Note From the Editor: February 2021Note From the Editor: February 2021
Editor in Chief Susan R. Lipp discusses this month's issue.
Check out this month's Trust & Estates February issue where we review the impact of remote working with clients and managing their estate plans. Check out the full issue here.
Due to the ongoing global pandemic, in recent issues, we’ve focused on the challenges of practicing remotely and keeping in touch with clients virtually. Now that we’re starting to see the light at the end of the (very long) tunnel, this month’s Modern Practice Committee Report includes information about those lessons learned that we can continue using even after we’re able to see each other in person again (that day can’t come soon enough for me). “Next Generation Tech for Estate-Planning Lawyers,” p. 40, by Mary E. Vandenack and Martin M. Shenkman sets forth how lawyers can permanently apply some of the new technical abilities learned during the pandemic to their practices. And, “Practicing During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” p. 56, contains recollections from three of our editorial advisory board members on what they experienced and how they’re moving on.
As we look forward to practicing in a COVID-free world, we need to refocus our attention on some other important issues. One that’s gotten much media coverage is the need to incorporate diversity and inclusion in our practices. In “How to Make Your Practice More Diverse and Inclusive,” p. 36, Karen McCrae-Lee Fatt, Martin M. Shenkman and Susan J. Travis give some general best practices for lawyers to implement to make their practices more inclusive. Another issue we often encounter is helping clients decide how to divide their estates among their children and whether such inheritances should be equal. In their article “Unequal Inheritances,” p. 31, Kim Kamin, Avi Z. Kestenbaum and Elliot Dizon review under what circumstances clients might want to consider unequal inheritances and how to set up the estate-planning documents to implement the clients’ wishes. Other issues we cover this month are how to make sure your clients appreciate the value your firm provides and speaking with your clients about family governance issues.
We would also like to welcome Mary Ann Mancini of Loeb & Loeb LLP to the Insurance Committee of our editorial advisory board and say goodbye and thank you to Lawrence Brody, who recently stepped down from that Committee.
