45th Annual Duke Estate Planning Conference
October 19-20, 2023
FACULTY BIOS
THOMAS W. ABENDROTH is a partner in the Chicago office of ArentFox Schiff LLP and served as practice group leader of the firm’s Private Clients, Trusts and Estates Group for twelve years. He concentrates his practice in the fields of estate planning, federal taxation, and business succession planning. Tom is a 1984 graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, and received his undergraduate degree from Ripon College, where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees. He has co-authored a two-volume treatise entitled Illinois Estate Planning, Will Drafting and Estate Administration, and a chapter on sophisticated value-shifting techniques in the book, Estate and Personal Financial Planning. He was co-editor of Estate Planning Strategies After Estate Tax Reform: Insights and Analysis (CCH 2001). He is a member of Duke University Estate Planning Council. Tom is a frequent speaker on tax and estate planning topics at banks and professional organizations and has contributed numerous articles to industry publications. In addition, he is a co-presenter of a monthly teleconference series on estate planning issues presented by the American Bankers Association. Tom has taught at the American Bankers Association Wealth and Trust School since 1990. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
MICHAEL F. ANDERSON founded The Anderson Law Firm and has practiced in the fields of fiduciary litigation and estate-planning for more than fifteen years. His fiduciary litigation practice represents national bank and trust companies, family trustees, beneficiaries, and related entities in litigation spanning all aspects of estate- and trust- administration, including caveats and breach of fiduciary duty claims. His practice has a particular emphasis in “real-time” elder exploitation response, including guardianship actions and even immediate-intervention methods that can safeguard a vulnerable adult without the delay of a court proceeding. A former Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer before (and during) law school, Mike and his firm frequently receive referrals from other lawyers in some of the most contentious and hostile matters. Finally, Mike represents lawyers – directly or as insurance-appointed counsel – during malpractice claims or disciplinary proceedings, or merely serving in an advisory capacity while they testify in proceedings or are subpoenaed for documents.
Mike is also an estate-planner, where his practice has developed particular focus on high-risk and potential-conflict estate-planning. His firm’s process has – so far – yet to produce an estate-plan that has been challenged in a court proceeding. Mike and his firm also have a reputation for knowledgably serving families afflicted by addiction, either through estate-planning techniques or occasionally guardianship-interventions. His firm offers nominal-cost full-trust-based estate-planning for Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers and their families through a partnership with FOP Lodge #9. Mike and his firm have also been engaged in multi-disciplinary “fixer” engagements, including shepherding the management and sale of a substantial family-business while the owner was – unbeknownst to the public – in jail facing possible lifetime imprisonment.
Mike is a graduate of Davidson College, where he was William Holt Terry Scholar, and the University of North Carolina School of Law, as an Aycock-Poe Scholar and the school’s Head Honors Writing Scholar. Mike has been rated an A(V) attorney by Martindale-Hubbell, recognized as a Rising Star or SuperLawyer in the fields of estate-planning and trust- and estate-planning every year from 2013-2023, a Business North Carolina Legal Elite attorney in the area of litigation, and a “Top 40 Under 40” litigation attorney in North Carolina. Mike has served as chair of the Estate Planning Section of the Mecklenburg County Bar, co-chaired the Fiduciary Litigation Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association, and authored the NCBA’s chapter on Guardianships in the Fiduciary Litigation Manual first published in 2018.
JOAN S. ANDERSON focuses in the defense of complex, multi-plaintiff personal injury actions for product manufacturers and health care service providers. She has represented clients in state and federal courts in more than two dozen states at all stages of litigation, including notching multiple successful civil jury trials and appellate decisions. With a background in mathematics and significant experience in mass tort litigation, Joan is highly regarded for her successful work with medical and technology experts to distill their analyses into opinions that are clear, concise, and helpful for clients, judges and juries.
Prior to joining McGuireWoods LLP in 2012, Joan practiced for six years in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices of an international law firm. While she now enjoys living in North Carolina, Joan maintains a California law license so that she can easily assist clients facing threatened or filed litigation in a state where many mass tort actions originate, and Joan has spent a significant portion of her time working out of the firm’s downtown Los Angeles office.
Joan champions various diversity initiatives within the firm and in the community. As a member of McGuireWoods’ firmwide Diversity & Inclusion Committee, she actively promotes the Firm’s commitment to recruit, develop, retain, and promote women, lawyers of color, LGBTQ attorneys, and veterans, ensuring the firm’s litigation teams fully represent the clients they serve and the communities in which they live.
A leader in community diversity and inclusion initiatives, Joan serves as the Raleigh-Durham coordinator for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) 1L Mentorship Program, recruiting volunteers to mentor diverse first-year law students at area law schools. In this role, she organizes events where mentors and mentees come together, share experiences, and hear from speakers. Joan also has served for three consecutive years on the planning committee for the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s annual Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Conference, which draws approximately 800 attendees.
Joan maintains a commitment to pro bono service and serves as the pro bono coordinator for the firm’s Raleigh office, helping organize clinics and connect other attorneys with projects of interest to them. She currently leads an initiative to help local small businesses challenge the denial of business interruption insurance coverage so that they can obtain funds intended to compensate them for losses, including payments made to hourly workers during closures and restrictions related to COVID-19. She also partners with North Carolina Legal Aid helping victims of domestic violence obtain orders of protection against their abusers.
TURNEY P. BERRY concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning, fiduciary matters, and charitable planning. Mr. Berry is the leader of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs’ Trusts, Estates & Personal Planning Service Team and a past member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
Mr. Berry is active in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), and has served as President of the ACTEC Foundation, Regent of the College, State Chair for Kentucky, Chair of the Estate & Gift Committee, and Chair of the Charitable and Tax Exempt Committee. Currently he serves as Chair of the State Laws Committee, and a member of the Long Range Planning Committee.
As a Uniform Law Commissioner, Mr. Berry currently serves as Chair of the Study Committee on Transfers to Minors Act, Vice-Chair of the Drafting Committee on Conflicts of Laws in Trusts and Estates, Member of the Electronic Estate Planning Documents Committee, Member of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Acts, and Member of the Drafting Committee on Uniform Determination of Death Act. He has served as chair of the Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act (UFIPA), chair of the Uniform Power of Appointment Act, Vice Chair of the Drafting Committee on Electronic Wills Act, Co-Chair of the Drafting Committee on Uniform Cohabitants’ Economic Remedies Act, and as a member of the drafting committees for the Directed Trust Act, the Revised Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, the Trust Decanting Act, the Insurable Interests in Trusts Act, the Premarital and Marital Agreements Act, the Transfer on Death Deeds Act, the Revised Disposition of Community Property Rights at Death Act, and the Uniform Probate Code Artificial Reproductive Technology provisions, and an adjunct member of the Fundraising Through Public Appeals Act.
Mr. Berry is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, a member of the American Law Institute, a member of The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, a member of the Advisory Council of the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, a Member of the Advisory Board of Trusts and Estates Monthly, and a member of the Bloomberg BNA Tax Advisory Board (Estates, Gifts, and Trusts). He serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami Estate Planning LLM Program (teaching Business Succession Planning), and has served as Adjunct Professor at Vanderbilt University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Louisville, and regularly speaks at the nation’s leading estate planning conferences. Since 1996, Mr. Berry has served as Co-Chair of the Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute at the University of Kentucky (the longest continuously run CLE event in Kentucky).
Mr. Berry has been certified as an Accredited Estate Planner® (AEP®) by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils and is a member of its Estate Planning Hall of Fame [Kentucky does not recognize legal specialties]. He is listed in Woodward/White’s The Best Lawyers in America® and in the Kentucky Super Lawyer Magazine in the area of Trusts and Estates.
Mr. Berry is the author or co-author of three Tax Management Portfolios: Estate Tax Deductions – Sections 2053 and 2054; Private Foundations – Self Dealing – Section 4941; and Taxable Expenditures – Section 4945. In addition, his frequent articles have appeared in numerous journals and magazines. Mr. Berry received the Texas Bar Foundation Outstanding Law Review Article award for an article he co-authored with Paul Lee titled “Retaining, Sustaining and Obtaining Basis” which was published by the Texas Tech Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal in January 2015
Mr. Berry has been an Articles Editor of The Tax Lawyer and a past chair of the Louisville Bar Association Probate and Estate Planning Section (1989 Section of the Year). He is a member of the Louisville Estate Planning Council, Kentuckiana Planned Giving Council, and an adjunct member of the American Association of Life Underwriters.
Mr. Berry is the Vice Chair of the Civilian Review and Accountability Board, Chair of the Center for Interfaith Relations, and Director for the Earth School/Carbon Nation. He is a member of Louisville Downtown Rotary, and a Member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. He is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Muhammad Ali Center, Kentucky Opera, Actors Theatre, the Filson Historical Society, the Louisville Science Center, among others. He is President of the Daily Walk Sunday School Class at Christ Church United Methodist. Mr. Berry is the recipient of the National Philanthropy Day Baylor Landrum Award and has been recognized as a Distinguished Citizen of Louisville.
A native of Tennessee, Mr. Berry received his B.A. and B.L.S. in 1983 from the University of Memphis and his J.D. in 1986 from Vanderbilt University.
SCOTT A. BOWMAN is a partner at McDermott Will & Emery. His practice focuses on providing personal tax and estate planning counsel to wealthy individuals, families and family offices, advising them on structuring their wealth to minimize income, estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes over multiple generations. He also has significant experience in complex cross-border planning matters. He is a member of the bar in California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida (Board Certified in Taxation and in Wills, Trusts and Estates), Maryland, New York and Virginia. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and an Academician in The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. Scott serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Miami School of Law.
STUART DORSETT, a Strategic Advisor, is the Chief Strategic Advisory Officer for Brown Advisory and the Head of the Carolinas Office, based in Chapel Hill, NC. Prior to joining Brown Advisory, he was a partner with Ward and Smith,P.A. in Raleigh, NC, where he served as the leader of the firm’s Trusts and Estates Law Practice Group. He is certified by the North Carolina State Bar as a specialist in estate planning and probate law, he is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and he was recognized as 2013’s “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers. As a strategic advisor, Stuart assists clients with tax planning, estate planning, tax planning, business planning, charitable planning, risk management planning, and related matters.
LOUIS S. HARRISON has long been recognized as one of the premier estate planning attorneys in the country. A founding partner of Harrison & Held, LLP – one of the nation’s most elite estate planning firms – Lou’s practice encompasses all aspects of trust and estate planning, including estate and business planning for closely held companies. In addition to individuals in need of sophisticated planning, Lou represents numerous family offices, public figures, CEOs of public companies, closely held businesses, as well as other entities and prominent individuals.
During his nearly four-decade career, Lou has developed unique and creative estate planning techniques which are utilized by high-end estate planners across the country. Recognizing his extraordinary talent, attorneys across the nation view Lou’s estate planning documents as “best practices” for complex planning. Lou is a frequent keynote speaker and he has written more than 200 articles on a broad range of estate-planning topics which have been published in legal, accounting, tax and estate planning journals and periodicals. Lou has also co-authored two books, and he joint ventures nationally with other practitioners regarding advanced planning matters and defending plans before the Internal Revenue Service.
In acknowledgment of his exceptional work, Lou has received numerous peer-rated awards. These include being selected as Best Lawyers in America’s “Lawyer of the Year” in trusts and estates, on multiple occasions as well as many other prestigious honors.
Lou is a member of the American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel and he is its current Illinois state chair. Lou has also been an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law, DePaul University College of Law and Chicago-Kent College of Law. He received his B.A. in math from Colgate University, magna cum laude; his J.D. from Duke University with high honors; and his M.B.A. in finance, with honors, from the University of Chicago. In addition to swimming in Lake Michigan long after the summer’s end, Lou’s hobbies include football, hockey, hiking, reading, behavioral finance, and bad puns (are there any other kind).
CHRISTINA HINKLE, born in Princeton, New Jersey, spent several years in Geneva, Switzerland before settling in the Durham-Chapel Hill area. She attended Chapel Hill High School, and then Duke University, graduating in 1990 with a B.S. in mathematics. In 1993, Christina graduated with high honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she served as an Articles Editor of the North Carolina Law Review and was a member of the national legal honorary society, The Order of the Coif. She was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar in 1993.
Following law school, Christina clerked for the Honorable J. Dickson Phillips, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She has been a Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law since 2008, and has received the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rating.
Christina is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association (Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law and Business Law Sections), American Bar Association (Real Property, Trust, and Estate Law Section), and the Orange County Bar Association. She also serves as a board member of the Durham/Orange Estate Planning Council, Child Care Services Association, and the North Carolina State Bar Board of Continuing Legal Education.
Christina focuses her practice in the areas of wills and trusts, estate and gift tax planning, estate and trust administration, and probate law. She has developed a special interest in charitable giving, private foundations, intergenerational and blended family planning, and trust modifications, decantings and terminations. Christina is also versed in business entity formation and business law.
MEGHAN HUBBARD practices within the firm’s private wealth services group and practices primarily in the area of fiduciary litigation and estate and trust administration. As a member of McGuireWoods’ fiduciary advisory services practice group, Meghan also frequently advises corporate and individual fiduciaries regarding administration matters related to the fiduciary’s diverse duties and broad-ranging discretionary decisions. Meghan has handled complex estate administration disputes, mediation of family disputes, guardianship hearings, beneficiary agreements, trust modifications and terminations, tax controversy cases, premarital agreements, and estate planning documents. While earning her law degree from the University of Richmond, Meghan received the CALI Excellence for the Future Awards for Securities Regulation, Estate & Gift Taxation, Agency and Partnership. While at the University of Richmond, she also served as an intern with the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
JUDY LINVILLE believes the practice of law is about helping clients finding solutions to their legal problems and planning for their future needs. She brings over 20 years of experience in estate planning, tax, elder law, trust and probate law, guardianship and general business law to Linville Law Office, PLLC. She founded a firm that strives to provide exceptional service to its clients by working closely with individuals and their families to create comprehensive and customized estate plans. We also welcome and encourage a team approach in our representations that often involves working with the client’s financial, tax and other professional advisors.
Born and raised in North Carolina, Judy is a 1988 graduate of the UNC Kenan-Flagler undergraduate business school and a 1991 graduate of the UNC School of Law. She has also passed all four parts of the CPA exam. She is licensed to practice law in North Carolina.
Judy is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association, Mecklenburg County Bar Association, WealthCounsel, ElderCounsel, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. She is currently serving on the Legislative Committee for the North Carolina Estate Planning and Fiduciary Section of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Judy is married to Robert Linville and has three children. When not working, she enjoys playing golf with her husband, reading, and spending time with family and friends at Smith Mountain Lake.
TARA ANNE PLEAT, Esq., CELA, practices law in upstate New York in the Saratoga/Adirondack region. She practices in the areas of special needs estate planning and administration, traditional estate planning and administration, and long-term care planning. Tara is a past Chair of the Elder Law and Special Needs Section of the New York State Bar Association. She is also an active member of the Trusts and Estates Law Section where she serves as Treasurer.
She is a member of the Special Needs Alliance, where she serves as Vice-President of the Board of Directors. She is also a Member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys where she serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Chapter. She is an advisory board member of Supported Decision-Making New York as we all as a Member of the Arc of New York’s Statewide Guardianship committee.
In March of 2016, Tara was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) where she now serves as the Upstate New York Chair and the Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Region.Tara has been an adjunct professor of law at Albany Law School for more than ten years, where she teaches a course in the spring semester on planning for the elderly and individuals with special needs. She is a co-author of the Lexis-Nexis Publication, New York Elder Law.
*This certification is not granted by any governmental authority within the State of New York.
LARRY ROCAMORA is originally from Asheville, North Carolina. He went to undergraduate school at UNC and received his law degree at Hastings College of Law, University of California in 1988 where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. After law school, he moved back to North Carolina in 1988 where he has been practicing law ever since. He is a Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law and a Certified Public Accountant. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a member of the Special Needs Alliance and a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. He is a past Chair of the Elder Law Section and the Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. Larry’s practice areas include estate planning and charitable giving, elder law, planning for children and adults with special needs, business organizations and tax law and estate and trust administration.
ALAN F. ROTHSCHILD, JR. is a shareholder in the Columbus and Atlanta, Georgia law firm of Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, P.C. He is past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section and a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and the American College of Tax Counsel. He serves on the Heckerling Estate Planning Institute Advisory Committee, chaired the Board of Trustees of the Southern Federal Tax Institute in 2021-22, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where he teaches a course on the law of tax exempt organizations.
STACY E. SINGER is a Senior Vice President, National Practice Leader for Trust Services and Wealth Advisory at The Northern Trust Company, where she works closely with trust professionals on all aspects of the delivery of fiduciary services to clients nationally. She previously served as the National Director of Estate Settlement Services at Northern. Ms. Singer joined Northern Trust in 2003.
Ms. Singer was previously a Vice President in the Estate Administration Division at Harris Trust & Savings Bank in Chicago, where she handled the administration of decedent, minors and disabled estates. Prior to Harris, she was a member of the estate and succession planning department at Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C., where she specialized in estate and succession planning strategies, estate and trust administration and guardianship for minors and disabled adults. She has been appointed as a Guardian ad Litem in both decedent and disabled estates and as a Special Administrator in decedent estates.
Ms. Singer is the past President of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Estate Planning Council and a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. She served on the faculty of the American Bankers Association National Trust School for five years, as an adjunct professor in the LLM Program for Tax and Employee Benefits at The John Marshall Law School and is past chair of the Chicago Bar Association Trust Law Committee. Ms. Singer is a regular speaker for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) and the American Law Institute (formerly ALI-ABA), and has previously spoken at the Notre Dame Tax & Estate Planning Institute, Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the Chicago Estate Planning Council and a broad spectrum of other civic and professional groups, including the Internal Revenue Service. She has written extensive for numerous publications, including Trusts & Estates, Advancing Philanthropy, Estate Planning and numerous IICLE publications. She holds a B.A., with distinction, from the University of Michigan and received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1992. She is a member of the Chicago Bar Association and of the Professional Advisory Committee of the Technion Institute and the Hadley School for the Blind. She chairs the professional advisor committee for the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago and an Executive Committee Member of the Board of Director for IICLE.
BRUCE STONE is a shareholder of the firm. His practice consists primarily of estate planning for both domestic and foreign clients. A significant portion of his practice involves disputed or complex problem situations in which he is retained to find creative planning solutions or to serve as expert witness, mediator or arbitrator. Bruce is admitted to practice in Florida. He is a lifelong resident of Florida. He graduated from the University of Florida with high honors in 1971 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from the Florida State University College of Law with highest honors in 1973, where he was first in his class and editor in chief of the law review.
Bruce is a Fellow and Past President of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. He is a past chair of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar. Bruce is chair of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Acts, which monitors and recommends updates to the Uniform Probate Code, the Uniform Trust Code, and all other trust and estate related uniform laws on a nationwide basis. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning. He is an Academician in the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale, has been listed in every edition of Best Lawyers of America since 1987, and is rated by Chambers USA in Band 1 for Tax: Estate Planning. He has been inducted into the Estate Planning Hall of Fame by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. In 2001 he received the first ever Friend of the Trust Industry award from the Florida Bankers Association. He was the principal drafter of Florida’s legislation in 2000 authorizing dynasty trusts and allowing modification and reformation of irrevocable trusts, and a 2010 statute governing planning for homestead property through the use of irrevocable inter vivos trusts. He has been extensively involved in the drafting of Florida legislation concerning elective share rights of surviving spouses and the administration of trusts. In addition to his practice, Bruce is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where he teaches in the graduate masters program in estate planning. He is a frequent lecturer for organizations such as the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the American Bar Association, ALI-CLE, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, and the Florida Bar.
CHRISTINE WAKEMAN is a member of Winstead’s Wealth Preservation Practice Group. She is board certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Christine has experience in a range of estate and business planning matters involving fiduciaries, trusts, taxation and high net worth individuals and their families.
Prior to practicing law, Christine was selected as a Cortez A.M. Ewing Public Service Fellow and served in the Washington, D.C. office of United States Senator Dr. Tom Coburn during her fellowship.
Her awards include the following: Steven G. Condos Award for Outstanding New Member, Texas Bar College, 2017; Texas Rising Star, Thomson Reuters, 2012, 2018-2023;Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization; Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy; Best Lawyers in Dallas, D Magazine, 2016-2017, 2020-2023; Best Lawyers in Dallas Under 40, D Magazine, 2018-2023.
CATHERINE L. WILSON joined the firm in 2011 upon her family’s move to Durham. She is a graduate of David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a B.A. in English, magna cum laude (2001), and earned her law degree from Vanderbilt University in 2005 where she was an Honors Scholar and served as Executive Articles Editor for the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. She also earned a Masters of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt University Divinity School in 2005 as well.
Upon graduation, Catherine practiced with the Birmingham, Alabama law firm of Sirote & Permutt, P.C., from 2005 to 2011, working exclusively in the areas of trusts and estates. She is a member of the American, North Carolina, Alabama, and Durham Bar Associations and is a member of the Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section of the North Carolina Bar. She also serves on the Board of the Fourteenth Judicial District Bar, the Durham County Bar Association, and the Durham Bar Foundation.
Catherine’s practice focuses on estate planning, special needs planning, guardianships, taxation law, and trust and estate litigation. Her special needs practice includes assisting with planning for family members with special needs and also the post-litigation establishment of special needs trusts designed to receive personal injury awards.
