Miriam Behman Brody

     Ms. Brody’s extensive trial experience, meticulous attention to detail and creativity all contribute to the favorable, often surprisingly so, results achieved for her clients in her comprehensive estate, trust and probate litigation practice, which also includes hotly contested probate and trust administration matters.  Ms. Brody represents private professional fiduciaries, professional and lay trustees, beneficiaries, heirs, administrators, executors, guardians, conservators, will and trust contestants and respondents and elder abuse claimants and respondents in a wide variety of cases.  She approaches each engagement by identifying the client’s objectives and developing the legal strategy most likely to achieve those objectives.  She is focused. She is result oriented.  She is motivated.

     Ms. Brody has successfully defended Trustees in a variety of actions, including removal petitions, accounting matters and claims of breach of duty and financial elder abuse.  She has negotiated a multi-party settlement that resulted in acquisition of multi-million dollar trust agricultural property, recovered substantial damages from a nursing home for elder abuse and physical injuries, successfully prosecuted financial elder abuse claims resulting in a multi-million dollar settlement, successfully traced and recovered over one million dollars embezzled from the estate of an elderly widow, successfully unwound fraudulent transfers of multi-millions of dollars worth of commercial and residential real property, defended sexual abuse charges leveled against a decedent’s estate, obtaining a favorable settlement for the estate, successfully proved a testator’s intent through admission of extrinsic evidence to explain an ambiguous testamentary instrument resulting in obtaining a substantial inheritance for her client, successfully recaptured estate assets fraudulently converted by one  beneficiary through undue influence and elder abuse, successfully established the invalidity of fraudulently obtained powers of attorney and other estate planning documents and successfully defended one trustee and the applicable estate plan from a petition seeking to remove the trustee and to void the estate plan based on successfully defended claims of incapacity and undue influence. 

     She has successfully defended a lender at a 3 week jury trial against claims of tortious interference with contract involving trust property.  The defense verdict was obtained despite that plaintiff was awarded damages against the other two defendants and punitive damages against one of them.  She has also on multiple occasions enforced the community property rights of surviving widows, recovering millions of dollars in real estate, marketable securities and cash, by pressing claims for fraud, conversion, unauthorized gifting and the like, including obtaining temporary orders to freeze bank accounts and brokerage accounts pending trial to ensure the availability of assets to satisfy resulting judgments.

     When engaged to represent a Trustee in contested Trust Administration matters, Ms. Brody’s advice is invaluable in negotiating real estate transactions, brokering non pro rata distribution of estate assets between competing beneficiaries, resolving creditor’s claims, obtaining modification of a trust instrument and/or obtaining court approval of the Trustee’s proposed action where contentiousness amongst beneficiaries requires it.  Above all, Ms. Brody will protect the interests of her client and achieve the best possible obtainable result.