Lisa Cukier is a partner and cochair of the Private Client Group and Chair of the Fiduciary Litigation Group. With a practice split among complex trust and estate litigation, service as a trustee and conservator, and sophisticated high-asset family law matters and family business disputes, Lisa is considered one of the most tactical, strategic, passionate, and creative attorneys in her field. Additionally, Lisa has a niche practice in matters impacted by diminishing capacity, such as undue influence and financial exploitation controversies and guardianship and conservatorship strategic intervention matters.

 

Lisa has earned a reputation as an attorney to whom other attorneys often refer their highly complicated, sophisticated, or “unresolvable” cases. She serves as trustee and guardian and conservator for her clients upon request, orchestrating high-touch concierge-level service to clients who wish to have her personal oversight of their life affairs. She also acts as a private adjudicator for creative resolution of challenging custody and guardianship and trust disputes.

 

Lisa serves as an expert witness for other fiduciary litigators. She also is periodically appointed by probate court judges to serve as a special master to investigate or make recommendations to the court and the litigants in high-profile high-conflict, or crisis situations. In this role, she serves as the architect of case resolution, executing strategic action plans and monitoring compliance with court orders. She is often asked by the courts to serve as guardian ad litem for minor children in high-conflict divorce and trust disputes and to represent elders who are at risk of financial exploitation by third parties.

 

Over the years, she has helped shaped laws and taken on pro bono matters to redress inequities and inequalities for vulnerable populations, such as individuals with cognitive disabilities and mental illness, children needing adoption, elders who are financially exploited, and children experiencing gender variance.

 

Lisa regularly works with family offices, providing legal solutions to protect the infrastructure of client wealth and family stability amid destabilizing events. Such events can include incapacity, death, divorce, blended family strife, mental health or addiction issues, and outside variables such as late-life romance and the influence of third parties in the lives of older Americans who are experiencing dementias and diminished capacity.

 

Recognized for her expertise and skill, Lisa is a frequent speaker on the topics of trust and estate litigation, estate planning, and family law, including undue influence and financial exploitation of elders.