Russell focuses his practice on estate planning, planned giving, and tax-exempt organizations. He represents clients in matters related to family wealth transfers for large estates, sophisticated estate and gift tax saving techniques, charitable planned giving, family private foundations, business succession planning, and complex probate and trust administrations. He also regularly represents tax-exempt organizations, both public and private, in formation, organizational, and operational issues.

As part of his estate planning practice, Russell regularly works with local, national, and international estate planning clients to help them identify their personal objectives to create a strategy for asset distribution and to minimize the tax cost of meeting their family's objectives. He then provides the technical assistance to preserve the assets and execute the plans according to the client's needs and desires. His work is generally based upon long-term, personal relationship with a client and may cross over into many areas of a client's public and private life. In addition, he places special emphasis on the "human" side of the process, paying particular attention to the importance of the family and the individual personalities involved in all aspects of each matter. In addition, a significant portion of Russell's practice involves global estate planning for U.S., foreign, and multinational families.