Issue 73 - Stanford Lawyer - Stanford University

Remember Stanford...
F
rom his family’s apricot orchard in Los Altos
Hills, young Thomas Hawley could see Hoover Tower and hear the cheers
in Stanford Stadium. “In those days my heroes were John Brodie and Chuck
Taylor,” he says, “and my most prized possessions were Big Game programs.”
Thomas transferred from Wesleyan University to Stanford as a junior in 1964
and two years later enrolled in the Law School, where he met John Kaplan. “I
took every course Professor Kaplan taught,” says Thomas. “He was a brilliant,
often outrageous teacher, who employed humor in an attempt to drive the
law into our not always receptive minds.”
In choosing law, Thomas followed in the footsteps of his father,
Melvin Hawley (L.L.B. ’52), and both grandfathers. “I would have
preferred to be a professional quarterback or an opera singer,” he
says (he fell in love with opera while at Stanford-in-Italy), “and I
might well have done so but for a complete lack of talent.”
An estate planning attorney on the Monterey Peninsula, Thomas
has advised hundreds of families how to make tax-wise decisions
concerning the distribution of their estates. When he decided the
time had come to sell his rustic Carmel cottage, he took his own
advice and put the property in a charitable remainder trust instead,
avoiding the capital gains tax he otherwise would have paid upon
sale. When the trust terminates, one-half of it will go to Stanford
Law School.
Above: Thomas Hart Hawley (A.B. History ’66,
L.L.B. ’69) during his junior year at Stanford.
Below: returning to his roots, Thomas now
operates a small vineyard/winery in Carmel
Valley under the Blue Heron label.
“After taking care of loved ones, most people enjoy hearing they can
save taxes and give back to those institutions that made their lives
so much better,” says Thomas. “That’s one bit of advice I never tire of giving.”
Thomas Hawley also is a recognized lecturer and author on estate planning.
His amusing, down-to-earth book, The Artful Dodger’s Guide to Planning Your
Estate (published by Adams Media, Boston, February, 2004) is dedicated to the
memory of John Kaplan.
To learn more about bequests and gifts such as charitable remainder trusts and
charitable annuities that pay income to donors, please contact us.
Call us: (800) 227-8977 ext 5-9160 or (650) 725-9160
Write us: Stanford Law School Planned Giving, Crown Quadrangle
559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, CA 94305-8610
Email us: planned.giving@law.stanford.edu
Visit our website: http://bequestsandtrusts.stanford.edu/