BEPC Educational Seminar 

Spousal Rights and Creditors Rights in Family Trusts

Seminar Description

We will discuss the recent Jones v. Jones decision, its takeaways and its implications, from three distinct perspectives: that of a divorce attorney, that of a creditors’ rights attorney, and that of an estate-planning attorney.

Lunch will be provided. The seminar is open to members and non members. 

Presenters

Heather Harris
Day Pitney

Heather Harris advises individuals and families on all aspects of estates and tax planning, including estate, gift, generation-skipping transfers and income tax planning. She assists clients on matters of trust and estate administration, and also counsels clients on trust and estate controversies.

Tiffany Bentley
Day Pitney

Tiffany Bentley counsels high net worth individuals and families, as well as professional fiduciaries, through estate and trust disputes, probate issues, and divorce and related matters. Her practice includes all aspects of fiduciary litigation and family law.

As a probate and family court litigator, Tiffany works to identify each client's best possible outcome and then charts the necessary path through discovery, settlement negotiations, and all the way to trial where necessary. As this line of work often centers around traumatic and deeply personal life events, such as the death of a loved one or the end of a marriage, she takes great pride in guiding clients with both experience and empathy.

On the trust and estate side, Tiffany's practice includes contested probates, guardianships, and conservatorships; as well as postmortem challenges to the validity of trusts, deeds, beneficiary designations and lifetime transfers, and various challenges to the administration of estates and trusts. In the area of family law, she assists clients through divorce and custody matters; prenuptial and postnuptial planning; and post-divorce contempt and modification actions.

In addition to her regular practice, Tiffany volunteers as a conciliator in Middlesex and Worcester County to help resolve cases and unclog court dockets. She also dedicates a substantial amount of time on pro bono matters, representing children in custody disputes through the Attorneys Representing Children program.

Kathleen St. John
Holland & Knight

Kathleen St. John is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Boston office. Ms. St. John is a member of the firm's Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors' Rights Practice Group. She represents corporate debtors, financial institutions, and other secured and unsecured creditors, as well as court-appointed trustees, receivers and liquidators in complex corporate restructurings and liquidations in Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 cases. She is dedicated to helping clients achieve favorable results under federal bankruptcy law, as well as state law remedies in the event of insolvency.

Ms. St. John has an active pro bono practice primarily representing unaccompanied immigrant and refugee  juvenile clients in proceedings before the immigration court and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to obtain legal resident status in conjunction with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND).Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. St. John was selected as a University of Maryland J.D. Legal Fellow, and completed her six-month fellowship in Holland & Knight's Litigation Section. During law school, she was an associate editor of The Maryland Law Review and served on the Student Honor Board.

Schedule

11:30 am - 11:45 pm - Registration, Light Lunch, Networking
11:45 am - 12:00 pm - Opening Remarks
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - Presentation and Q&A 

Registration Fees

Members -$30
Non-Members - $50

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Approved (01/19/2024) BEPC's educational events may meet the requirements of Rule 15D under the Massachusetts Establishment and Administration of Mandatory Professional Education for the Practice of Public Accountancy.