Whitman Breed Partners and Associates have been named “Connecticut Super Lawyers®” for 2017. Connecticut selection information at http://www.superlawyers.com/connecticut/selection_details.html
Charles Pieterse (Trusts & Estates Litigation), Jim Riley (Business Litigation), Terry Coates (Estate Planning & Probate), Thomas O’Connor (Rising Star – Civil Litigation/Defense), Luke Tashjian (Rising Star – Estate Planning & Administration) and Kathryn O’Neill (Rising Star – Business/Corporate) were named Connecticut Super Lawyers.
The Firm successfully opposed a motion to dismiss a petition seeking an accounting of a trust and ancillary relief, the second such motion filed in the matter by the trust’s Swiss trustee. The motion argued that the trust’s protector and trustee had executed documents requiring that the petition be brought in the Cayman Islands. For a second time, we prevailed in arguing that the appropriate forum was Connecticut, where the trust’s property and beneficiaries are located. Charlie Pieterse, Richard Lawler, and Wyatt Jansen handled the matter.
The Firm negotiated a 7-figure settlement for our client in a trusts and estates litigation. The case involved a decedent who was obligated under the terms of a divorce agreement to provide his former spouse survivorship interests in various retirement accounts worth, at the time of death, nearly $4 million. The decedent instead gave those accounts to a companion and family member. We brought suit in U.S. District Court and ultimately resolved the dispute, along with parallel proceedings in probate court, through the court’s mediation program. The settlement figure was more than four times the defendant’s opening offer. Charlie Pieterse and Wyatt Jansen handled the matter.
