CORPORATE LAW

Given its foundation in tax and estate planning law, Teahan & Constantino LLP lawyers necessarily get involved with corporate, LLC and other business transactions for their clients.   Our goal, as with all other areas of our practice, is to give our clients a foundation on which to s grow their assets, in a tax context that will also allow them to keep what they have after the imposition of present or future taxes.

The firm devotes a significant part of its business practice to the purchase and sale of businesses and business assets, with asset purchases and sales (with their associated tax attributes) being of significant interest to a number of our clients.  We  work on structuring corporate buy/sell and LLC operating agreements aimed at assisting in business continuity amidst possible buyout of investor/shareholder/member interests.   Finally, we have developed expertise in the areas of environmental law and assisting clients to deal with Federal and New York regulatory agencies.

REAL ESTATE LAW

The firm’s clients need to be able to sell business and personal real estate and also to achieve, if possible, their chosen goals and purposes for the development of real estate.  To meet this demand, we handle conveyancing matters, but also have a concentration of practice in the areas of zoning and planning law and disputes concerning the same.    Richard I. Cantor, who supervises the firm’s real estate practice, has more than 40 years’ experience with land use law, as well as controversies and litigation focusing on real estate matters and works closely with the firm’s tax and trusts and estates lawyers where those practice areas intersect with real estate.

TAX LAW

The partners formed Teahan & Constantino to provide the Hudson Valley with legal services concentrating on tax law and the related area of  trusts and estates law.   More than 25 years thereafter, the firm’s continues its primary focus on these areas.

James P. Constantino, who holds  LLM degree (New York University School of Law), an MS in accounting (from the State University of New York at Albany)  and CPA license, is charged with primary responsibility for the firm’s personal and business  tax practice and focuses on a few primary areas of tax law:

• Tax planning, including the consideration of what business unit (corporate, limited liability company, partnership, etc) the client chooses to build his or her business venture, after taking account of the tax attributes and suitability of each entity and transactional tax advice.    In these matters, the firm’s tax lawyers frequently finds themselves working together with colleagues in  one or more of its other practice areas – when it comes to handling business acquisitions, sales and mergers.   The goal is to add value by helping the client take a long term view, rather than simply handling a transaction.

• Tax Disputes: We are frequently engaged when clients are notified, or think they will soon be notified, of potential civil liability and/or criminal liability.   The client’s tax picture is, in a word, broken, and our job is, if possible, to fix it.   The firm’s lawyers, assisted by three Enrolled Agents with long experience in tax disputes, collections matters and the analysis of complex tax returns, , handle a broad range of disputed tax matters including Federal and New York civil tax and criminal tax  examinations and investigations involving income, employment and sales taxes, and seek to resolve these matters through administrative proceedings and/or litigation.

TRUST AND ESTATE PLANNING, ADMINISTRATION AND LITIGATION

Since its formation, Teahan & Constantino has concentrated its practice on planning and administration of trusts and estates, besides tax law.   A client owning substantial assets faces potential difficulties connected with managing assets through old age (and possible incapacity).   After death, the large estates must pay Federal and New York estate taxes, sometimes at marginal rates of nearly 50 percent.  Our job is to help the client keep what he or she has, while at the same time helping the client build assets for the benefit of the family, charity, or both.  Lawyers in the firm’s tax and estates departments work together to organize client family business ventures so that, ideally from the start, the family can build assets for the long term, if possible on a tax-advantaged basis.

To be effective in accomplishing client goals, estate planning has to go well beyond mere consideration of tax advantages.   We stand ready, therefore,  to help clients build family wealth in a way that best serves their goals for overall family well-being.   This can often involve creation of multi-generational trusts for families.  It is in the combination of tax
planning and personal wealth planning that we seek to add value to the family’s estate planning equation.

After the death of a client, we administer  estates and trusts with a view toward successful resolution of possible estate tax audits  and maximum efficiency in asset disposal and distribution.

Vincent L. Teahan is charged with overall responsibility for managing the firm’s trusts and estates practice.

Trust and estate litigation makes up an important part of the firm’s practice, and we frequently represent clients in contested will and trust proceedings in Surrogate’s Courts throughout New York State.  Over the years, we have built up expertise in analyzing issues connected with  undue influence and lack of testamentary capacity, and their effect on wills and trusts.  We endeavor to fix what’s broken with plans that have adversely affected our clients.

Stephen C. F. Diamond is charged  with responsibility for managing the firm’s trusts and estates litigation practice.