Biography
Judson M. Stein is a Partner based in the firm’s Newark, New Jersey office. He is the Director of the Firm’s Trusts & Estates Practice Group and a member of the Non-Profit and Tax Exempt Organizations Practice Group.
Mr. Stein has more than 30 years experience in the protection and strengthening of businesses and estates, as well as the transfer of assets to heirs and other beneficiaries. He is AV® rated by Martindale Hubbell; he has repeatedly been named to the prestigious list of the “Best Lawyers in America,” and cited as a “Super Lawyer” in New Jersey Monthly Magazine and New York Magazine.
Mr. Stein helps clients understand their options for estate and gift planning, the selection of fiduciaries, transfers of family businesses, life insurance, retirement planning, trusts, charitable giving, health care, education funding and gift techniques. His elder law practice assists families with life care planning, Medicaid and asset protection, health care directives and living wills.
Mr. Stein’s tax practice provides guidance to individuals and business owners and representation before federal and state tax authorities. His corporate and business law practice includes business formation, partnership and operating agreements, shareholder agreements, business succession planning and all varieties of contract drafting and negotiation.
Representative Matters:
- Represented the owner of a closely held business in the re-capitalization of the business and the subsequent transfer of ownership to a grantor trust for the benefit of the owner’s family. The transfer was partly by gift and [partly by sale, with the sale portion accomplished with a self-canceling promissory note.
- Represented a trust beneficiary in a dispute with the trustee over theTrust and Estates trustee’s breach of fiduciary duties.
- Represented the owner of a multi-million dollar beach home in the transfer of the residence to a Qualified Personal Residence Trust.
- Represented a litigant in a matrimonial action concerning whether a self-settled trust should be considered in determining equitable distribution and alimony.
- Mr. Stein frequently lectures before professional audiences on tax and estate planning, including the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Probate and Trust Law Symposium, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education (NJICLE).
He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a professional association of lawyers skilled in the preparation of wills and trusts, estate planning, probate procedure, and administration of trusts and estates of decedents, minors and incompetents. ACTEC Fellows are selected on the basis of professional reputation and ability in the fields of trusts and estates and on the basis of having made substantial contributions to these fields through lecturing, writing, teaching and bar activities.
He was an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School of Law from 1987 to 2003, and co-authored New Jersey Estate Administration Basics, published by the New Jersey Bar Association’s Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
Among Mr. Stein’s many honors:
- Best Lawyers in America published by Woodward/White
- Named one of New Jersey’s “top” lawyers by New Jersey Monthly Magazine
- Named a “New Jersey Super Lawyer” by New Jersey Monthly Magazine
- Named as “One of the Best Lawyers in America” by American Lawyers Magazine
- AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
- Israel Unity Award, State of Israel Bonds, October 2003
- Certificate of Recognition, Rutgers School of Law, Estates & Trusts Society, October 2009
- Bar Admissions
- New Jersey, 1978
- U.S.District Court, New Jersey, 1978
- U.S. Tax Court, 1980
Education
- New York University School of Law, LL.M. in Taxation, 1981
- Rutgers University School of Law, J.D., 1978
- University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, B.S., 1975