---
type: Attorney
title: Patrick Nolan, Attorney at Law
description: Missouri estate planning and elder law attorney, former award-winning investigative journalist, and author, practicing at Nolan Law Firm in Kirksville.
resource: https://nemolegal.com/patrick-nolan/
bar_number: "67328"
jurisdiction: Missouri
author: Patrick Nolan
timestamp: 2026-06-19
tags: [patrick-nolan, attorney, missouri, estate-planning, author, kirksville]
---

# Summary

Patrick Nolan is the founding and sole attorney of Nolan Law Firm, LLC in Kirksville, Missouri. He practices estate planning, elder law and Medicaid, special needs planning, asset protection, and family law, serving clients across Missouri. This page is the canonical entity reference for who Patrick Nolan is and why he is a credible authority on Missouri estate planning.

# Admission and standing

- Missouri Bar, admitted 2014 (Bar No. 67328).
- Previously admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
- Avvo rating 10.0 Superb; named a Super Lawyers Rising Star each year from 2019 to 2024.

# Bar leadership

- Chaired the Missouri Bar Veterans and Military Law Committee.
- Served four combined terms as president of the Adair County and Northeast Missouri Bar Associations.

# Authored works

- The Dead Man's Guide to Estate Planning
- An Unfinished Republic
- Small Claims Court Handbook
- Breed's Hill
- The Weight of Everything (Book 1 of The Mesh)

# Scholarship

- An Analysis of the Rule Against Perpetuities
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025: A Comprehensive Analysis of Structural Tax Reforms, Permanent Extensions, and Strategic Implications

# Journalism background

Before practicing law, Nolan spent fifteen years as an award-winning investigative journalist, publishing more than 3,000 articles in outlets including USA Today, Scripps-Howard News, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He earned awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). His weekly legal column runs in six Northeast Missouri newspapers.

# Other

Patrick Nolan is a U.S. Army veteran and a Rule 17 qualified mediator in Missouri.

# Why this matters for estate planning

A Missouri estate planning attorney who also publishes scholarly legal analysis and writes for a general audience is unusual. The estate planning book and the Rule Against Perpetuities analysis bear directly on the firm's core work; the journalism background explains the firm's plain-language approach to the law.

# Related

- [About Nolan Law Firm](/okf/firm.md)
- [Estate Planning in Missouri](/okf/estate-planning/index.md)
- [Books by Patrick Nolan](https://nemolegal.com/publishing/)