Succession Planning is Coming to New Jersey: Will You Be Ready?
Date: Oct 22, 2025 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Location: New Jersey Law Center, New Brunswick, and Online
Member Price: $177.00
Non-Member Price: $209.00
Section Price: $0.00
Areas of Law: Ethics
Earn up to 3 credits, including 3.0 in Ethics! (More Information)
Keynote
Moderator
- Steven L. Menaker, Esq.
- Member of the Disciplinary Review Board
Chasan Lamparello Mallon & Cappuzzo, PC, Secaucus
Presenters
- Thomas R. Curtin, Esq.
- Past President, New Jersey State Bar Association
McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP, Morristown - Catherine Finnerty, Esq.
- Goldman & Beslow, LLC, East Orangeis an associate with Goldman & Beslow, LLC with offices in East Orange, Newark, Paterson and Jersey City, New Jersey. She devotes a substantial portion of her practice to bankruptcy and debtor-creditor negotiations and handles all issues pertaining to Chapter 7, Chapter 13, foreclosure defense and mediation, debt collection defense, debtor-creditor negotiations and consumer representation. In addition to bankruptcy and debtor-creditor law, Ms. Finnerty has experience in real estate matters, simple Wills, powers of attorney, living wills, and municipal court matters involving traffic tickets, disorderly persons offenses, and violations of municipal ordinances. She also represents clients in residential real estate transactions, and has experience helping property owners who desire to sell their property via short sale, are at risk of foreclosure, or who cannot make their mortgage payments.
Admitted to practice law in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, Ms. Finnerty has been a member of the American and New York State Bar Associations and the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association. She has been a member of the NJSBA Bankruptcy Law and Women in the Profession Sections, and is Secretary of the Solo and Small Firm Section. Ms. Finnerty is a member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and the American Bankruptcy Institute. She has also volunteered with South Jersey Legal Services, Legal Services of New Jersey and the Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, and represents clients throughout their entire bankruptcy cases.
Ms. Finnerty received her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University, where she was the recipient of the New York Building Industry Scholarship and the Eugene Raskin Prizer for Spanish. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a member of the Law Review and the recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award in Torts.
(8/23) - Carol Johnston, Esq.
- Former Chair of the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics
Carol Johnston Ethics Law, Princeton - Ryan J. Moriarty, Esq.
- Assistant Ethics Counsel & Statewide Ethics Coordinator, Office of Attorney Ethics, Trenton
To protect client interests if an attorney is unable to practice because of disbarment, disability or death, the Administrative Office of the Courts will now request all New Jersey attorneys in private practice to disclose what succession planning the attorney has undertaken. This will begin with the 2026 annual attorney registration.
Those in law firms will be able to rely upon their employers to assign successor attorneys for their clients. But for the more than 13,000 attorneys who are solos or in two-person law firms, the burden of succession planning – with its ethical issues and practical problems – rests exclusively on them.
A distinguished panel – Steven Menaker Esq. (Member of the Supreme Court Disciplinary Review Board), Thomas R. Curtin, Esq. (Past President, NJSBA), Carol Johnston, Esq. (Former Secretary, Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics), Ryan J. Moriarty, Esq. (Assistant Ethics Counsel and Statewide Ethics Coordinator of the Office of Attorney Ethics) and Catherine Finnerty, Esq. (Past Chair, NJSBA Solo and Small Firm Section) – will discuss New Jersey succession planning, the ethical issues and practical problems in succession planning, strategies for developing a succession plan and will offer answers to questions and solutions to problems which have been raised by attorneys in other states which have already mandated succession planning.
The program has been approved for up to three ethics credits.
We encourage you to register today.
Program Agenda:
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10:00 | Introduction - Steven L Menacker, Esq.
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10:05 | What is New Jersey Succession Planning?
- What might it look like?
- What other jurisdictions have done
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10:20 | Ethical Considerations
- Competence (1.1), diligence (1.3), communications (1.4), confidentiality, conflicts (1.7), safekeeping property, including client files (1.15), terminating representation (1.16), sale of law practice (1.17), Reporting malpractice (8.3)
- Competence (1.1), diligence (1.3), communications (1.4), confidentiality, conflicts (1.7), safekeeping property, including client files (1.15), terminating representation (1.16), sale of law practice (1.17), Reporting malpractice (8.3)
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10:50 | Practical Issues
- Selecting the successor
- Malpractice coverage
- Financing the successor (life insurance)
- Tips for managing or selling another’s practice
- Closing your own practice
- Retirement issues
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11:20 | Suggested Plan Components
- Written plan
- Will provision
- Insurance to fund
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11:50 | Frequently Asked Questions and Some Suggestions
- What if I discover a potential malpractice claim against the planning attorney?
- The planning attorney’s former client is asking questions. What information can I disclose?
- I want to represent the planning attorney’s former clients. May I?
- What are the pros and cons of giving someone access to my trust account?
- Am I permitted to also be the attorney for the planning attorney?
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12:20 | Q&A
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12:30 | Adjourn
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Digital Materials & Environmental Commitment: As part of our commitment to environmental sustainability, unless otherwise noted, all seminar materials are provided as digital downloads. You can access these materials through:
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Cancellation and Refund Policy:
If you need to cancel your registration and are not transferring to another program or date, please submit a written request to us at least three business days before the event, meeting, or gathering. You will receive a refund minus a $20.00 cancellation fee. No refunds or registration changes will be issued within three business days of the event, meeting, or gathering.
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