Attorneys | Robert Steele | Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP

New York
270 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10016

Phone:	212-545-4760
Fax:	212-545-4792
Email:	steele@whafh.com

Robert D. Steele is a partner of the firm and head of the Trusts & Estates Department. He practices in the areas of estate planning, taxation and administration of estates and trusts, and not-for-profit corporations. He has extensive experience in estate planning for clients in numerous situations, including small business owners, entrepreneurs, executives of publicly held corporations, and in various family situations including members of traditional and non-traditional families. Mr. Steele has wide experience in drafting wills and various types of trusts. He also has extensive experience in the administration of estates of all sizes and complexity, including the valuation of limited partnerships and closely held corporations. He also has brought or defended actions of many varieties, including will contests and contested fiduciary accountings, and has represented guardians, conservators, and committees, and trust and estate beneficiaries in related court proceedings.

Mr. Steele is a recognized leader in the use of computers and the Internet in all aspects of practicing law, especially in estate planning, estate and trust administration, complex tax calculations, and research, as well as in heir searches, asset valuation, and lost asset searches. Utilizing these technologies allows for more efficient and less costly estate planning and administration.

Mr. Steele is the Trust and Estate Editor of eReport, the American Bar Association’s electronic newsletter of the Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law, and was Managing Editor of its predecessor, E-STATE. He also sits on the ABA Section’s standing committee on Publications.

Mr. Steele is the author of “New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Advisory Opinion on the New York estate taxation of non-resident owned S Corporations and single member LLCs which own New York Real Estate,” eReport, February, 2009, “Internet Research Tools and Estate Planning and Tax Software,” E-STATE issue 2003.2, “The Pro Bono Response to September 11th,” E-STATE issue 2003.1, and co-author of “Preparation of the Federal Estate Tax Return: Schedules B, C, and F," The Practicing Law Institute. He has also been a lecturer at the American Bar Association.

He is rated AV, the highest rating possible from Martindale-Hubbell®, the country's foremost legal directory.

Mr. Steele is a member of the American Bar Association, a member of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law standing Committee on Publications, former chair of the Public Website and E-STATE committee, former vice-chair of the Committee on Technology in the Practice, and is a member of the Committee on Insurance Planning. He is also a member of the New York State Bar Association.

He was admitted to practice law in the State of New York in 1982, and was admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court in 1996. Mr. Steele served a law clerk to an appellate court justice before entering private practice in 1982.

Mr. Steele is a summa cum laude graduate of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Mr. Steele earned his J.D. in 1981 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a Senior Editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law.