Rob Held

For example, we have:

• Settled a beneficiary’s breach of fiduciary duty claim for 100% of the client’s share of their grandfather’s estate and 100% of the clients’ legal fees  — all as opening statements at trial were about to begin.
• Successfully defended against a judgment creditor‘s aggressive effort to enforce a 9 million dollar judgment against a trust.
• Obtained a judgment in favor of the executor of an estate. The trial court held that a claimant seeking $5,000,000 based on a decedent’s oral promise was not binding on the decedent’s estate, after which the claimant promptly settled the claim for a single de minimis payment.
• Secured a settlement from a claimant who alleged that the estate owed the claimant a 7-figure sum. Turning the case around completely — and based on aggressive motions in both the probate court and federal district court — the claimant discontinued his action and wrote a check to the estate despite the claimant’s claim that the estate was indebted to the claimant.
• Appealed directly to the Illinois Supreme Court and obtained a rare rebuke of a trial judge while bypassing the intermediate court of appeals.  We quickly obtained a “supervisory order” from the highest Illinois court which vacated the trial judge’s order. 
• Obtained a reversal in the Illinois appellate court of a circuit court’s ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to order an accounting of a Delaware partnership. 2020 IL App (1st) 190717.
• On behalf of a decedent’s estate, obtained an extraordinarily favorable settlement after an attorney for the executors had provided improper advice on how to handle multi-million-dollar pension and IRA assets.
• Liaisoned directly with the FBI and the United States Attorney’s office after an executor had been defrauded by a tax preparer who lied about the estate’s tax liabilities and then pocketed the estate’s assets. The preparer was indicted, pled guilty and sentenced to federal prison.  U.S. v Parcon, 1:20-CR-00044.  The convicted tax preparer later made full restitution to the executor, our client
• Intervened on behalf of a stepchild who was fraudulently and completely cut out of an insurer’s payout on a wrongful death settlement. Appearing in two courtrooms hearing-related aspects of the matter, our aggressive approach resulted in an immediate and extremely generous settlement for our client.
• Representing a corporate fiduciary, with aggressive discovery tactics, forced a claimant to reduce his claim to less than 5% of his original multi-million-dollar claim. Later, the claimant withdrew his claim without our client making any payment.
• Successfully had a will contest dismissed where the opposing party was seeking the entire $180,000,000 estate. Thereafter, despite the witnesses to the will being unavailable or unable to remember the will signing,  the will was admitted to probate and confirmed after a full evidentiary hearing.
• When a surviving spouse who had divorced her husband 25 years earlier discovered that the husband had wrongfully hid a million dollars from her and the court, we successfully petitioned to open up the old and long dormant divorce case and relitigated the issue of marital property. After an evidentiary hearing, the estate settled by paying an eight-figure sum to our client and her children.

We have handled many other claims, including breach of fiduciary duty, lost wills, trust interpretation, contempt and related estate and trust disputes.  We have had executors removed and successfully defended fiduciaries whose removal has been sought.