Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, PFS, AEP (distinguished), JD, is an attorney in private practice in Fort Lee, New Jersey and New York City.

Practice:

Estate and tax planning, planning for closely held businesses, estate administration.

Writing:

Author of 42 books and more than 1,000 articles. Editorial Board Member of Trusts & Estates Magazine, CCH (Wolter’s Kluwer), and the Matrimonial Strategist. Has previously served on the editorial board of many other tax, estate and real estate publications.

Awards:

The 1994 Probate and Property Excellence in Writing Award. Alfred C. Clapp Award presented in 2007 by the New Jersey Bar Association and the Institute for Continuing Legal Education for excellence in continuing legal education. Worth Magazine’s Top 100 Attorneys (2008). CPA Magazine Top 50 IRS Tax Practitioners (April/May 2008). Article “Estate Planning for Clients with Parkinson’s”, received the “Editors Choice Award” in 2008 from Practical Estate Planning Magazine. Article “Integrating Religious Considerations into Estate and Real Estate Planning”, awarded the 2008 “The Best Articles Published by the ABA”. New Jersey Super Lawyers, (2010-15). Book Estate Planning for People with a Chronic Condition or Disability, nominated for the 2009 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award. 2012 recipient of the AICPA Sidney Kess Award for Excellence in Continuing Education for CPAs. 2013 Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planning Counsels. Financial Planning Magazine 2012 Pro Bono Financial Planner of the Year for efforts on behalf of those living with chronic illness and disability. Investment Adviser Magazine cover of its April 2013 issue as the lead of their all star lineup of tax experts. June 2015 he delivered the Hess Memorial Lecture for the New York City Bar Association.

Media:

Frequent source for numerous national publications, guest expert appearances on major financial and other television and radio shows.

Charity/Community:

Active in many charitable and community causes and organizations. Founded ChronicIllnessPlanning.org which educates professional advisers on planning for clients with chronic illness and disability and which has been the subject of more than a score of articles. Written books for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the COPD Foundation. Presented more than 60 lectures around the country on this topic for professional organizations charities and others. More than 50 of the articles he has published have addressed planning for those facing the challenges of chronic illness and disability. American Brain Foundation Board (1/1/16).

Education:

Bachelor of Science degree from Wharton School, concentration in accounting and economics. MBA from the University of Michigan, concentration in tax and finance. Law degree from Fordham University School of Law. Admitted to the bar in New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. CPA in New Jersey, Michigan, and New York. Registered Investment Adviser in New York and New Jersey.

Websites:

shenkmanlaw.com; www.laweasy.com; www.chronicillnesspIanning.org (under construction).

Melvyn H. Bergstein brings extensive civil litigation experience to Shenkman Law. Mel concentrates his practice primarily in commercial, probate, and employment litigation.

Mel is a Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, recognized by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as having met stringent certification criteria. These include, among other requirements, a demonstration of significant trial experience and recommendations by fellow attorneys and judges on the basis of his reputation, character and ability. As a Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, Mel is part of an elite group that includes less than three percent of all New Jersey attorneys.

Mel has significant jury and non-jury trial experience in a broad range of civil litigation cases. He has represented and litigated against an array of Fortune 500 companies and individual clients in complex litigation before state and federal courts. Mel is also an able practitioner of alternative dispute resolution; he has completed Harvard Law School’s program in mediation and negotiation and uses his variety of skills to resolve his clients’ disputes by whatever means most effectively serves their goals.

Over the course of his career, Mel has frequently participated as a lecturer in numerous programs in New Jersey and throughout the country. He was honored by the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education with the Alfred C. Clapp Award for Excellence in Legal Education for his more than 40 years of lecturing on a variety of topics such as “The Psychology of the Trial and the Trial Lawyer,” “The Art and Craft of Conducting Depositions,” and “Winning Strategies in Litigation.”

During much of his career, Mel taught as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School in Newark. Among the courses he innovated were the Psychodynamics of Lawyering, Litigating an Employment Discrimination Case and Science Fiction and the Law. In addition, he served the New Jersey legal community as a member of various Supreme Court committees, including the Board on Trial Attorney Certification.

The Essex County Bar Association selected Mel as Civil Trial Attorney of the Year in 1999. He is past president of that association and is a member of the Editorial Board of the New Jersey Law Journal since the mid-80s. He was recognized in New Jersey Monthly magazine’s “Super Lawyers” in 2009.

Mel received a B.A. from Lehigh University and an LLD from Rutgers University Law School—Newark. He is a member of the bars of New Jersey and New York.