Holland & Knight’s Edward F. Koren Jr. Receives Firm’s Highest Individual Leadership Award
Tampa, Fla. - March 13, 2012 – Holland & Knight partner Edward F. Koren Jr. is the recipient of the firm’s highest individual leadership honor, the Chesterfield Smith Lawyer Award.
This award is given to Holland & Knight partners who have dedicated a substantial portion of their professional life to the establishment, management, promotion and leadership of the firm.
Koren is the head of Holland & Knight’s national Private Wealth Services Group, which focuses on wealth planning and protection for high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs and business owners. Koren’s hard work, passion for the law, and inspired leadership has transformed the group into the largest and most successful practice of its kind in an American law firm.
Koren started at Holland & Knight as a tax attorney in 1975 and gradually took over the leadership of the Private Wealth Services Group. Koren fundamentally changed this practice by taking a holistic approach to the entire estate planning process – offering clients a wide-range of personalized services that focuses on tax planning, business succession planning, and strategic transactions and wealth transfers over their lifetimes.
Today almost every Holland & Knight office includes Private Wealth Services attorneys and the group boasts more Fellows in the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC) — the pre-eminent professional association for trust and estate lawyers — and more lawyers listed in The Best Lawyers in America® guide in the area of "Trusts & Estates" than any other law firm.
But Koren’s influence goes beyond the firm. He has helped guide the development of the law in Florida and the nation – drafting important legislation, testifying as an expert before various governmental committees, and writing and filing briefs before the U.S. and Florida Supreme Courts. He has also served as chair of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association; chair of the Estate Tax and Gift Committee of ACTEC; and chair of the Tax Section and the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar.
Koren has received multiple professional honors and awards including induction into the National Association of Estate Planners and Counsels Hall of Fame in 2010 and consistent recognition in The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, Florida Trend and Worth magazine as one of the top attorneys in his field.
Koren is a native Floridian, born in Eustis and received his accounting and law degrees from the University of Florida.