Don practices trusts and estates law, and advises on wealth and succession planning and related family and closely-held business matters.
Don’s practice includes advising estate planning, estate gift taxing, employee benefits, insurance, retirement, business planning, and the preparation of a wide array of estate planning documents. Don also counsels fiduciaries and family members about the administration of decedents’ estates and inter vivos and testamentary trusts.
Before joining the firm, Don practiced in New York at the firm of Breed, Abbott & Morgan, where he also focused in the area of trust and estates. Don joined the firm in 1981 and became a principal in 1984. Don became Of Counsel to the firm in January of 2026.
Don is a member of the Connecticut and New York Bars. He holds a B.A., cum laude, from Villanova University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
- Preparation of specialized estate planning documents such as Generation Skipping Trusts (GSTs), Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts and Unitrusts (GRATs and GRUTs), Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts and Unitrusts (CRATs and CRUTs), Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGTs), Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trusts (QTIPs), Qualified Domestic Trusts (QDOTs), Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs), Private Charitable Foundations, and others.
- Settlement of moderate size and large (in excess of $10,000,000) estates, including negotiating audits of estate tax returns with Internal Revenue Service and state taxing authorities.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
- Raymond P. Lavietes Charitable Foundation, Board Member
- Vista Vocational & Life Skills Center, Board Member
Practice Areas
• Estate Settlement
• Family & Closely Held Businesses
• Tax-Exempt Organizations
• Trusts, Estates & Family Wealth Planning
Education
• Columbia University School of Law (J.D.)
– Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
• Villanova University (B.A.)
– cum laude
Bar Admissions
• Connecticut
• New York