About the firm
An attorney who handles your matter personally.
Vickery Law serves families, founders, professionals, and business owners in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Washington State who have built something worth protecting, with a focus on estate planning, asset protection, and founder-focused planning.
Chad R. Vickery
Founding Partner
Estate and founder planning is applied statutory work. A plan is only as good as its reading of the Code, and only as durable as its author's attention to how that Code changes. Chad's career has been built on that kind of work.
For two decades, he worked alongside national governments, legislatures, and oversight bodies in nearly forty countries as they adopted and implemented complex legal frameworks, in programs supported by the governments of the United States, Sweden, Canada, and Australia, the European Union, and the United Nations. He tracked legal and regulatory reform as it moved from draft to statute to regulation, and translated it into operational guidance for the officials and institutions who had to apply it.
The work ran on dates that could not move. A new law had to be interpreted, turned into regulations and procedures, and made workable before a fixed deadline, with no second attempt. That is the same discipline a founder needs before a round closes or a sale is signed.
At the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), he served as Vice President for Global Strategy and Thought Leadership, and created and led the Center for Applied Research and Learning, the team responsible for analyzing, drafting, and implementing legal reform and turning it into practical guidance.
He brings the same discipline to Vickery Law. He works from the primary sources, reads the statute closely, and records the reasoning behind every structure. When Section 1202, the trust rules, or District of Columbia, Maryland, or Washington State law change, he assesses what the change means for existing plans before clients have to ask.
Every matter is handled personally by Chad R. Vickery. Where a matter calls for skills outside the firm, he brings in co-counsel and tells you so.
His training in comparative law informs a practice built on three jurisdictions whose property, income, and estate tax rules differ in ways that matter. His recent writing includes Administrative Pathways to Electoral Justice: A Comparative Study, 45 Rev. Litig. 459 (2026), with Katherine Ellena and Rebecca Green.
- Bar admissions
- District of Columbia · Maryland · Washington State
- Focus
- Estate planning and asset protection · QSBS Section 1202 and founder trust planning
- Section 1202 work
- QSBS Qualification Review · QSBS Stacking Illustrator · QSBS stacking under Treasury scrutiny (September 2026)
- Memberships
- WealthCounsel · Maryland State Bar Association, Estate and Trust Law Section · Washington State Bar Association, Real Property, Probate and Trust Section · American Bar Association, Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section
- Relevant experience
- Legal and regulatory reform analysis · Implementation of statutory frameworks with government institutions · Stakeholder guidance on new law
- Current roles
- Founding Partner, Vickery Law PLLC · Board Chair and General Counsel, The Concord Project
- Prior roles
- Vice President for Global Strategy and Thought Leadership, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), where he created and led the Center for Applied Research and Learning · advisory roles in nearly forty countries
- Publication
- Administrative Pathways to Electoral Justice: A Comparative Study, 45 Rev. Litig. 459 (2026), with Katherine Ellena and Rebecca Green
- Education
- B.A. International Political Economy, University of Washington · M.A. International Relations, Georgetown University · J.D. Comparative Law, The Catholic University of America
Capacity, and how we protect it
The firm deliberately limits how many matters run at once, so that the attorney you meet is the attorney who reviews, finalizes, and signs off on your plan, and helps you move your assets into your trust.
Where a complex founder build calls for it, we bring in co-counsel rather than stretch the standard. We are adding attorney capacity as the founder practice grows, and we will introduce them here when they arrive.
Before a document reaches you for signature, it has been checked against the choices you confirmed with us, and reviewed and finalized by the attorney you have been working with.
Election law and democratic governance
Outside estate planning, Chad advises a select number of clients and institutions on election law and democratic governance, primarily through long-standing relationships and his role as Board Chair and General Counsel of The Concord Project, a nonpartisan democracy innovation organization. If you have been referred for this work, we welcome the conversation.
The law, at its best, is a tool for clarity, protection, and lasting impact. Every plan we build is designed to hold up when it matters most.
Start with a free, no-pressure Check-Up
See what your plan covers today, and where the gaps may be, in about five minutes.