Marlowe & Finch
Serious counsel for families and small businesses — explained in plain English, and billed at flat fees you approve before we begin.
Thirty minutes. No charge. No obligation.
The work we do, and how we do it
Estate planning
Wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives — a complete plan, not a stack of forms. We begin with your family and your worries, then choose the documents to match.
Every plan includes a beneficiary audit of your retirement accounts and life insurance, where most surprises actually hide.
Trust & probate administration
When a family member dies, someone has to settle the estate — notices, inventories, creditor claims, distributions. We guide executors and trustees through each step, on a timeline written down in the first meeting.
Small-business counsel
Entity formation, operating agreements, commercial leases, vendor and employment contracts, and buy-sell agreements between partners.
Most clients keep us on a modest annual arrangement: documents reviewed before signing, questions answered before they become disputes.
Real estate
Purchases, sales, and refinances for homes and small commercial property — contract review, title examination, and closing. We also handle boundary, easement, and landlord-tenant disputes when a letter can still resolve them.
Family matters
Adoption, guardianship for minors and elders, and prenuptial agreements — matters where the law touches the people you love most, handled with corresponding care and discretion.
Nonprofit & fiduciary
Formation and governance for small charities, churches, and family foundations, and independent fiduciary service when an estate needs a neutral hand.
Flat fees, quoted before the work begins
The billable hour puts a meter on every phone call, so clients stop calling — and small questions grow into expensive ones. We think that arrangement serves the firm better than the client, so we abandoned it.
Nearly all of our work is priced as a single flat fee, quoted in writing at the first meeting, covering everything through completion: drafts, revisions, meetings, and every question in between.
Where a matter genuinely requires hourly work — a contested dispute, an unusual negotiation — we say so plainly, estimate it honestly, and cap it in writing.
Representative flat fees
Quoted in writing before engagement. Filing fees and recording costs additional, itemized in advance.
“Nobody should be afraid to call their own lawyer. Everything else about how we practice follows from that.”
— Eleanor Marlowe, Founding Partner
Three attorneys. No leverage model.
Eleanor Marlowe
Founding Partner- J.D., University of Michigan Law School
- B.A., History, Carleton College
- Fellow, American College of Trust & Estate Counsel
- Admitted 1996
Eleanor spent seven years in the trusts-and-estates group of a large regional firm before concluding that the families who most needed careful planning could least afford the way it was billed. She founded the practice in 1998 around a single idea: quote the fee first, then do the work as if the client were reading over your shoulder.
She has drafted more than two thousand estate plans, teaches the probate practicum at the county bar's new-lawyer program, and still insists on explaining every document at the signing table before anyone picks up a pen.
Thomas Finch
Partner- J.D., University of Minnesota Law School
- B.S., Accounting, St. Olaf College
- Former small-business owner (1989–2001)
- Admitted 2004
Before law school, Thomas ran a two-location hardware business for twelve years — which is to say he has signed the leases, met the payroll, and read the vendor contracts our business clients bring in. He came to the law at forty, deliberately, to be the advisor he never had.
He leads the firm's business and real-estate work, from formations and partnership agreements to closings and the occasional firmly worded letter. Clients describe his contract review as "translation services": what it says, what it means, what to push back on.
Priya Raman
Associate Attorney- J.D., University of Wisconsin Law School
- B.A., Economics, Grinnell College
- Certified Guardian ad Litem
- Admitted 2019
Priya handles the firm's family-law and guardianship matters and shares the estate-planning docket with Eleanor. She is the attorney families meet when the situation is tender — an adoption, a guardianship for an aging parent — and the one former clients ask for by name.
She also runs the firm's free annual document-review clinic, held each October at the public library, because plans written for one chapter of life rarely fit the next.
What working with us looks like
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A conversation, not a pitch
Thirty minutes, free of charge, by phone or in our office. You describe the situation; we tell you honestly whether you need a lawyer at all — and if you do, whether it should be us.
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A written quote, before anything else
Within two business days you receive a one-page engagement letter: the scope of the work, the flat fee, and the timeline. Nothing begins, and nothing is owed, until you sign it.
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The work, explained as it happens
Drafts arrive with a plain-English cover memo, not a stack of boilerplate. Questions along the way are covered by the fee — that is the point of the fee.
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A clean conclusion
Signed documents, a bound copy for your records, and a one-page summary of what exists and where it lives. We calendar any follow-up dates so you don't have to.
In their words
“They quoted the fee in the first meeting and it never changed. I asked a dozen questions over three weeks and never once heard a clock ticking.”
M. Okafor · Estate plan“Thomas read our lease and sent back one page that saved us from a five-year mistake. That page paid for itself before we opened the doors.”
The Harringtons · Bakery owners“After my father died, Priya walked us through probate like a neighbor would — patiently, in order, with nothing left vague. I cannot overstate what that was worth.”
D. Lindqvist · Probate administrationStart with a conversation.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation — just a clear account of where you stand and what, if anything, ought to be done about it.
Book a consultationOr telephone the office: (555) 555-0164, weekdays 8:30–5:00.