Verrill Welcomes Two Highly Esteemed Attorneys to the Firm’s Private Clients & Fiduciary Services Group

BOSTON, Massachusetts – Verrill is pleased to welcome Mary H. Schmidt and Julie Braverman Bruno to the firm’s Private Clients & Fiduciary Services Group as Counsel, in the firm’s Boston office. Both Schmidt and Braverman Bruno join Verrill from Schmidt & Federico, P.C., where Schmidt was a founding partner.

Schmidt brings to the firm a wealth of experience in trusts and estates, domestic relations and probate litigation at the trial and appellate levels, complementing the experience and knowledge of the firm’s growing group of family law and private clients lawyers. Schmidt’s practice includes sophisticated gift, estate and income tax planning, trust and estate planning, prenuptial and post nuptial agreement preparation, negotiation and litigation, and estate administration.

Schmidt has lectured extensively on domestic relations, tax and trust and estate subjects, including issues related to same sex couples. She has also authored chapters for a number of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education publications and since 2012 she has been a co-editor of the Massachusetts Probate Law Sourcebooks. She serves as an expert witness in the Massachusetts probate and superior courts. She has also been frequently appointed by the Probate & Family Court to serve as a fiduciary and guardian ad litem in various probate and family law matters. Schmidt served on the committee that drafted the new Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University, her law degree at the University of Chicago School of Law, and her LL.M. at the Boston University School of Law.

Braverman Bruno focuses her practice on sophisticated trust and estate planning, gift, estate and income tax planning, estate administration and prenuptial agreement preparation.

Braverman Bruno also has experience working in other proceedings in the Massachusetts Probate and Family Law Court, including divorces, adoptions, conservatorships, guardianships, and name changes. Prior to working in estate planning and family law, Braverman Bruno worked for over a decade as a corporate tax planning attorney at Dewey Ballantine LLP in New York City where she was named Counsel. Her practice focus was representing equity investors in complex tax-driven domestic and international transactions.

Prior to law school, Braverman Bruno worked for four years on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide to Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL), the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Braverman Bruno received her Juris Doctor from the University of Buffalo Law School where she served on the Buffalo Law Review and her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Rochester.

“We are thrilled to have Mary and Julie join Verrill,” says Jacqueline W. Rider, Chair of the Private Clients & Fiduciary Services Group. “We are fortunate to have attracted so many talented attorneys to our practice group, allowing us to expand the depth of our services to our clients.”

Following Verrill’s combination with Rackemann earlier this year and the addition of other talented lawyers, Verrill’s Private Clients & Fiduciary Services Group has grown by 65% in attorney headcount over the past year.