Editor: Tell us about your background and professional experience.
Swirbalus : I was born and raised in Boston, traveled two hours north to attend Dartmouth College, and then came back to Boston to attend Boston College Law School. I'm now a partner in the Boston office of Day Pitney.
I do a specialized kind of litigation work, handling probate and trust and estate disputes. It's a busy area of the law, and I think it will only get busier. The transfer of enormous wealth we expect over the coming years will undoubtedly give rise to more disputes, and there will also be a greater need for the type of counseling we do on how to avoid those disputes.
I lead the Probate Controversies group here in our Boston office. The group consists of trial lawyers like myself and lawyers trained in trust and estate and tax matters. We take a team approach, with the trial lawyer up front supported by any technical expertise that he or she may need. I think this model gives us and our clients a true advantage.
Much of our work involves representing individuals, but we also represent banks and trust companies and charitable organizations. The legal issues in these cases can be quite complicated, the facts are almost always fascinating, and the stakes can be extremely high, both emotionally and monetarily. I've been fortunate enough to handle a number of significant cases. It's really been rewarding professionally. Of course, the fact that we've enjoyed so much success in these cases may skew my outlook.
Editor: How long have you been with the firm in Boston?
Swirbalus : I've been with the firm since 2001. The Boston office itself has been in place for more than 25 years now. We celebrated our 25th anniversary a couple of years ago.
Editor: How large is the Boston Office?
Swirbalus : We have about 40 lawyers in Boston. Overall, Day Pitney is a firm of about 400 lawyers.
Editor: What are some of the leading practice areas?
Swirbalus : Too numerous to list, frankly. We're a full-service firm, and I think all of our departments are strong. For starters, we have one of the largest and most sophisticated trusts and estates departments in the country - we call it the Individual Clients department - and the trusts and estates lawyers in the Boston office are an important part of that department. We have the luxury of being perhaps the only firm in Boston able to handle everything relating to individual clients under one roof, from traditional estate planning, trust administration and estate administration to international planning, special needs planning and probate litigation. Relatively few law firms and lawyers in Boston actually do this litigation work.
Editor: When you try to attract young law graduates from outside the region, what do you say about Boston as a place to live and work?
Swirbalus : I think living in Boston is an easy sell, but I may be biased because this is my home. Boston is also a great place to be a lawyer. It has the advantage of offering top flight legal work despite being a smaller legal market than New York, for example. It's not at all uncommon to see the same lawyers again and again. I often hear people say that Boston is a small city, and I think that's especially true for lawyers. We tend to know each other and so establishing and maintaining a good reputation is critically important.
Editor: What practice areas are particularly strong in the Boston office?
Swirbalus : I should point out that we handle just about every kind of legal matter in the Boston office because we're able to draw on the resources of the entire firm, no matter where those resources may be physically located. That's one of the advantages of being a larger, full-service firm.
That being said, I already touched on our individual clients' practice in Boston. Our labor and employment practice in Boston is also very strong, as is our litigation practice, which includes white collar defense and commercial litigation. Prior to our merger in 2007, we were known historically as a litigation firm, and that tradition continues. We also have a number of very smart, highly regarded lawyers in the areas of corporate law, bankruptcy and creditors rights, institutional finance and commercial lending. And our energy practice in Boston is an extension of our nationally recognized energy practice based in Washington DC.
Editor: Would you share with us your thoughts on how the Boston office fits into the firm-wide structure?
Swirbalus : Our Boston office is one of the firm's nine offices, stretching from Boston through Connecticut, New York and New Jersey and down to Washington DC. With this footprint, we might be viewed as a regional firm focusing on the Northeast Corridor, but we actually represent clients all over the country and even overseas. I think our reach can be attributed to the quality of our work. Because of the conveniences of technology, office location almost becomes a secondary consideration.
Culturally, I can tell you that our Boston office is a special place. We're able to do the type of sophisticated legal work you'd find in the largest of firms, but we do it in a collegial environment that's more typical in a smaller firm. I actually believe this collegiality helps to improve our work product because it promotes collaboration. It's a real benefit to be able to bounce ideas off colleagues whose doors are always open and who are always eager to listen and help.
Editor: I would think there is a big demand for estate work as a result of people moving to or having places on Cape Cod.
Swirbalus : There is, in fact. We do estate planning and related work for clients who have retired on Cape Cod. This may be straying a bit from your question, but we also handle probate litigation matters for out-of-state clients who find themselves involved in a dispute here in Massachusetts. For example, a client in New Jersey might have a grandmother who retired and passed away on Cape Cod, and the client will need help with a probate issue relating to the grandmother's estate. It is not at all uncommon for us to receive those kinds of calls. Interestingly, some of these clients call us after reading about our probate litigation practice or about a case we handled on the Internet.
Editor: I think that one of the big pluses for a lot of firms and something that is talked about a lot by them is diversity.
Swirbalus : We're certainly committed to diversity. It's one of the firm's core values. We strive for diversity at all levels throughout the firm, and we've enacted a number of diversity initiatives and programs under the direction of our Director of Professional Development, Diversity & Legal Recruiting. We've been quite successful in this area.
The same goes for pro bono work. Here in the Boston office we helped to develop the Child Health Advocacy Partnership. As we describe on our website, in 2005 we partnered with the Medical Legal Partnership of the Boston Medical Center to staff a clinic at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, a medical facility servicing a low-income neighborhood. We assist patients at the Center by responding to "prescriptions" for legal services written by clinicians who identify legal causes for the medical problems they're treating. For example, for a child with a recurring respiratory problem, the source of the problem may be legal rather than medical in nature because the child's family lives in a tenement that doesn't meet code requirements and where the air quality is poor. In this situation, the clinician might refer the patient's family to us, and we then try to assess the problem and do whatever we can to fix it. Sometimes that means handling the matter ourselves on a pro bono basis, and sometimes that means referring the matter to Greater Boston Legal Services or some other legal assistance organization with a specialized focus.
I believe we were the first firm in Massachusetts, and one of the first in the country, to partner with a medical facility to provide this holistic approach to these kinds of problems. It's been exciting, and it's also been remarkably well supported by our lawyers. Even our summer associates get involved.
Editor: What about the financial and economic crisis? The repercussions it has on people and their personal wealth and circumstances might drive them to seek legal help.
Swirbalus: Traditionally, litigation work tends to ramp up when the economy is down because clients, whether businesses or individuals, are looking for alternative sources of income. Litigation can be one of those sources, and probate litigation is no exception. As heirs and beneficiaries find themselves not being provided for in a way they had hoped, because of diminished assets, an unexpected bequest or some other reason, we expect to see an upsurge in disputes. In fact, we're already starting to see it.
Editor: Because of the economic situation, people may want to review their wills and estate plans.
Swirbalus : Yes, it's important to review estate planning documents periodically anyway, but it may be especially important now with the anticipated changes in tax laws. This kind of review should be done not only to make sure that estate assets are maximized and distributed appropriately, but also to make sure that everything possible is being done to avoid some sort of controversy going down the road. We try to use our experience in resolving conflicts to prevent those conflicts from happening in the first place.
Editor: I would also assume there is greater interest in reviewing estate plans generally now because some of the earlier planning activities anticipated continuing increases in asset values.
Swirbalus : I think that's right. The whole landscape has changed - here in Massachusetts and everywhere else. A client's assets may look a lot different today than they did six months ago. Also, the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code, which was passed into law just last month, changes the way estates will be probated in Massachusetts in the future. The new rules could affect how the planning is done. On the one hand we try to anticipate change when we draft estate plans, but on the other hand it always makes sense to take another look when there have been substantial changes in the surrounding environment.
For more information about Day Pitney and the Child Health Advocacy Partnership, visit http://www.daypitney.com/ about/probono.
Published March 1, 2009.
