Our Practice
Four connected practices. One lawyer through all of them.
Not random offerings — connected by a single attorney’s career.
Haake Law Group serves Missouri clients across estate planning, business law, civil litigation, civil rights, and technology law. These are not random offerings — they are connected by a single attorney’s career across technology, banking, and law. Each practice area draws on real underlying experience.
Why multiple areas
Connected practice areas, not random offerings.
Most multi-practice firms are collections of unrelated specialists. Haake Law Group is built differently — every practice area connects through the founder’s background in technology, banking, and law. The substance reinforces itself.
Estate & business connect
Business succession planning is estate planning. Closely-held business interests are estate assets. Buy-sell agreements are estate documents. Having both practice areas under one roof prevents the typical handoff failures.
Technology touches everything
Modern business law, civil rights, and even estate planning increasingly involve technology questions. The technology law expertise informs the rest — not just as a separate practice but as substantive depth across areas.
Civil rights uses tech fluency
Modern §1983 claims involve digital evidence, body cameras, facial recognition, automated systems. Technology fluency is not optional — it is foundational. We bring it where most firms cannot.
Litigation informs planning
Seeing what fails in litigation teaches you what to draft. Years administering estates teaches you how to plan them. The practice areas reinforce each other — better outcomes come from connected substance.
Practice areas
Choose the area that fits your matter.
Each page below covers what the work involves, how it is handled, the deadlines that bind, fees, and a long set of common questions answered with the actual authority. Not sure which fits your situation? Schedule a free consultation and you will be told honestly — including when the answer is that you do not need a lawyer.
Estate planning
Estate Planning
The hub. Which layer of planning you actually need, and where the line is between a document you need and one somebody wants to sell you.
The Basic Estate Plan
Will, durable power of attorney, health care documents, guardian nomination, and the beneficiary deeds and TOD forms that move assets without a court.
Revocable Living Trusts
Avoids probate, covers incapacity, stays private, controls timing. A trust only governs what it owns — which is why funding is the half that fails.
Taxable Estate Planning
For estates at or heading past the $15 million exclusion, now permanent. Portability, basis, gifting, and the freeze techniques — plus an honest read on whether any of it applies.
Irrevocable Trusts
Every type available in Missouri, grouped by what it does. You give up control; you should get something specific back.
Tax-Reduction Trusts
ILITs, GRATs, IDGT sales, QPRTs, SLATs, dynasty trusts, QTIPs and QDOTs. Move the growth, not the asset.
Charitable Trusts
Remainder and lead trusts, pooled income funds, and the donor advised fund that frequently does the same job for a tenth of the cost.
Asset Protection Trusts
Missouri has permitted self-settled spendthrift trusts since the 1980s, and the qualified spousal trust is nearly free. Timing is everything.
Special Needs Trusts
An inheritance left outright can end SSI and Medicaid the month it arrives. Third-party, first-party and pooled trusts, plus the 2026 ABLE expansion.
Medicaid & Long-Term Care
The sixty-month look-back is the whole problem. What works five years out, what still works in a crisis, and what to stop doing immediately.
Specialty Trusts
NFA gun trusts, retirement plan see-through trusts after the SECURE Act, QSSTs and ESBTs for S corporation stock, and pet trusts.
Estate settlement
Estate Settlement
The hub for what happens after a death: probate, trust administration, disputes, and taxable estates. Start here if you are not sure which applies.
Probate
Court administration of assets held in the decedent’s sole name — what is probated versus what passes outside it, fiduciary duties, and the deadlines that bar claims forever.
Trust Administration
No court, the same fiduciary duties, and far less supervision to catch a mistake. The successor trustee’s job, including the notices due within 120 days.
Contested Estates & Will Contests
Undue influence, capacity, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. Six months to contest a will in Missouri, and the clock does not care whether you knew.
Beneficiary Representation
For the person on the receiving end: what you are entitled to see, what the fiduciary owes you, and what to do about silence.
Estate Tax & Complex Administrations
Federal estate tax returns, portability, valuation, and multi-jurisdictional estates. The exclusion is $15 million per person and permanent — portability is not automatic.
Guardianship & conservatorship
Guardianship & Conservatorship
The hub. Guardian of the person, conservator of the estate, and the 2018 reform that made the absence of a less restrictive alternative an element of the case rather than a factor.
Adult Guardianship
Clear and convincing evidence, a court-appointed attorney who must visit twenty-four hours before the hearing, and a right to a jury trial most states do not give.
Conservatorship
Bond, annual settlements within sixty days of the appointment anniversary, court approval for real estate, and surcharge when a conservator gets it wrong.
Guardianship of Minors
A different burden of proof, parents who keep their rights, and the $10,000 and $35,000 lines that decide whether a child’s money needs a conservator at all.
Contested & Removal
Objecting to a petition, removing a fiduciary, challenging an accounting, surcharge for breach — and restoration, which carries a lower burden than the guardianship did.
Business law
Business Law
Formation through exit, handled by one lawyer who drafts the documents, litigates them, and has run the company. Start here if the question spans more than one stage.
Business Formation
Entity selection, articles, and the operating agreement Missouri law requires — the document the state never sees and every partnership dispute turns on.
Startups & Founders
Founder equity and vesting, the 83(b) election and its unforgiving thirty days, IP assignment, cap tables, and raising money without breaking securities law.
Business Litigation
Contract disputes, partnership conflicts, vendor and customer claims. Strategic litigation that asks what each filing actually buys the client — not theater.
Business Continuity Planning
Buy-sell agreements, funding, incapacity authority, and family succession. If you were gone Monday, a document answers what happens — or your family and your partner argue about it.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Asset versus equity, letters of intent, diligence, representations and indemnity, escrow, and the successor liability that follows a buyer regardless of the contract.
Criminal law
Criminal Law
The hub. What Missouri’s three tiers actually mean, how a case moves, and the difference between an SIS and an SES — which decides whether you carry a conviction at all.
Traffic Offenses
Paying the ticket is pleading guilty. Points, suspensions, driving while revoked, and the ten-day trial de novo deadline most people miss.
Misdemeanors
Up to a year in jail and a permanent public record. Four classes — one of which carries no jail at all — and the collateral consequences that outlast the sentence.
Felonies
Five classes, and only A, B and C carry a statutory minimum. Preliminary hearings, prior and persistent offender enhancements, and what a conviction costs permanently.
DWI & DUI
Two cases at once. The administrative one has a fifteen-day deadline from the moment you were handed the paperwork, and it does not wait for the criminal case.
Expungements
Three years for a felony, one for a misdemeanor, eighteen months for an arrest that never became a charge — capped at two felonies in a lifetime, with a hard list that never clears.
Drug Offenses
What Missouri’s marijuana amendment actually legalized, the fentanyl thresholds measured in milligrams, and why most drug cases are really search cases.
Domestic Violence & Orders of Protection
Two proceedings on separate tracks. Missouri never expunges a domestic assault, and a full order costs you your firearms under federal law.
Firearms Offenses
Unlawful use of a weapon, felon in possession, and armed criminal action — which runs consecutive to the underlying felony with years no parole board can touch.
Real estate law
Real Estate Law
The hub. Why Missouri cannot tax your sale, why “grant, bargain and sell” is not a general warranty, and why an unrecorded deed binds almost nobody.
Buying & Selling Property
No Missouri disclosure statute — and a duty to speak that survives an “as-is” clause. Deeds, title commitments, how to take title, and who your agent actually represents.
Landlord & Tenant
Two months, thirty days, double damages. Deposits, notice periods, the two eviction actions, and why self-help lockouts are unlawful in commercial leases too.
Property Disputes
Boundaries, easements, quiet title and partition. Ten years of the right kind of use takes land the deed says is yours — and inherited property can be sold out from under you.
Foreclosure Defense
Twenty days’ notice, no judge, and a redemption right that applies only when the lender buys at the sale. What can still be done, and how little time there is to do it.
Construction & Mechanic’s Liens
Two separate six-month deadlines and two notices that are conditions precedent. For contractors trying to get paid and owners trying to clear title.
Commercial Real Estate
Purchase, sale, due diligence, development. A 32% assessment ratio, Phase I standards that expire, 1031 deadlines, and nonconforming uses Missouri will not let a city amortize away.
Real Estate Litigation
Partition, quiet title, ejectment, boundary and fraud claims — and the Save the Family Farm Act buyout that can stop a forced sale of inherited land.
Easements, Access & Well Agreements
Prescriptive and implied easements, the private road statute for a landlocked parcel, court-ordered road maintenance, and shared wells — which no Missouri statute governs.
Litigation
General Litigation
Civil disputes for individuals and small businesses. Consumer claims, real estate and neighbor disputes, insurance bad faith, timeshare matters, privacy claims.
Civil Rights & §1983
Constitutional violations by police and government actors. Fourth and First Amendment claims and due process, built on years of scholarship in this area.
Personal Injury
Motor vehicle collisions, premises liability, wrongful death, and insurance bad faith. An honest valuation of what a claim is realistically worth.
Car Accidents
Rear-end and intersection crashes, contested fault, hit-and-run, and uninsured and underinsured claims. Evidence preserved before it is overwritten.
Tractor Trailer Accidents
Commercial truck collisions worked against the carrier’s federal safety record — hours of service, maintenance files, and coverage that starts at $750,000.
Products Liability
Injuries from defective and unreasonably dangerous products. Strict liability — you prove the product, not the manufacturer’s carelessness.
Family law & technology
Family Law, Custody & Divorce
Custody and parenting plans, divorce, support, modifications, and paternity — worked toward settlement, and tried when the other side will not deal.
Technology & AI Law
HIPAA compliance, data privacy, AI governance, SaaS and technology contracts — from a lawyer who built and ran technology businesses before law school.
Not sure which area applies?
Many matters span more than one, and you do not need to work out the category yourself.
Tell us what happened. We will tell you which area applies, whether the matter is worth pursuing, and whether it is something we can help with at all. Schedule a free initial consultation.
Meet Derek Haake
One lawyer drafts it. The same lawyer litigates it.
Most lawyers pick a side of the document. They draft it, or they fight about what someone else drafted. Derek does both — wills and contested estates, operating agreements and partnership disputes, technology contracts and the disputes underneath them, marital agreements and contested custody. Seeing what fails in litigation is what teaches you how to draft, and doing only one half of that leaves a gap the client pays for.
Derek Haake holds a JD from the University of Akron School of Law and an MBA from Akron’s College of Business Administration, and has been licensed in Missouri since 27 September 2011.
Before law: business analyst at ALLTEL Communications, on the account team behind a start-up carrier’s acquisition of 750,000 telephone lines from GTE. He developed and taught training on DB2, Cobol, Fortran and Oracle, and worked with four states’ public utility commissions on publicly filed tariffs. Then VP of Development at OptiCon Systems in Dallas, where he assisted in the due diligence and negotiations for the acquisition of intellectual property from a business unit of Corning Cable Systems — and afterwards Campus Shift, where as Vice President of Development he built the product and helped secure the company’s place in the Youngstown Business Incubator.
In law: partner at Howard Haake in Wentzville from 2014 to 2022, running a firm with associates and staff while handling probate, contested wills and trusts, and civil litigation. Then three years as Vice President and Estate Settlement Officer at Bank of America Private Bank in Clayton.
That career is the connective tissue. The estate work, the business work, the litigation and the technology practice are not separate specialties bolted together for a website — they are one career seen from different angles.
How we work
Modern delivery. Honest scoping. Real counsel.
Virtual-first practice
Most legal matters get handled faster and cheaper by phone, video, and secure document exchange than by demanding office visits. We use modern tools throughout.
Transparent fees
Flat fees for most estate and transactional work. Hourly with written estimates for litigation. Monthly retainers for ongoing business counsel. All disclosed before substantive work begins.
Direct attorney contact
You work with Derek directly. Not a paralegal pretending to be an attorney. Not an associate three years out of law school. The lawyer you hire is the lawyer doing your work.
We will tell you no
Some matters genuinely should not be pursued. Some matters need a specialist we do not have. We tell you that at the consultation. Saving you a year of bills is worth more than the engagement fee.
Common questions
What clients ask before choosing a practice area.
How do I know which practice area applies to my matter?
Many matters span multiple areas. An estate dispute involves estate settlement AND litigation. A breach of contract by a vendor involves business law AND civil litigation. We sort that out in the initial consultation — you do not need to figure out the category yourself.
Some combinations come up constantly. A family business owner needs business planning and estate planning together, because the operating agreement and the estate plan have to agree about what happens to the company. A person injured by a defective product has a personal injury claim that turns on product liability principles. A dispute with a contractor may be a contract claim, a consumer protection claim, or both.
The practical point is that categorising the matter correctly at the start affects which deadline applies and which remedies are available — which is exactly why it is our job rather than yours.
Can I use legal insurance?
Often, yes. We work with ARAG, LegalShield, MetLife Legal and other legal insurance carriers, and we coordinate with your plan directly rather than leaving you to translate between us.
Coverage varies considerably by carrier and by matter type. Estate planning and document review are covered by most plans; litigation is covered by fewer, and usually with limits. Many plans also treat a matter as covered only if it arose after enrolment, so timing can decide the question.
Bring your plan documents, member number or CaseAssist reference to the consultation and we will confirm what applies before you commit to anything.
Do you handle criminal cases?
No. Haake Law Group does not handle criminal defense. If you are facing criminal charges, we can refer you to attorneys who do this work well.
One distinction worth drawing: a civil rights claim against police or a government actor is a different matter from a criminal defence, and that is work we do handle. If both are in play, the criminal case usually has to be addressed first, and the sequencing matters.
What if my matter is genuinely outside your expertise?
We tell you honestly. Some matters need true specialists (complex tax planning, securities work, large M&A, criminal defense). We refer to attorneys we trust when that is the right answer.
Others we refer routinely: workers’ compensation, bankruptcy, immigration, and patent prosecution. Where a matter has a component we handle alongside one we do not — a third-party injury claim beside a workers’ compensation case, for instance — we will say which part is ours.
How much will my matter cost?
It depends on the type of work, and we tell you the structure before anything begins rather than after.
Flat fees for most estate planning and transactional work, where the scope is knowable in advance. You know the number before we start.
Hourly with written estimates for litigation, where cost depends heavily on how the other side behaves. We give a range with the assumptions stated and update it when circumstances change.
Monthly retainers for ongoing business counsel, which removes the meter from routine questions — the ones people otherwise avoid asking until they become expensive.
Personal injury matters are typically handled on a contingency basis. Whatever the structure, it is confirmed in a written engagement agreement before substantive work begins.
Where are you located?
Principal office: 401 Pine Street, Suite 950, St. Louis, MO 63102. By appointment only. We serve clients throughout Missouri — most matters are handled virtually.
The by-appointment arrangement is deliberate rather than a limitation. Overheads that do not improve outcomes end up in someone’s fee, and most matters genuinely move faster by video and secure document exchange than by scheduling everyone into a room.
Where a matter needs an in-person meeting — signing ceremonies, certain contested proceedings — we arrange one.
How quickly can we start?
Initial consultations are typically scheduled within a few business days. Engagement letters issue within 24-48 hours of agreeing to proceed. For genuinely urgent matters, faster is possible — contact us directly.
Some things genuinely are urgent, and it is worth knowing which. A summons or petition you have been served with starts a short response clock. A limitation period about to expire cannot be extended. An injunction or a freezing of assets moves on court time, not yours. If any of those apply, say so when you call rather than waiting for the next available slot.
What happens in the free consultation?
Twenty minutes. No commitment. We will tell you which area fits your matter — or whether the matter is something we cannot help with and you should look elsewhere.
It helps to bring a short written timeline of what happened, any contract or document at the centre of it, correspondence with the other side, and anything you have received from a court or an attorney. Incomplete is fine; the gaps are often as informative as the documents.
You will leave knowing which practice area applies, roughly what the matter would cost, what the realistic outcome looks like, and whether it is worth pursuing at all.
Ready to start?
Not sure where your matter fits?
Twenty minutes, no commitment. We will tell you which area applies, whether the matter is worth pursuing, and whether it is something we can help with at all — or whether you would be better served elsewhere.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The scope of any engagement is set out in a written agreement. Consult a licensed attorney about your situation.