Jillian Hirsch Selected for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s 2015 Lawyers of the Year

Jillian HirschThe following press release was submitted by Day Pitney LLP and posted by them online here.

Day Pitney is pleased to announce Jillian Hirsch, a partner in Day Pitney’s Litigation Practice, has been selected as one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s 2015 Lawyers of the Year. Honorees were nominated by their colleagues, clients and other legal professionals for their outstanding professional accomplishments.  (The ten honorees in Massachusetts are listed online here)

Jillian Hirsch was chosen for obtaining, “an Appeals Court ruling in an irrevocable spendthrift trust case that the trusts and estates bar is still discussing months later,” according to the publication.

In August of 2015, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled in favor of Hirsch’s client in Pfannenstiehl v. Pfannenstiehl. The 3-2 ruling held that Curt Pfannenstiehl’s beneficial interest in an irrevocable spendthrift trust was properly included in the marital estate upon his divorce from his wife, Diane. The Supreme Judicial Court has recently agreed to a partial review of the decision limited to issues regarding the trust.

“I expect that the decision will change the way in which trusts and estate practitioners draft their trusts,” Hirsch told Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in the feature article. “Many practitioners have drafted their articles with an ascertainable standard…which sets forth the parameters within which a trustee must make a distribution to a beneficiary. The court in this case…said an interest in a trust such as this is a present enforceable interest subject to division upon divorce.”

Jillian Hirsch helps individual and corporate trustees, beneficiaries and heirs resolve matters involving trusts, wills and other estate-related concerns. She has extensive experience handling trust and will contests, breach of fiduciary duty claims, contested accountings, actions involving reformation and termination of trusts, and guardianship and conservatorship proceedings. For more on the significance of Pfannenstiehl v. Pfannenstiehl, please see Hirsch’s analysis “Massachusetts Appeals Court Rules That Interest in Irrevocable Trust With Ascertainable Standard Is a Marital Asset Subject to Division Upon Divorce.”

About Day Pitney  

Day Pitney LLP is a full-service law firm with close to 300 attorneys in Boston, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, DC. The firm offers clients strong corporate and litigation practices, with experience on behalf of large national and international corporations as well as emerging and middle-market companies. With one of the largest and most sophisticated individual clients practices in the country, the firm also has extensive experience assisting individuals and their families, fiduciaries and tax-exempt entities plan for the future.

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