FOUR GENERATIONS. ONE COMMUNITY.
Kelly Balamuth.
Founder & Principal, California Trust & Legacy.
A name in the science books
This is a family with its name in the biology textbooks.
Strange thing to mention first, maybe. But once you know that the genus Balamuthia — a rare freshwater amoeba first described in the scientific literature in 1993 — was named for Kelly’s paternal grandfather William Balamuth (1914–1981), an eminent protozoologist and Professor of Zoology at UC Berkeley, by his former graduate student Govinda Visvesvara, the rest of her bio starts to make more sense. (William Balamuth’s 114 hand-drawn illustrations of ciliates from the 1930s through the 1960s are preserved today in the Balamuth Collection at the University of Massachusetts.)
Kelly’s grandmother Mollie Balamuth held court at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club, where she was a fixture of the Berkeley faculty community for decades. She also kept the lights on in William’s Biology lab — keeping the family’s Berkeley footprint anchored well beyond the lecture hall.
Kelly comes from a family that has put down deep, public-record roots in the Bay Area for four generations — across courthouses, university campuses, and yes, a Wikipedia entry about an amoeba. The continuity in her work is the continuity in her family.
Some attorneys choose this work. Kelly Balamuth was born into it.
Her family has provided legal counsel to the Bay Area community for more than fifty years — since her father, Barry Balamuth, graduated from UC Hastings College of the Law and was admitted to the California State Bar in 1972. Barry built his practice in Alameda County for two decades before opening the Contra Costa County firm Kelly now leads in 1993. Kelly’s great-grandfather, Judge Anderton, served on the bench in Alabama before the family came west. Kelly joined her father after her own graduation from King Hall, UC Davis School of Law, where she served as Research Editor on the Law Review. That was 1994. She has practiced continuously in Contra Costa County ever since — thirty-two years in the same community her family has served for more than five decades. Since 2020, her work has been devoted entirely to trust and estate planning.
But the roots go deeper still.
Her maternal great-grandmother was six years old when the 1906 earthquake struck San Francisco — newly arrived in California, watching the dishes shake off the shelves. The family never left. Apparently they liked it here enough that an earthquake wasn’t going to change their minds. Her maternal grandfather, Raymond Siefert, grew up on a chicken farm in the Santa Cruz mountains and became a mechanical engineer who ran Bay Area plants for Joseph Rosefield’s company in Alameda — the family business that turned Skippy peanut butter into a postwar pantry staple.
Kelly’s parents, Barry and Katherine Balamuth, met as students at Berkeley High School. Both went on to the University of California, then settled in Orinda — where Kelly grew up and graduated from Miramonte High School, Class of 1986.
Four generations. One community.
Kelly leads California Trust & Legacy with the quiet confidence of someone who has never needed to introduce herself to this place. She knows its families. She knows its history. And she understands, with the clarity that only comes from deep roots, what it means to protect what a family has built — and to ensure it passes, with intention and care, to the people they love.
32
Years of civil law practice in Contra Costa County
4
Generations in the Bay Area
Law Review
Research Editor, UC Davis King Hall
1994
Joined her father’s firm, founded 1993
“The families I work with don’t hire me because of a credential. They hire me because we’ve been here a long time, and they know we’ll still be here when it matters.”
— Kelly Balamuth
How Kelly works.
Every client works with Kelly directly — from first consultation through signed plan and beyond. Our team supports the administrative side of the practice; Kelly handles the design conversations, the drafting, and the signing session. It’s how her father practiced. It’s how she practices. It’s how we intend to keep it.
The Legal Eagles
Working alongside Kelly.
Kelly’s husband, Bryan Kemler, is a retired federal trial lawyer and serves as the firm’s security and technology consultant. He and Kelly are entering their third decade of marriage. Inside the home they are parents and grandparents; outside it, they’re known as The Legal Eagles — a nickname bestowed by a nonprofit that needed their help and got it. They continue to donate time to local nonprofits, and Bryan serves as CEO of Watercourse Way, a California 501(c)(3) charity.
Ready to protect what matters most?
Schedule a consultation with Kelly. Fifteen minutes, no obligation.