No, a deceased person may not be an executor.If the attorney knew that the person was deceased, then it would be malpractice to draft a will naming them executor, since then the lawyer would be knowingly creating a legally flawed document. However, the laywer has no duty to investigate the situation, or determine that the named executor is real, alive, mentally compentent, etc. The lawyer may rely on what the testator tells him or her...so only if the attorney happened to know that the executor was deceased would there be a potential malpractice claim.