When litigation arises from the probate and estate administration process, Antheil Maslow & MacMinn attorneys represent heirs, trustees and personal representatives in the Greater Philadelphia area including Bucks County and Montgomery County.

Estate litigation involves many issues from the interpretation of the meaning of a Will, to determining whether it was validly made, to claims involving the administration of the estate. Representation may also include filing actions to recover assets that have been misappropriated while the owner was infirm or unable to resist the influence of designing persons. Although usually thought of as involving deceased persons, estate litigation also includes cases involving the estates of incapacitated persons, including the appointment of a guardian and claims involving the assets of the incapacitated person.

Our Litigation Practice Group is experienced in all facets of estate litigation including:

• Will, trust and inheritance disputes
• Claims by and against Executors, Administrators, Trustees and Beneficiaries
• Appointment of Guardians
• Claims by and against Guardians
• Estate tax issues

From the representation of large business clients in complex contract disputes, to the defense of small, privately-held companies against claims of wrongful discharge, to serving individuals involved in estate litigation, Antheil Maslow & MacMinn attorneys are aggressive advocates for our clients.  Our litigators practice both in the federal and state courts.  Where appropriate to our client's goals, we pursue alternative means of dispute resolution, including arbitration and mediation.

In order to improve our clients' prospects for success and to hold down the costs of litigation, we believe in forming an active partnership. Our clients have direct, frequent contact with the attorney in charge of their case, who listens to exactly what they hope to accomplish and involves them in all aspects of the litigation. Our Litigation Practice Group offers the following areas of experience:

• Bucks County Local Counsel
• Business Litigation
  • Business Divorce
  • Business Valuation Disputes
  • Buy-Sell Agreement Conflicts
  • Shareholder/Member/Partner Disputes
  • Partnership Disputes
• Collections
  • Collection of Overdue Accounts
  • Confessed Judgment
  • Mortgage Foreclosures
• Commercial
  • Commercial and Contract Disputes
  • Commercial Torts including: Trade Disparagement; Interference with Current or Potential
    Contractual Relationships; and Commercial Defamation
  • Non-Compete Agreements
  • Non-Solicitation Agreements
  • Trade Name Conflicts
  • Trade Secrets
  • Unlawful Use of Confidential Information
• Condemnation/Eminent Domain
  • Construction Contracts
  • Defective Construction
  • Mechanics’ Liens
  • Payment and Performance Bond Issues
• Employee Benefits Disputes
• Employment Litigation
  • Employment Contract Claims
  • Harassment and Discrimination Claims
  • Wrongful Discharge Claims
• Estate Litigation
  • Claims by and against Executors, Administrators, Trustees and Beneficiaries
  • Guardianships
• Insurance
  • Coverage Litigation
• Lender Liability Litigation
• Professional Liability
  • Legal, Accounting and other Professional Malpractice
• Real Estate
  • Adverse Possession, Easements and Title Issues
• Landlord-Tenant Disputes
• Seller Non-Disclosure Liability
• Broker Liability
• Tax Litigation

Antheil Maslow & MacMinn attorneys offer timely, knowledgable and creative advice and solutions resulting in productive, cost-effective business outcomes for employers in the Greater Philadelphia area including Bucks County and Montgomery County.

We represent clients in connection with a variety of labor and employment matters, with an emphasis on representing employers and executives. We assist clients by representing them in litigation, creating employment manuals, developing employment policies and procedures, and negotiating and preparing employment contracts. Our clients benefit from our extensive experience with difficult employment law problems. Our employment law team is experienced in many areas, including:

• Restrictive Covenants, Covenants Not to Compete and Non-Solicitation Agreements
• Wage and Hour Law Compliance and Violations
• Employment and Severance Agreements
• Employment Litigation
• Employee Handbooks, Policies and Procedures
• Hiring, Discipline and Termination
• Employment Discrimination and Workplace Investigations
• Federal and State Family and Medical Leave Statutes
• Compensation Strategies, Employee Benefits and Equity Based Compensation Plans
• Risk Management Training Guidance for Employers
• Independent Contractor and Employee Classification

Antheil Maslow & MacMinn attorneys counsel employers in the Greater Philadelphia area including Bucks County and Montgomery County, helping them comply with state, federal and local laws and ordinances while insulating them against exposure to employee claims and lawsuits. Although our practice is centered on the representation of corporate and business clients, our legal team is regularly called upon to protect the interests of individual corporate officers and directors, prominent business leaders and public personalities.

Addressing harassment claims, managing the associated risk, and preventing litigation is the goal of our Labor & Employment Group attorneys; we are well equipped to assist employers in crafting and maintaining policies that safeguard the integrity of their workforce. By developing and implementing fair employment practices, our attorneys help employers enhance employee loyalty while reducing their exposure to damaging claims and lawsuits.

However, our long courtroom experience on behalf of employers as well as individuals permits full representation should litigation become necessary.

Stated policies on non-compete agreements, discrimination, benefits, sick days, discipline, drug use, e-mail, and the Internet provide protection for a company and its employees. Antheil Maslow & MacMinn attorneys’ knowledge of these and other cutting-edge issues in employment including non-compete agreements, technology and privacy issues, trade secrets and proprietary information, workplace torts, and constitutional law benefit business clients in the Greater Philadelphia area including Bucks County and Montgomery County.

Our Labor & Employment Group drafts, implements and annually reviews important business policy manuals and procedures that support employers. This legal team helps ensure businesses comply with state, federal and local ordinances while insulating them against exposure to employee claims and lawsuits in these areas:

• Compliance policies
• Compensation packages
• Benefits policies
• Human resources practices
• Hiring and termination
• Employee discipline procedures

Our Estates & Trusts Group offers a wide array of experience and assistance in the areas of estate planning, estate and trust administration, and charitable giving. Our Estates & Trusts Group is one of the largest and most sophisticated of its kind in our area.

We work with our clients to develop estate plans that seek to maximize the preservation of wealth both during life and upon death, and that also seek to minimize the potential for future conflicts among heirs and other future stakeholders. This planning often includes advice on how to protect clients’ assets from erosion by death taxes, long-term care costs, and other future claims. While our planning is focused on individual wealth, much of our planning work is with entrepreneurs and investors, where we work with our Business & Finance Group to meld private wealth planning with business planning.

Our Group also spends a great deal of time assisting our client’s personal representatives (i.e., Executors, Trustees, Guardians, etc.) in the management of wealth transfer, helping them to administer decedents’ estates, trusts, and guardianships of minors or incapacitated persons.

This Group’s services include assistance for clients in the following areas:

• Asset Protection Planning
• Charitable Giving
• Elder Law & Medicaid Planning
• Estate Planning & Family Wealth Preservation
• Estate Planning for Non-Citizens and Expatriates
• Estate & Trust Administration
• Guardianships
• Planning for Individuals with Disabilities and Special Needs Trusts
• Planning for IRAs and Other Retirement Benefits
• Probate, Estate and Fiduciary Litigation

Our Estates and Trust practice area has a broad geographic range, representing clients in the Greater Philadelphia area and Bucks County and Montgomery County, and throughout Central Pennsylvania, Eastern Pennsylvania, Central New Jersey and South Jersey.

Our guardianship practice includes representation of family members in proceedings seeking guardians of adult incapacitated persons.  Often these matters are uncontested, and our representation consists primarily of helping the family member navigate the law and the court rules governing the appointment of guardian.  If the guardianship matter involves a contest, then the matter is generally handled in conjunction with the Litigation practice area.

Planning is the foundation of the Estates & Trusts practice area, and we spend much of our time designing and implementing comprehensive estate plans. This includes sophisticated planning, such as the formulation of complicated federal estate tax planning strategies, planning for the distribution of IRAs and other qualified retirement plans, and the development of ownership succession strategies for family business owners and other entrepreneurs.

We also assist with fundamental planning involving the drafting of Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney, and Living Wills. Whether a client’s wealth is significant or more modest, our planning may also include a focus on asset protection, which could include planning for the payment of long-term care and Medicaid availability for the elderly, setting up special needs trusts and other vehicles for the disabled, or working with high net worth clients to protect their assets from future claims. Our approach is to provide full-service solutions, handling all types and sizes of estates and trusts, and providing comprehensive tax planning as part of the estate plans.

Our more fundamental estate planning engagements typically involve the development of the following:

• Wills, and if appropriate, Revocable Trusts
• Powers of Attorney and Living Wills
• Beneficiary Designations for Life Insurance and Retirement Plans

More involved and sophisticated estate planning may involve the strategies using:

• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts
• Funded Revocable Trusts
• Transfers of business interests and certain investment assets via Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs) and Family Limited Liability Companies (FLLCs)
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), Grantor Retained Unitrusts (GRUTs), and Grantor Retained Income Trusts (GRITs)
• Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts
• Private Foundations
• Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs)
• Sales and gifts to Irrevocable Grantor Trusts
• Domestic Asset Protection Trusts
• Limited Liability Companies and similar entities for family asset protection
• Qualified Domestic Trusts (QDOTs) for non-citizen spouses

Our estate and trust administration practice involves the administration of estates and trusts of all sizes. This includes representation of individual executors, administrators and trustees, as well as the largest of trust companies. When representing individual executors, administrators and trustees, our very experienced group of paralegals provide the core services, with the supervision of the attorneys in our Estates & Trusts Group.

When administering decedents’ estates, we work with the executor or administrator from the initial probate through final distribution, guiding the executor or administrator through the process. The work includes post-mortem tax planning, the maintenance of detailed fiduciary accountings, preparation of Federal and state estate and inheritance tax returns, assistance with the Decedent’s final income tax return and the estate’s fiduciary income tax returns, working with creditors, and settling the estate through distribution to the beneficiaries by agreement or by Court approval. Our representation also involves managing the interrelationship of non-probate property with the duties of the executor or administrator.

This practice area also handles the administration of all types of trusts, including assistance with the trust’s fiduciary income tax returns, as well as consultation in connection with the fiduciary’s duties under the trust instrument. The types of trusts can include credit shelter (or “bypass”) trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), grantor retained unitrusts (GRUTs), and grantor retained income trusts (GRITs).

Antheil Maslow & MacMinn Intellectual Property attorneys assist clients in obtaining trademarks and copyrights, performing searches and rendering registerability opinions. Because we are a full service firm, our Inellectual Property lawyers work with our business lawyers to draft employment contracts ensuring the protection of corporate-owned trade secrets.

Legal experience includes conducting trademark clearance searches regarding the availability for use and registration of trademarks in the United States; preparing assignments and licenses with respect to transfer of intellectual property rights; and general counseling on promoting business interests through the protection, enforcement and management of intellectual property rights.

Our knowledge of intellectual property law enables our Business & Finance Practice Group to give clients the information and tools they need to safeguard these valuable assets, including:

• Patents
• Trademarks
• Copyrights
• Trade Secrets
• Unfair Competition
• Emerging Forms of Protection, including Internet Domain Names