icole B. Cordeiro recently became an equity partner at Smith Duggan Cornell & Gollub LLP. She chairs the firm’s Family Law practice and co-chairs the Trusts and Estates practice.
Trusts & Estates
Nicole offers clients a range of estate planning services, from simple to complex plans, including various tax-sheltering strategies. Nicole is part of a team of experts dedicated to providing planning and resources to clients with loved ones who have special needs.
In her estate-planning practice, Nicole expertly prepares vital documents such as wills and trusts, special needs trusts, charitable trusts, Medicaid asset protection trusts, and other trusts that facilitate transfer of assets with fewer tax consequences. Nicole also drafts documents that are necessary to have during one’s lifetime, including durable powers of attorney, health care proxies and living wills. She is available to address a range of related issues in elder law.
Nicole’s skillful direction in preparing these essential estate-planning documents empowers individuals to determine how their assets and medical decisions will be managed during their lifetime or in the event of incapacity or death, ensuring that her clients navigate these processes with confidence and peace of mind.
Nicole goes beyond mere document creation. She provides invaluable guidance in integrating crucial decisions into comprehensive estate plans tailored to each client's needs. Her expertise also extends to estate and trust administration, as well as probate litigation.
Family Law & Probate Litigation
With 18 years of experience, Nicole is committed to fostering reasonable and civil resolutions of complex family disputes. She has extensive experience in resolving matters that involve the Department of Children and Families, restraining orders, criminal complaints, domestic abuse, and coercive control. Nicole handles high net worth family matters and provides creative resolutions to complex asset divisions involving business valuations, property valuations, and real estate transactions.
Nicole’s background in estate planning, combined with her extensive litigation experience, equips her to efficiently address thorny probate litigation matters, including breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, trustee removal, and will contests.
She has substantial litigation experience before the Massachusetts Superior Court, Massachusetts Probate and Family Court, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Nicole honed her litigation skills as a prosecutor in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, where she prosecuted a variety of felonies.
Nicole's diverse legal expertise allows clients to work with a single attorney who can handle various aspects of their cases. Her extensive knowledge leads to the development of comprehensive problem-solving strategies, enabling her to effectively resolve even the most complex disputes.
