I think it is very important for young lawyers to have mentors. I would not have made it this far without mine. My mother Rita Harold and my law partner Elizabeth Donlon are the ones who encouraged me to progress. My mother was a terrific person and I grew up wanting to be like her. She was everything to everybody. She was the typical nice Italian mother who wasn’t happy unless you were eating her food. And if life got slippery, for family or friend, she would say ‘Here, take my hand.’

Without that kind of support, my life would have turned out much differently. My parents initially were not all that happy about my career choice. They wanted grandkids! And, all they got from me was a lawyer for a daughter.

I know we have worked hard all these years to establish our reputation as honest, hard-working attorneys who take the welfare of our clients very seriously. Most of our referrals are from other lawyers. They know they can call us and we are happy to help. Our practice covers the entire range of estates and trusts work – planning, administration, and litigation. In addition to the estates and trusts field, I represent buyers and sellers of residential real estate.

Sometimes clients come in with a pre-conceived idea of what should happen in their case, and those ideas are often either unrealistic or simply off the mark. We have to help them with the reality – both the facts of the case and how the law applies to their individual case.

We are well-known for several important cases. For example, our firm represented a beneficiary in the Estate of Cynthia Bitter, where the decedent named her daughter-in-law as the Trustee of a Trust under her Will for the benefit of her son and grandchildren. At the time of the decedent’s death, the son and the daughter-in-law were engaged in an acrimonious divorce. By using a 125-year-old provision in the law, for which there were no reported decisions, the Nassau County Surrogate’s Court found the fiduciary “unsuitable” to execute her duties and revoked the Trustee’s Letters of Trusteeship.

I love what I do. Betty and I have a great practice. We are proud of our work. Other lawyers from outside fields are coming into the estates and trusts field nowadays, as their other practices contract. So, our phone is ringing more and more – we are consultants to newcomers in the field. We’re in a competitive profession – it’s very gratifying to be in the middle of it.