Overview
Leigh-Alexandra Basha focuses her practice on domestic and international tax and estate planning. She counsels an affluent international client base on a wide range of sophisticated matters, including estate and trust administration, family wealth preservation, foreign trust planning, tax compliance, as well as business succession, expatriation, and pre-immigration planning. Leigh is head of the firm’s Washington, DC, Private Client Practice Group.
Leigh was an adjunct professor of wills, trusts and estates at American University Washington College of Law. She lectures and has written extensively about international tax and estate planning issues, and is editor of A Guide to International Estate Planning: Drafting, Compliance, and Administration Strategies, Second Edition.
Recognitions
- Best Lawyers in America, Tax Law, Trusts and Estates, 2012-2026
- Chambers High Net Worth, Band 1 in District of Columbia: Private Wealth Law and USA Nationwide: Private Wealth Law, Eastern Region, 2015-2025
- Who’s Who Legal 100, Private Client, 2014-2025
- Washington DC Super Lawyers Magazine, Top Rated Attorney, 2006-2025
- Citywealth, Woman of the Year – North America, 2019 and 2025
- Washingtonian Magazine, Top Wealth Advisers Hall of Fame, 2023
- Citywealth Magazine, Leaders List, 2009-2025
- Expert Guides, Trusts and Estates, 2011-2025
- Legal Week Private Client Global Elite, 2018-2025
- Expert Guides, Women in Business Law, 2013, 2020, 2022, and 2025
- Chambers Global, International Private Client, 2014-2020
- Chambers, Shortlisted for Estate Planner of the Year, 2019
- Chambers USA East Region, Wealth Management, 2014-2018
- Virginia Super Lawyers Magazine, Top Rated Estate Planning and Probate Attorney in Washington, DC, 2006-2019
- The International Who’s Who of Private Client Lawyers, 2016-2017
- International Bar Association London, Outstanding Performance by a Speaker Award
- Martindale-Hubbell AV, Preeminent Peer Review Rated
Community
- American Bar Association Section of Real Property, Trust & Estate – working group on Anti-Laundering/Counter-Terrorist Financing, member (2020-present)
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Board of Regents Financial Action Task Force (FATF), delegate
- ACTEC International Estate Planning Committee, past chair; current member
- ACTEC, Program Committee, past member
- ACTEC International Membership Committee, past chair; current member
- International Bar Association (IBA), past council member of the Legal Practice Division; past chair of the Individual Tax and Private Client Committee
- Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), past program chair of the USA branch; past chair of the Mid-Atlantic branch
- ABA Task Force on Gatekeeper Regulations and the Profession, member
- The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, Vice President; past chair of Global Membership Committee
