Trusts and Estates Litigation

Our Dispute Resolution Group has dozens of years of trust, estate and guardianship/conservatorship litigation experience and members appear pro hac vice where needed.

Lawyers in the group have successfully handled numerous appeals throughout the country. We have represented individuals, charitable organizations, educational institutions, banks and trust companies in hundreds of cases.

When necessary, our group also draws upon the technical estate planning and estate administration experience of the nearly 100 lawyers who comprise the firm’s Private Wealth practice. The firm has more Fellows in the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC) than any other law firm, several of whom are current or past members of ACTEC’s Board of Regents, the governing body of the College. In addition, members of the Dispute Resolution Group include former IRS senior lawyers with extensive experience in federal estate and gift tax disputes.

Litigation Prevention

Executors, trustees and other fiduciaries who are held to the highest and strictest standards of duty, good faith and accountability are frequently sued by disgruntled beneficiaries or co-fiduciaries. Our group advises fiduciaries, both professional and occasional, on ways and means to avoid litigation. We also regularly offer litigation prevention consulting to the estate planning lawyers in our firm and in other law firms regarding specific potential trust and estate litigation for those lawyers’ clients.

Bank and Trust Company Policy Review

Survey of Practices and Policies

To improve a fiduciary’s prospect of avoiding litigation, we conduct examinations of the policies and practices of the administrative and investment divisions of corporate trust departments.

Our assessment benchmark is the current state of the evolving and expanding trust law, including the Prudent Investor Act, the recently revised Uniform Principal and Income Act and the fiduciary exception to attorney-client communication privilege laws, as well as our sense of the direction of the continuing evolution and expansion of trust law.

We deliver a report containing our assessment and our recommendations. In addition, we conduct Litigation Consciousness Seminars, for client trust department officers and personnel, designed to plan for and avoid potential litigation.

Periodic Consulting

Proactively, we make periodic presentations to trust officers and other trust department personnel. Typically, we cover recent developments in trust law generally and specifically in the jurisdictions in which the trust department operates and we analyze recent decisions involving fiduciary liabilities. We also answer questions concerning specific problem accounts.

Litigation

Success in litigation requires extensive experience in trial preparation, strategy and trial presentation. We are frequently retained by the client’s primary lawyer to serve as litigation counsel or co-counsel. We render the following services:

• pre-litigation fact review, including accountings, advice and strategic plan design
• pleadings preparation
• pre-trial document discovery and depositions
• ongoing strategic and tactical planning
• mediation and other alternative dispute resolution methods
• motion preparation and argument
• trial or hearing
• appeal