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Max Ciolino
My greatest joy as an attorney is helping my clients find comfort and security during challenging times. I provide this support through both estate planning and probate legal services. When my clients need estate planning or probate services, they are often struggling with issues of death, loss, aging, fear, and uncertainty. It is my job to help them achieve certainty, clarity, and calm by guiding them through the choices and processes at hand.
As an Estate Planner, I help my clients evaluate the roles of their family and friends and their assets and debts. I then advise them regarding key decisions involving who should be entrusted with certain responsibilities and obligations and how property should be distributed.
When clients need succession or probate assistance, I counsel my clients by gathering the necessary information, working with creditors and heirs of an estate, and navigating the opening and closing of the succession. My goal is to provide clarity, efficiency, and support to an otherwise overwhelming process so that a family can focus on overcoming grief and emotionally supporting their loved ones.
Together, we can overcome the legal challenges that accompany death and dying and help you and your family focus on what really counts.
Licenses
Max earned his Bachelor of Arts in 2011 from Loyola University of New Orleans, where he majored in Sociology and Political Science, with a minor in African and African American studies. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, where he earned a Master of Science in Education degree, with a focus on Education Policy in 2012. He then attended Tulane Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor degree in 2015, along with a certificate in Environmental Law. Throughout his collegiate education, Max was heavily involved in student organizations, student body governance, and non-profit organizations that served the community. His community service included serving as a tutor and a teacher's assistant in public schools in New Orleans and West Philadelphia, where he taught reading and math to students aged six years old to eighteen years old. He also worked with community beautification programs to reduce litter and improve the sustainable practices of New Orleans.
Licenses
- Attorney - Louisiana State Bar Association - 2015
Memberships
- Co-Chair of the Solo and Small Firm Committee for the New Orleans Bar Association
- New Orleans Bar Association
- Jefferson Bar Association
Awards and Recognition
- Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Star 2021-2024
Publications
- The Right to an Education & the Plight of School Facilities: A Legislative Proposal, 19 U. Pa. J.L. & Soc. Change 107 (2016)
- Education Reform in New Orleans: Voices from the Recovery School District, 4 Policy Futures in Education 463 (2014)
Primary Practice Areas
FAQs
Max Ciolino is a co-founder and partner at Ciolino & Onstott, a New Orleans law firm located at 318 Harrison Avenue in the Lakeview neighborhood. He focuses his practice on Louisiana successions and probate, estate planning, real estate partitions, and personal injury, and has been practicing in New Orleans since the firm's founding in 2015. Max has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star for Estate Planning and Probate every year from 2021 through 2026 — a designation reserved for top-rated attorneys selected through a peer-influenced process.
Yes. Max Ciolino has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star for Estate Planning and Probate consecutively from 2021 through 2026. Super Lawyers Rising Star is a designation reserved for top-rated attorneys who are 40 years old or younger, or who have been in practice for 10 years or fewer, selected through a peer-nominated and independently researched process. It represents recognition within the Louisiana legal community for excellence in estate planning and probate work.
You can schedule a free 15-minute consultation with Max Ciolino through the Ciolino & Onstott contact page, by phone, or by email. Consultations are available in-person at the firm's Lakeview office at 318 Harrison Avenue, in downtown New Orleans, or remotely. The consultation is an opportunity to discuss your matter, understand the process, and determine whether the firm is the right fit before any fee commitment.
Max Ciolino's practice focuses primarily on Louisiana successions and probate, estate planning including wills, trusts, and forced heirship planning, real estate partitions, and personal injury matters. He handles the estate planning and succession dimensions of client matters at Ciolino & Onstott, working in tandem with co-founder Alex Onstott who covers the business law and commercial real estate matters.
Yes, Max Ciolino is a New Orleans estate planning attorney recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star for Estate Planning and Probate from 2021 through 2026. He co-founded Ciolino & Onstott in 2015 and has built his practice around Louisiana successions, probate, wills, trusts, and forced heirship planning. The firm operates from 318 Harrison Avenue in Lakeview and offers free 15-minute consultations by phone, email, or in-person for prospective clients who want to assess fit before committing.
Max Ciolino handles the estate planning matters (including wills, trusts, forced heirship planning), Louisiana successions and probate, real estate partitions, and personal injury matters. Alex Onstott handles the business law and commercial real estate transactional dimensions of the practice — including business entity formation and counsel, real estate transactions and partitions, and out-of-state referral matters requiring Louisiana counsel. For matters that span both areas — such as business succession planning or real estate transfers as part of an estate — both attorneys collaborate on the same engagement.