Reed S. Schmitt

Reed S. Schmitt is a Partner at Dentons, specializing in Estate Planning. He has more than 35 years of experience in estate planning and administration, corporate law, and commercial and fiduciary litigation. His estate planning practice includes drafting simple estate and lifetime planning documents to complex trust arrangements, and he has been involved in complex estate administration matters including will and trust contest litigation and contested guardianship proceedings.

Reed's corporate practice includes representing small, family‑owned businesses to larger multi‑state corporations, and he has been involved in the formation of numerous business entities, acquisitions, reorganizations, funding start‑up businesses, and the administration of a public offering. He has successfully argued two cases before the Indiana Court of Appeals, establishing Indiana law regarding the transfer of closely held stock in a decedent's estate and defining trade secrets in non‑competition agreements. Notable reported cases include Koch v. James (1993 and 1996), Hydraulic Exchange and Repair v. KM Specialty Pumps (1998), and Michael W. Peters, M.D. v. Kendall (2013).

Reed holds a J.D. from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (1984) and a B.A. in History and Political Science from Purdue University (1981). He is admitted to practice in Indiana, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Indiana, the Central District of Illinois, and the Eastern District of Michigan, and the U.S. Tax Court.

He is a past president of the Evansville Bar Association, past president of the Evansville Estate and Financial Planning Council, and a founding director and general counsel of Commerce Bank and First Light Bancorp.