JENNIFER LOCKE

Jennifer Locke is a member of Goodwin Procter’s Trust & Estate Court Practice. She specializes in advising fiduciaries with respect to their duties and responsibilities, risk management and best practices for professional trustees and corporate trust departments. Ms. Locke has developed an in-depth knowledge of the Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code, which became effective on July 8, 2012. She counsels fiduciaries about the expanded rights of trust beneficiaries under the MUTC, virtual representation issues, protections afforded by the various statutes of limitations in the MUTC, and opportunities to settle disputes with limited court intervention.

In addition, Ms. Locke specializes in representing fiduciaries in litigation cases that involve trust and estate matters, including breach of fiduciary duty and removal of trustee actions, disputes over fiduciary accounts, will contests, transfer tax controversies and matters involving the establishment and treatment of trusts in divorce actions. She also works on a variety of other types of matters in the Massachusetts courts, including obtaining court approval of non-judicial settlement agreements and proposed virtual representation, and trust reformation actions brought before the Supreme Judicial Court to correct federal tax problems. Finally, she represents numerous charitable organizations in connection with testamentary bequests and devises.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Ms. Locke is a member of the Trusts & Estates and Fiduciary Litigation sections of the Boston Bar Association. In 1992, she founded the BBA New Estate Planners Group, which she chaired from 1992-1994. She was a member of the BBA Trusts & Estates section Steering Committee from 1994-1999. Ms. Locke served as Program Co-Chair of the Boston Probate & Estate Planning Forum in 2012-2013 and serves on the Forum’s Steering Committee.

Ms. Locke is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Estate Planning Council. She is treasurer of the Boston Fatherless & Widows Society, a charitable organization formed in the 1800s. Ms. Locke also served on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Substance Abuse Advisory Committee chaired by the Honorable Francis P. O'Connor.

MEDIA

Ms. Locke regularly serves as a panelist on seminars hosted by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and the Boston Bar Association. She has participated in numerous seminars on the implementation of the MUTC and estate planning issues arising under the MUTC. She authored the chapter on Declaratory Judgment Actions in MCLE's Fiduciary Litigation in the Probate Court, the "Removal of Trustees" chapter in MCLE's Selected Topics in Fiduciary Litigation; an article entitled the "New Statute on Inheritance Rights of Adopted Children," published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (June 8, 2009); and an article entitled  "Adopted Kids and Old Money," published in Trusts & Estates magazine (October 2009).

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Prior to joining Goodwin Procter in 1992, Ms. Locke served as a law clerk from 1991-1992 to the Honorable Francis P. O’Connor, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS

A member of the Massachusetts state bar, Ms. Locke is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

RECOGNITION

While attending law school, Ms. Locke served as note editor for the Boston College Law Review.