Lecturer Bios
Ronnie Ann Powell, Esq.
Ms. Powell chairs the firm’s Trusts and Estates practice group and serves on the firm's Executive Committee. She has over 25 years of experience in estate planning, trust and estate administration, federal income, estate and gift taxation law, premarital and post-marital agreements, guardianship proceedings, fiduciary litigation and elder law. Ms. Powell implements the full range of lifetime and testamentary estate planning techniques for clients, including estate planning for unmarried couples, same sex married couples, civil union partners and domestic partners, and post-mortem planning. Ms. Powell oversees all aspects of estate administration, including probate, marshaling and valuation of assets, accountings, settlement agreements, will contests, intestacy matters, proceedings in Surrogate's Courts, preparation of federal and state estate and gift tax returns, and Internal Revenue and state audits of estate, gift and inheritance tax returns.
Ms. Powell has lectured for the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) and also conducts seminars in estate planning and estate administration for various organizations.
In 2006, Ms. Powell was the recipient of the Partners in Hope Award, bestowed by Partners for Women and Justice, a not-for-profit organization, for her pro bono work with low-income and abused women in need of legal advice.
Ms. Powell was a Commissioner of the Township of Montclair Parking Authority from 2002-2012, and was a Board Member of the Montclair Center Business Improvement Center from 2006-2012.
Glenn J. Christofides, Esq.
Glenn J. Christofides engages in a practice focused on the needs of individual clients and business entities. He counsels clients regarding Taxation, Trusts and Estates, and Corporate and Business matters.
Mr. Christofides advises owners of closely-held entities on the income tax consequences of transactions such as stock redemptions, sales, acquisitions, reorganizations and sales to grantor trusts. He drafts shareholders agreements and operating agreements for ventures involving unrelated individuals, as well as for family business enterprises which require provisions to facilitate estate planning and obtain creditor protection. He assists clients in controversies with tax authorities through the submission of protests and appeals of tax assessments. Mr. Christofides has counseled clients at all stages of the business life cycle. He prepares plans for business transactions and the attendant agreements and filings. He routinely is called upon to prepare opinion letters regarding transactions, and when necessary, obtains formal guidance from regulatory authorities through private ruling requests.
Mr. Christofides engages in a comprehensive Trusts and Estates practice. He advises clients on a range of topics, including lifetime gifting, testamentary planning and transactions designed to facilitate tax efficient inter-generational wealth transfer. He prepares the necessary documents to achieve clients’ goals, including wills, revocable trusts, and irrevocable trusts, designed to address estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax objectives. He also prepares advanced directives for health care and powers of attorney. He regularly prepares estate and gift tax returns.
Mr. Christofides advises fiduciaries and beneficiaries of estates and trusts regarding administration and litigation issues. He has provided valuable assistance in a number of matters in New Jersey and New York Probate Courts. Mr. Christofides is familiar with issues relevant to estate disputes, including undue influence claims, contracts to enter into testamentary dispositions and objections to fiduciary conduct.
Mr. Christofides earned his advanced legal degree, the LL.M (in Taxation), from the New York University School of Law. He is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law, Newark, where he was a Dean’s Merit Scholar, a recipient of the Aaron Lasser and Honorable Lawrence L. Lasser Scholarship and a member of the Rutgers Federal Taxation Clinic. As a member of the Rutgers Federal Taxation Clinic, he represented clients in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service. Prior to law school, Mr. Christofides attended Rutgers College, Rutgers University, where he completed his undergraduate studies in three years and graduated first in the class of 2004. During his time at Rutgers College, he was named a Henry Rutgers Scholar and an Edward McNall Burns Scholar. Appointments included undergraduate associate of the Eagleton Institute of Politics and an undergraduate teaching assistant of Political Science.