Private Client Services

Our Private Client professionals provide a broad array of services to individuals, families and closely held businesses. Our firm has a long-standing reputation for our superior service and our sensitivity in managing issues of personal legal interests with discretion and clear communication. Whether we are protecting the interests of individuals in the area of trusts and estates or family dissolutions, providing advice on tax and financial planning, or handling real estate transactions, all of our clients are treated with respect and their matters are handled with careful diligence.

The size and the diversity of our practice allows us to develop close working relationships with our clients while counseling them in virtually all areas of the law.  Our clients benefit from our coordination of inter-departmental legal services in areas such as executive compensation, tax, real estate, estate planning, pension benefits, creditors rights and family matters.

Trusts & Estates

Our Trusts and Estates professionals bring deep experience and close "hands on" attention to planning and administering our clients’ estates and trusts. We reduce the impact of taxation on the transfer of wealth from generation to generation and the preservation of family owned businesses, and provide family, estate and succession planning for U.S. citizens and non-citizens. Recognizing that tax reduction is often just one concern of many, our attorneys are sensitive to the needs of clients dealing with challenges arising from remarriages, the conflicting or diverging interests of beneficiaries, and the need to provide for the young, elderly and disabled.

We also represent individual and corporate executors and trustees in connection with the administration of trusts and estates, assisting fiduciaries in the performance of their duties. Those services include post-mortem income tax planning, representation in state and federal estate tax proceedings, and matters involving the disposition of assets in both in the U.S. and abroad. 

Matrimonial & Family Law

Our Matrimonial & Family Law attorneys guide clients through the difficult and often emotional realm of family and matrimonial issues. We counsel clients in matters involving equitable distribution, child and spousal support, child custody and visitation and relocation, paternity, adoption, cohabitation. We also prepare prenuptial and separation agreements on behalf of our clients. 

We represent individuals in all settlement, litigation and appellate aspects of family law, and provide the cost-effective experience, sensitivity and tenacity that is required in these difficult matters. We can also provide mediation and arbitration services for parties interested in alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.

Family Held Corporations

Our attorneys are sensitive to the importance of family and closely held corporations, which frequently represent a significant percentage of an individual's or family's net worth. These entities are often integral to effective financial and estate planning. We have deep experience in organizing private companies and partnerships, drafting and negotiating shareholders' agreements, implementing intelligent succession planning, and providing mediation and related legal services when problems arise among stakeholders.

Tax

Our Tax professionals represent clients in all areas of federal and state taxation, including individual, partnership, and corporate income taxes, estate, gift and generation skipping taxes and real estate taxes. We use all available tax planning tools, including family limited partnership formation, life insurance trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts and unitrusts, qualified personal residence trusts, private annuities, intentionally "defective" grantor trusts, self-canceling installment obligations, private foundations, and charitable lead and remainder trusts.

Executive Compensation & Benefits

Our attorneys provide counseling in all aspects of compensation planning. We help clients design and implement qualified and non-qualified pension, profit sharing, deferred compensation, stock bonuses and other retirement benefit plans. We also negotiate employment contracts and structure compensation packages. 

Residential Real Estate

Acquiring or selling a home is an important yet sometimes stressful process, particularly in New York City and its suburbs. We have extensive experience in representing buyers and sellers of real property, and we offer special expertise in condominium, cooperative and homeowner association matters.

FIRM CONTACTS

For assistance or questions in any of the following areas, please contact:

Matrimonial & Family Law, Chair New York
Elliot J. Wiener

Matrimonial & Family Law, Chair New Jersey
Jan L. Bernstein 

Trusts & Estates
Michael W. Galligan
Maura Murphy

Family Held Corporations
Marc A. Landis 
Brian Brodrick

Tax
Neil C. Kleinhandler

Real Estate
Marc A. Landis
Lisa R. Radetsky
Jay H. Kim

Executive Compensation
Regina E. Faul

Benefits
Neil C. Kleinhandler