McFadden Bushnell - Attorneys at Law

McFadden Bushnell LLC is a woman-owned estate planning law firm. Dawn McFadden and Christina Bushnell are also sisters, operating out of the Ohio Savings Bank office space at 20133 Farnsleigh Road. Estate planning includes elder law planning, special needs planning, general estate planning, and probate matters.

Dawn and Christina created McFadden Bushnell LLC in 2016. Both were employed at different law firms, and they weren’t sure they wanted to continue that work for the long-run. They wanted to find an area of need, and they found it in estate planning. “We spent a year and a half learning everything we could involving continuing education, different organizations related to estate planning, etc., and then we created the firm,” Dawn says.

The women offer the following advice for anyone wanting to start their own business – or even their own law firm.

“Do it, but do it carefully.” Dawn says. “We didn’t do it immediately. We spent a year and half learning how to open a small business and learning about this area of law. This led to our success, including being as forward-thinking as you can be.”

Christina stresses the importance of finding support with others in similar fields. “There is such a great need for what we do in regard to estate planning,” she says. “So, if we can learn or talk to someone else in our same field, it’s not seen as competition, if we’re all doing better, it’s better for the field.”

The advice Dawn and Christina gave was reassuring. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs and small business owners feel overwhelmed because of a “to-do list” of things to know and understand before opening a business.

The women agree on finding a happy medium by not becoming paralyzed with the need to plan things out, but also, not just running with an idea. “It might take a while but know that down the road it’ll pay off. By being patient, you’ll make mistakes, but also learn and persevere,” says Christina. 

Part of their reasoning for opening a business in the City of Shaker Heights is because they are both Shaker residents: “We like being in the community we’re serving and we like being here with our neighbors. It’s also rewarding to support the nearby school district” expresses Christina. Certainly, living and working in the same place has its perks. The commute, and, of course, the community.

Estate planning involves advance planning of one’s estate, and covers matters like the transfer of property as well as other personal matters. As one might imagine, this can involve a great amount of work. For Dawn and Christina, the rewards are twofold: first and foremost, they are able to help families, and second, they have an opportunity to work – and make decisions - together.

On the other hand, there are challenges to this area of practice. As Dawn mentions, “there’s a lot of need. We’re small; we have three key support staff and we’re busy. We try to support folks as best as we can but we do have to schedule a few weeks out. This can be a good problem to have.”

We’re glad Dawn and Christina are so busy and we’re certainly glad to have them here in Shaker! They can help to make a big difference in families’ lives. Although we might think of estate planning as something we don’t need to focus on until later in life, this isn’t always the case. If you’re interested in estate planning with McFadden Bushnell LLC, visit their website: https://www.mcfaddenbushnell.com/. For clients with children ages 18-25, they even provide financial planning documents.

We’re so grateful to have these types of businesses here in Shaker and are proud of the work that sisters Dawn McFadden and Christina Bushnell continue to serve the community with!