Benjamin Siracusa Hillman, Shaheen & Gordon

We selected nine Lawyers of the Year for portraits and asked them to share a favorite quotation and to tell us why they love what they do. These profiles appeared along with Woodward/White’s annual Best Lawyers in America list, as published in our November issue.

“There is nothing like the death of a moneyed member of the family to show persons as they really are, virtuous or conniving, generous or grasping. …Each case is a drama in human relationships.”
— Jesse Dukeminier & Stanley Johanson, “Family Wealth Transactions” (1972)

Why do you love what you do? “Being an estate planner and probate litigator means that I am working with individual clients all day on some of their deepest felt and most fraught challenges. Clients rely on me for both emotional support in difficult times and knowledge in a variety of interrelated areas — estate planning, litigation, tax planning, guardianships, trust administration, and Medicaid, Social Security and other benefits — as we work together to create plans and resolve disputes when the plans have gone awry or were never created in the first place. The work is intellectually and emotionally challenging, and rarely easy, but there is no better reward than seeing the sense of fulfillment and relief clients have when they achieve resolution and can move on to the business of living.”

Photo by Kendal J. Bush

Shaheen & Gordon
107 Storrs St.
Concord