About Us

We offer personalized service from knowledgeable and experienced lawyers. At the Law Office of Ray Kowalczewski, P.A., we can help you achieve your goals through proper and thoughtful planning and problem resolution. We will listen to your specific concerns and recommend legal solutions that are right for you, your family, or your company. To the best of our ability, we make the complex areas of estate planning, business planning and tax law as simple as possible for you so that you can make the best decisions about solving your legal issues. We believe in planning. We believe through proper planning most (but not all) problems can be minimized and potentially avoided altogether. This is where our experience in estate planning (wills and trusts), life planning, probate and business planning is critically important. With our knowledge and experience, we can guide you through important decisions and avoid the problem areas. We also recognize that it is not always possible to plan appropriately for all circumstances. When problems do occur, we stand ready to assist you within the areas of law that we practice.

Ray Kowalczewski Click here for Attorney Profile.

What to expect when working with us.

From your first phone call to our office, you will find that we are friendly, experienced, and knowledgeable. To provide the best legal services in the most cost-effective manner, we do have an initial consultation fee when meeting with new clients. The primary purpose of the initial consultation is to exchange information with you and to provide you with recommendations to resolve your specific legal issues. If you decide to have our law office represent you, the initial consultation fee will be credited toward the legal fees and deducted from your last payment. (In other words, if you retain our law office to do your legal work, the initial consultation becomes "free" in the end.)

Our initial consultation fee is $225 for a one hour consultation. In this consultation, we will provide you with extensive and invaluable legal advice about your legal issues and answer any questions you may have. Our initial consultation is designed to provide you with the information necessary to determine how to resolve your legal issues (e.g., hire our law firm, do it yourself or even hire another law firm). We will educate you about your various legal options and make recommendations to you. Over the years, we have found that our clients greatly appreciate this approach to providing legal services.

Why do you have an initial consultation fee?

We have an initial consultation fee so that we can provide you with honest and straight-forward legal advice right from the beginning of our initial meeting. In some cases, your situation might be so clear-cut, you may not need additional legal services. If your case falls into this category, we will provide you such advice in the initial consultation (saving the need for additional legal services). In other cases, your situation may be complicated and you may need to have your questions answered before moving forward with your decision-making process. In all cases, we are happy to provide you with relevant information about your legal options and to make objective recommendations about resolving your legal problems.

We are aware that some firms provide "free" initial consultations. However, you may want to consider that "free" initial consultations may not be very cost-effective in the long run because the lawyer providing the "free" consultation may not offer real legal advice until you have agreed to extensive legal services. In contrast, our initial consultation is an education process whereby we provide you with valuable legal advice so that you can make informed decisions that are right for you, your family and your company.

What to Expect when contacting our office

Upon calling our office, our friendly receptionist will direct you to an attorney who will ask you a few questions to make sure that we can help you resolve your legal problem. If you and the attorney agree that an initial consultation is appropriate, an appointment will be scheduled for you. The attorney will discuss with you the items you should bring to the initial consultation to have the most productive meeting possible.

If you are calling to set up an appointment to discuss your estate planning, it is highly likely that the attorney will suggest that you download and complete the Estate Planning Questionnaire from this website.

If you are calling to set up an appointment to discuss probate matters, it is highly likely that the attorney will suggest that you download and complete the Probate Questionnaire from this website.

If you are calling to set up an appointment to discuss business matters or to set up a new business, it is highly likely the attorney will suggest that you download and be prepared to discuss the "Six Tax Tips for New Business Owners" from this website.

To learn how we can help you, schedule a consultation by calling 913-310-WILL (9455). Our firm is open 8:30-5:00, Monday through Friday, with Saturday appointments available by request. MasterCard, Visa and Discover accepted. When you set-up your appointment with our office, we will let you know what to bring to the initial consultation to have the most productive meeting possible.

The Law Office of Ray Kowalczewski, P.A.
8826 Sante Fe Drive, Suite 218
Overland Park, KS 66215
Telephone: 913-310-WILL (9455)
Fax: 913-888-4037
Serving Johnson County area including: Leawood, Lenexa, Merriam, Mission, Olathe, Overland Park, Prairie Village, Shawnee.

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Ray Kowalczewski´s Attorney Profile

Areas of Practice

• Estate planning, Wills and Trusts
• Small Business Advising, Business Formation and Contract Review
• Probate Administration and Trust Administration
• Tax Law, Tax Audit Representation and Delinquent Tax Problem Resolution

Bar Admissions

• Kansas, 1996
• Missouri, 1997
• U.S. District Court, District of Kansas, 1996
• U.S. Tax Court, 2009

Education

• University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Kansas City, Missouri, 1998
  LL.M. in Taxation
• University of Kansas School of Law, Lawrence, Kansas, 1996
  Juris Doctor (J.D.)
  Law Journal: Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, 1994 – 1995
• Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 1993
  Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
  Honors: Cum Laude
  Major: Economics/Political Science

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Johnson County Bar Association, 1997 – Present
• Kansas Bar Association, 2002 – Present
• Missouri Bar Association, 1997 – Present
• American Bar Association, 2010 – Present

Professional Experience

• Law Office of Ray Kowalczewski, Owner, 2002 – Present
• Panus & Associates, LLC, Associate Attorney, 1999 – 2002
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP, Tax Consultant, 1998 – 1999
• Viveros & Barrera, LLC, Attorney, 1996 – 1997

Ancillary Businesses

• Tax Preparation and Tax Resolution Services