About North Star Law Firm ✦ California
A Law Firm That Reads the Numbers. An Accounting Mind That Practices Law.
North Star Law Firm represents individuals, families, and business owners throughout California in tax, trust and estate, business, and bankruptcy matters. The firm is built around a single idea: most legal problems involving money are also accounting problems, and the client is better served when one professional handles both. In California, that professional is a State Bar of California attorney who is also a CPA.
Why We Exist
The gap between the lawyer and the accountant is where clients get hurt.
A tax audit is a legal proceeding decided by records. A trust is a legal document whose value depends on the tax planning inside it and the accounting that follows it. A business sale is a contract negotiated over an allocation schedule. A bankruptcy petition is a financial statement signed under oath. In each case the client traditionally hires a lawyer for the law and an accountant for the numbers, explains the situation twice, and hopes the two professionals talk to each other. Often they do not, and the gap between them is where deadlines get missed, elections get skipped, and money gets left on the table.
North Star Law Firm closes that gap. Phillip Zagotti holds both licenses and has spent his career on both sides of the table: as a controller, as a CPA advising business owners and trustees, as a forensic accountant in litigation, and as an attorney in tax controversy, bankruptcy, and transactional work. The firm pairs him with Ashley Burdette, a CPA whose career runs through national accounting firms and a decade of boutique partnership, so the legal strategy and the compliance work happen in one office, on one set of facts, told once.
Why California
A California-licensed practice, delivered anywhere in the state.
Unlike the firm’s Texas and New Mexico practices, which are federal, the California practice is a full state-law practice. Phillip Zagotti is licensed by the State Bar of California and admitted to the United States District Court and Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, which means the firm handles the Franchise Tax Board, the CDTFA, the EDD, and the Office of Tax Appeals alongside the IRS; drafts California living trusts, wills, and business entities; negotiates California contracts and business sales; and files bankruptcy cases in the Riverside Division and the other divisions of the Central District.
The firm’s California focus begins in the Inland Empire, where the economy runs on logistics, construction, trades, restaurants, medical practices, and the families who own them, and extends to every county in the state. Every service is delivered by phone, video conference, and a secure client portal; nothing on this site requires a trip to an office, and most clients never make one.
- Tax law: IRS and FTB defense, CDTFA and EDD audits, offers, Tax Court and OTA
- Business and contract law: entity formation, agreements, business purchases and sales, franchise counsel
- Trusts and estates: living trusts, wills, trust administration, fiduciary tax returns
- Bankruptcy: Chapter 7, Chapter 13, Subchapter V, tax debt discharge, SBA guaranties, creditor-side clawback defense
- Forensic accounting and expert witness work where a dispute turns on the numbers
- Flat fees quoted in writing, payment plans, and a free initial consultation
Meet the Team
Two professionals. One set of facts.
Phillip Zagotti
Attorney and CPA · JD, CPA
Tax controversy, trusts and estates, business transactions, and bankruptcy. Licensed by the State Bar of California; admitted to the U.S. Tax Court and the federal courts for the Central District of California. Co-author of Taxed and Trusted; national CLE faculty on trust law.
Ashley Burdette
Certified Public Accountant
Tax return preparation and compliance, delinquent filings, trust and estate returns, and international tax reporting. National firm international tax experience and a Georgetown Law MSL in Taxation. Co-author of Taxed and Trusted.
How We Work
What to expect from the first call to the last invoice.
The consultation is free and it is a real conversation, not a sales call. You describe the problem; we tell you what the law and the numbers say about it, what the realistic options are, and what each would cost. If we are not the right fit, we say so and point you somewhere better. If we are, you get a written engagement with a flat fee for everything that can be scoped, and a written estimate for the rest. There is no hourly meter, no retainer that quietly evaporates, and no surprise on the last invoice.
Work is done by the people whose names are on this page. Phillip handles the legal strategy, the agency and court work, and the drafting; Ashley handles the returns and the compliance; both read the same file. Communication is by whatever channel you prefer, and every document lives in a secure portal you can reach from anywhere.
Explain it once. Get both answers.
A free consultation with an attorney-CPA about your tax, trust, business, or bankruptcy question, anywhere in California.