Overview

Tina’s diversity of litigation background enables her to assess a client’s legal issues from a broad perspective.

Tina Babel is a trial attorney who practices in the areas of Trusts and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, and Title IX.

Trusts and Estates Litigation
Tina represents clients in litigation and disputed administration matters involving:

  • Trusts and estates
  • Powers of attorney
  • Beneficiary designations
  • Joint account or insurance disputes
  • Forgeries
  • Breaches of fiduciary or trustee duties
  • Trust termination or modification
  • Elder abuse
  • Guardianships (adults and minors)
  • Conservatorships (adults and minors)
  • Involuntary commitment
  • No-contest disputes
  • Undue influence
  • Discovery of assets and accountings

Tina represents trustees, financial institutions, personal representatives, beneficiaries, minors, the elderly, attorneys-in-fact, children, siblings, and other family members when handling the array of fiduciary disputes that may arise when dealing with trusts or wills.

As a trusts and estates litigator, Tina has handled a wide variety of cases from pursuing missing assets from a trust account to fighting or defending a request to remove a trustee for misconduct. With the aging of baby boomers and the new issues that are arising daily in our probate courts, experienced trusts and estates litigators are necessary to adequately protect trustee’s and client’s interests when an issue arises.

Business Litigation
Tina is also experienced in business and contractual litigation, including disputes arising out of contract and tort, class actions, and professional liability defense. Tina has represented hundreds of businesses and business owners, shareholders, brokers, financial institutions, employees/employers, medical providers, individuals, trustees, and insurers and insureds. Tina also has successfully represented a number of clients in negotiations, mediations, and arbitrations.

Title IX
Tina previously served as the Title IX Coordinator for Lindenwood University. She therefore has an in-depth understanding of the changing nature and procedures of Title IX, as well as allegations relating to sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence and sexual discrimination claims in education. As the Title IX Coordinator, Tina worked with other Title IX Coordinators throughout Missouri and Illinois. She implemented and coordinated the University’s Title IX compliance efforts and oversaw numerous hearings relating to Title IX, working with students, faculty, employees, investigators, and hearing officers to ensure prompt and equitable resolution in cases relating to Title IX. Tina is therefore very familiar with the Title IX process and can help universities, the victim, or the accused parties work through the complicated Title IX landscape.

Personal
After law school, Tina worked with a top law firm in San Diego, California, practicing in the fields of business litigation and trust and estate litigation. Upon moving back to her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, she continued to hone her skills as a highly-effective advocate and trial litigator by joining the respected and well-known litigation and trial practice group at Carmody MacDonald. Today, she continues her practice zealously representing and negotiating for clients in a field which often includes emotional family disagreements and contentious business litigation.

With experience at firms in both California and Missouri, as well as a private University in Missouri, the diversity of her litigation background enables Tina to assess client’s legal issues from a broad perspective.

Tina lives in Kirkwood, Missouri with her husband, Rob (the high school band director at Fort Zumwalt North), her three children, Alex (who is currently attending Missouri State University), Kate, and Chloe, and her Bernese Mountain Dog, Tanner.

Education

University of California, Hastings College of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2004

Missouri State University, B.A., magna cum laude, 2000

Community Involvement
  • United States Department of Justice, Elder Justice Initiative
    • Member, St. Louis Elder Financial Protection Multidisciplinary Team (January 2017-present)
  • Crider Health Center Board of Directors (2013-present)
  • Lindenwood University Adjunct Professor – Public Debate (Fall 2016; Spring 2017); Health Law, Health Care Administration and Problems in Health Care Law (Fall 2016; Spring 2017); American Government (Spring 2015)
  • Adjunct Professor, Lindenwood University, American Government: The Nation (2015)
  • Washington University School of Law Negotiation Team, Coach (2013)
  • Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
Awards
  • Best Lawyers – “The Best Lawyers in America” – Commercial Litigation; Trusts and Estates Litigation (2020-present)
  • Super Lawyers
    • Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers (2018-present)
    • Top 50 Women Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers (2022, 2023)
    • Top 50 St. Louis Super Lawyers (2022, 2023)
    • Rising Stars (2013-2016)
  • Missouri Bar Association Pro Bono Award (2013)
  • Missouri Lawyers Weekly Up & Coming Lawyer (2013)
  • F. William McCalpin Pro Bono Award, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (2012)
Publications & Presentations
  • Co-Presenter, St. Louis County Bar Association Probate CLE, “Trust Modifications: A Fool-Proof Guide and Lessons to Learn” (July 13, 2023)
  • Panelist, “The Road Less Traveled: What Made the Difference?” CLE hosted by the United States Department of Justice’s Joint Commission on Women in the Profession (May 16, 2023)
  • Contributing Author, St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine magazine, “Guardianships in the Missouri Court System: A Necessary Part of Medical and Legal Practice” (August 2022)
  • Presenter, Missouri Baptist University Symposium, “Updates and Problems with Title IX” (October 2019)
  • Presenter, Midwest Trust Company, “Practical Problems and Coordination Issues – The Durable Power of Attorney” (September 2019)
  • Presenter, Aul Financial, “The Importance of Estate Planning in Today’s Litigious World” (April 2019)
  • Presenter, Missouri Baptist University, “Sexual Harassment in Higher Education” (October 2018)
  • Featured Speaker, Strafford National Webinars, Fiduciary Duty Claims: Trustees of Closely Held Businesses (June 2017)
  • Radio Guest, St. Louis NPR, Interview w/ Don Marsh on protecting families from estate and trust litigation (May 2016)
  • Featured Speaker, St. Louis County Bar Association Seminar, Trust Litigation Seminar (May 2016)
  • Featured Speaker, Wells Fargo, Recent Trends and Cases (January 2016)
  • Featured Speaker, Moneta Trust, Protecting Yourself from Litigation (January 2016)
  • Featured Speaker in National Webinar, Estate Planning and the Fiduciary Exception to the Attorney-Client Privilege (May 2015)
  • Program Moderator, The Missouri Bar Association Annual Estate & Trust Institute (October 2014)
  • Featured Speaker, 9th Annual Fiduciary Litigation Seminar, “The Lawyer’s Estate Plan File in Litigation: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (February 2014)
  • Featured Speaker, 9th Annual Fiduciary Litigation Seminar, “Mediation in Fiduciary Litigation” (February 2014)
  • “Justice Served,” Precedent, Missouri Bar Association, Summer 2012, p. 25-26.
  • “Vexatious Refusal to Pay Insurance Claims,” Missouri Damages, Third Edition, Chapter 17, August 2011.
  • “Attorney For The Trust: Does Attorney-Client Privilege Belong to the Trustee or the Beneficiary?” Illinois Bar Journal, Volume 98, October 2010.
  • Featured Speaker, Hannibal Regional Hospital “Protecting the Rights of Children” (2009)