Sue Abbott, a partner in the firm’s Trusts & Estate Planning Practice, focuses her practice on estate planning and probate and trust law, with a particular emphasis on charitable planning. She also advises tax-exempt organizations on issues related to their formation, operations and planned giving programs and is the co-chair of the firm’s Nonprofit and Charitable Organizations Group. Ms. Abbott joined Goodwin Procter in 2000.

Work for Clients

Ms. Abbott works with clients to structure their estate plans and lifetime gift programs in a manner which will best achieve their objectives, while reducing federal and state estate taxes. Her practice encompasses all areas of estate, gift, generation-skipping and income tax planning. She has worked with clients to structure a broad variety of charitable gifts, including charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, private foundations, charitable gift annuities and conservation restrictions. Ms. Abbott also advises banks and trust companies regarding their trust programs and handles complex estate administration matters.

Ms. Abbott works extensively with charitable organizations, assisting them to incorporate and obtain tax-exempt status and advising them on issues such as foreign charitable activity, political activity and lobbying restrictions, intermediate sanctions and the private foundation excise taxes. She also works with charitable organizations to structure and administer planned giving programs.

Professional Activities

Ms. Abbott is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a national elective organization of trust and estate attorneys. She is a member of the Boston and American Bar Associations, as well as the Boston Estate Planning Council and the Planned Giving Group of New England. Ms. Abbott serves on the MCLE Estate Planning Curriculum Advisory Committee and the Boston Bar Association Finance Committee. In 2004, she was selected to participate in the Boston Bar Association’s Public Interest Leadership Program.

Publications/Presentations

Ms. Abbott is a frequent speaker on charitable and estate planning topics at continuing legal education seminars. She is the co-author of “Deathbed Opportunities,” Trusts & Estates Magazine (June 2007); “Ramifications for Estate Planners of the Phase Out of the Federal State Death Tax Credit: Boom, Bust or Unknown,” 38th Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning (2004) and 29 ACTEC Journal 26 (summer 2003); and “Political Activity and Lobbying Rules for Section 501(c) Organizations,” 15 Exempt Organization Tax Review 393 (Dec. 1996).

Professional Experience

From 1995 through 1999, Ms. Abbott was an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., where she practiced in the fields of tax and estate planning. She served as a Senior Manager in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Wealth Transfer Solutions practice from 1999 through 2000.

Bar and Court Admissions

Ms. Abbott is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

Education

J.D., Duke University School of Law, 1994 (magna cum laude)
M.A., Duke University, 1994
B.A., Williams College, 1990 (cum laude with honors in history)