognizes the firm’s national immigration practice) functions as the closest available independent proxy.

The Arizona Legal Backdrop

What follows is general legal information, not legal advice.

Arizona’s probate process runs through Title 14 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. Arizona real property transactions are governed by Title 33. Patents, federal trademarks, and copyrights are governed almost entirely by federal law; Arizona separately protects trade secrets through A.R.S. § 44-401 et seq. Arizona family law is governed by Title 25. Immigration, the firm’s newly-added focus area in this profile, is governed almost entirely by federal law rather than Arizona statute — the Immigration and Nationality Act, administered through USCIS, the Department of State, and federal immigration courts — though Arizona’s E-Verify requirement under A.R.S. § 23-214 creates a state-level compliance obligation for employers that intersects directly with the firm’s business immigration and worksite compliance work.

The Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Dickinson Wright Phoenix’s clearest differentiator is depth across six separately verified specialties within one office, all independently confirmed against primary sources, combined with the resources of a large, national multi-practice firm and an immigration bench with a genuine USCIS-insider perspective (Ramos).

The honest trade-off: as an attorney at a large, national multi-practice firm, clients should confirm their assigned attorney’s direct, personal involvement in their matter versus delegation to other Dickinson Wright attorneys, and should expect fee structures more aligned with a large-firm practice than a boutique shop in any one of these six practice areas.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched in August 2026 from dickinson-wright.com, Super Lawyers’ hosted directory, Best Lawyers, Martindale, Chambers USA, IP Stars/Managing Intellectual Property, and the State Bar of Arizona’s Estate & Trust Law, Tax Law, Real Estate Law, and Family Law Certified Specialists rosters (azbar.org). Awesome Attorneys did not identify a competing attorney of the same name practicing elsewhere that could create identity confusion for any individual named in this profile. Dickinson Wright PLLC 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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