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Susan T. House Elected 2017-2018 President of ACTEC

82 Nominees Elected as Fellows of Leading Estate Planning Organization

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2017 – The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a prestigious association of highly-credentialed trust and estate lawyers, has elected Susan T. House as President for the 2017- 2018 year. ACTEC inaugurated its new officers during its Annual Meeting earlier this month in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Ms. House, a partner with Hahn & Hahn LLP in Pasadena, California, is the head of the firm’s trust and estates practice group and has been certified by The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization as a Certified Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Specialist.  She handles primarily complex estate planning and trust and estates administration, and she is often called upon to mediate litigated matters and to advise other lawyers on ethical issues that arise in the trust and estates context.  She is nationally recognized as a speaker and panelist in trust and estates programs.

Elected to ACTEC membership in 1987, Ms. House has been a member of the Board of Regents, California State Chair, Chair of the Membership, Program and Long Range Planning Committees, and an ACTEC Delegate to the Joint Editorial Board for the Uniform Trust and Estate Acts.  She has also been a member of the Elder Law and Professional Responsibility Committees, the Academic Fellows Committee, the Financial Management and Audit Committees, the Sponsorship Committee and the ACTEC Foundation.

Ms. House served on the Executive Committee of the Trusts and Estates Section of the California State Bar for 11 years, during which time she was Editor of the California Trusts and Estates Quarterly published by the Section and was Chair of the Section in 1998-1999.  She has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer since 2004, and in 2009, she received the prestigious Arthur K. Marshall Award given by the Trusts & Estates Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.  She earned her J.D. from University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Los Angeles, California, and her A.B. from Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts.

At the Scottsdale meeting, the Board of Regents elected the following 2017-2018 officers, each of whom will serve on the Executive Committee and on the Board of Regents:

  • President-Elect:  Charles D. Fox IV (Charlottesville, VA)
  • Vice-President:  John A. Terrill II (West Conshohocken, PA)
  • Treasurer:  Stephen R. Akers (Dallas, TX)
  • Secretary:  Ann B. Burns (Minneapolis, MN)

Immediate Past President, Cynda C. Ottaway, of Oklahoma City, OK, will also serve on the Executive Committee and as a Regent during the 2017-2018 year.

At the ACTEC Fall Meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, the Board of Regents elected the following nominees to be Fellows of the College:

  • AR:      Sarah Cotton Patterson (Little Rock)
  • AZ:       Prescott B. Pohl (Phoenix)
  • CA:       David W. Baer (Orinda)
  •             Philip J. Hayes (San Francisco)
  •             Ellen McKissock (San Jose)
  •             Justin T. Miller (San Francisco)
  • CO:      Clara Brown Shaffer (Grand Junction)
  •             Herbert E. Tucker (Denver)
  • CT:       Christopher S. Drew (Avon)
  •             Darren M. Wallace (Stamford)
  •             Karen E. Yates (New Haven)
  • DE:      Charles J. Durante (Wilmington)
  • FL:       Keith B. Braun (Palm Beach Gardens)
  •             M. Travis Hayes (Naples)
  • GA:      Kimberly E. Civins (Atlanta)
  •             Mary B. Galardi (Brookhaven)
  • HI:       Rosemarie Sam (Honolulu)
  •             Jared Kawashima (Honolulu)
  • IA:       Matthew Gardner (Urbandale)
  •             Kyle S. Irvin (Sioux City)
  • ID:       Darin DeAngeli (Boise)
  •             Dennis Voorhees (Twin Falls)
  • IL:        Svetlana V. Bekman (Chicago)
  •             David  A. Berek (Chicago)
  •             Bobbi J. Bierhals (Chicago)
  •             David  C. Blickenstaff (Chicago)
  •             James H. Cundiff (Chicago)
  •             Barbara Grayson (Chicago)
  •             Benjamin N. Feder (Northbrook)
  •             Kirk A. Hoopingarner (Chicago)
  •             Pamela Lucina (Chicago)
  •             Karin   C. Prangley (Chicago)
  •             Christine R.W. Quigley (Chicago)
  •             Anita M. Sarafa (Chicago)
  •             Stacy E. Singer (Chicago)
  •             J. Andrew P. Stone (Chicago)
  •             Ryan A. Walsh (Chicago)
  •             Neil H. Weinberg (Chicago)
  • IN:       Richard O. Kissel II (Indianapolis)
  •             Cindy A.  Wolfer (Fort Wayne)
  • LA:       Robert L. Perez (New Orleans)
  • MA:     Kelly Aylward (Boston)
  •             M. Bradford Bedingfield (Boston)
  •            Joseph D. Kropp (Wellesley)
  •             David  L. Silvian (Boston)
  •             Christopher J. Ward (Orleans)
  •             Amiel Z. Weinstock (Boston)
  • MD:     David  C. Dembert (Baltimore)
  • MI:      Robert B. Labe (Birmingham)
  •            Jennifer L. Remondino (Holland)
  •            Geoffrey R. Vernon (Saint Clair Shores)
  • MN:     Michael P. Sampson (Minneapolis)
  •             Karen Sandler Steinert (Minneapolis)
  • NC:      Heidi E. Royal (Charlotte)
  • NE:      Christina L. Ball (Lincoln)
  • NH:      Catherine Richmond (Hanover)
  • NJ:       Philip C. Corbo (Roseland)
  • NY:      Mitchell A. Drossman (New York)
  •             Sharon L. Klein (New York)
  •             Paul S. Lee (New York)
  •             Hannah W. Mensch (New York)
  •             Zena M. Tamler (New York)
  • OH:      Christina D’Eramo Evans (Cleveland)
  •             Victor J. Ferguson (Columbus)
  •             Edwin P. Morrow III (Dayton)
  •             Frances Mitchell Schaul (Cleveland)
  • OR:      Hilary A. Newcomb (Portland)
  • PA:       Jeffrey Thomas Getty (Pittsburgh)
  •             Aubrey H. Glover (Bridgeville)
  •             Adam  T. Gusdorff (West Conshohocken)
  •             Eric R. Strauss (Allentown)
  • TX:       Amy P. Jetel (Austin)
  • WA:     Katie S. Groblewski (Seattle)
  •             Rochelle L. Haller (Seattle)
  • WI:      Philip J. Miller (Milwaukee)
  •             Melissa Kampmann (Wausau)

Academic Fellows:

  • CA:       Professor David O. Horton, University of California, Davis, School of Law (Davis)
  •              Professor E. Gary Spitko, Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara)
  • DC:      Professor Naomi Cahn, George Washington University School of Law (Washington)
  • ND:      Professor Bradley Myers, University of North Dakota, (Grand Forks)
  • TX:       Professor Joshua Tate, SMU Dedman School of Law (Dallas)

International Fellow:

  • Portugal:        Miguel Teixeira De Abreu (Lisbon)         

Established in 1949, The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) is a nonprofit association of 2,600 trust and estate lawyers peer-elected to membership based on substantial contributions to the field of trusts and estates law.  ACTEC offers technical comments about the law and its effective administration, but does not take positions on matters of policy or political objectives.