MEC March Meeting - Current Issues in Trust and Estate Litigation
Please join us as Godfrey & Kahn's Jonathan Ingrisano and Foley and Lardner's Eric Maassen review some of the most important recent rulings and issues in trust and estate litigation.
Jonathan is a member of the Litigation Practice Group with Godfrey and Kahn and practices in the firm’s Milwaukee office. He presently co-chairs the firm's Estate, Trust and Fiduciary Litigation practice and its Trust Company Industry Group.
A major focus of Jonathan's practice is representing trust companies, other fiduciaries and family members in all manner of disputes arising from the planning and administration of trusts and estates. He has represented clients in proceedings related to fiduciary liability, fiduciary removal, undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, trust construction, and contracts to make a will. Jonathan collaborates closely with the firm’s highly regarded estate planning attorneys to ensure that clients receive effective advocacy that incorporates sound and efficient wealth planning and preservation.
In addition, Jonathan has also maintained a general commercial litigation practice – litigating, arbitrating and mediating a broad range of commercial business disputes in areas of dealer and distributor terminations, qui tam/whistleblower actions, real estate and construction, sales of businesses, sales and supply contracts, and corporate governance. Jonathan helped form the E-Discovery Working Group at Godfrey & Kahn. He frequently advises clients and speaks on electronic discovery and document retention issues, and he has helped banks and other companies design subpoena and garnishment response policies and procedures.
Before joining Godfrey & Kahn, Jonathan served two years as a law clerk for the Honorable John C. Shabaz, United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Eric L. Maassen is a partner in the Litigation Department of Foley & Lardner LLP. Eric focuses on the areas of fiduciary litigation and environmental litigation. He also has experience in the areas of real estate litigation and life, health and property, and casualty insurance and reinsurance litigation, and has a deep background in a broad spectrum of commercial disputes.
In the area of fiduciary litigation, Eric represents clients in contested estate and trust matters, including disputes involving the validity and construction of estate planning documents, claims of breaches of a fiduciary’s duties to beneficiaries, will contests, and other claims against and on behalf of estate representatives, trustees, and beneficiaries.
In the area of environmental litigation, Eric has litigated contribution and cost recovery suits, defended groundwater contamination suits by private landowners, defended against challenges to air and water permits, represented a client in a natural resource damages case, litigated insurance coverage for environmental liabilities, and litigated claims for professional liability relating to advice about regulatory rules. Eric also has represented clients in private landowner trespass and nuisance actions and stray voltage suits.
Eric has represented clients in a variety of industries, including electric generation and distribution, consumer kitchen products, the pipeline industry, electric motor manufacturing, metal recycling, automated assembly systems, heavy vehicles, paper manufacturing and distribution, medical diagnostics, chemical process modeling software development, and the airline industry.
Eric also has handled complex business disputes in the fields of sales of goods, technology licensing and development agreements, product distribution, franchising, stock and asset purchase agreements, real estate, products liability, and consumer protection laws. In the insurance area, Eric has extensive experience with reinsurance relationships involving, among others, non-standard automobile and workers compensation business. He also has significant experience with disputes involving CGL and other types of primary business insurance.
Before joining Foley, Eric served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Rudolph T. Randa, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin.
