S. Andrew Pharies and Ellen H. Whelan have joined as partners and Michelle C. Glasser, Gretchen Tomanek Shaffer, Erin E. Norberg and Liliana Menzie as special counsel in Duane Morris LLP’s Private Client Services Practice Group in its San Diego office. The attorneys join Duane Morris from DLA Piper.
“We have once again attracted marquee talent to our firm, highlighting that Duane Morris is a destination for stellar, high-performing attorneys,” said firm Chairman and CEO Matthew A. Taylor. “Our momentum and growth trajectory in California continues to be exciting and we will continue to expand in the state.”
“This well-experienced team certainly enhances our practice group and achieves our strategic goal of establishing a West Coast presence to complement our East Coast strengths,” said Michael D. Grohman, chair of the firm’s Private Client Services Practice Group. “Additionally, our Duane Morris platform provides Andy, Ellen and their team with access and resources to advance their work, especially in key markets like New York and Florida,” added Amy J. Guss, vice and incoming chair of the firm’s Private Client Services Practice Group.
“We are so pleased to welcome Andy and Ellen to our dynamic and collaborative office. Their experience and capabilities will enable us to now offer a full range of legal services to our local clients,” added Edward Cramp, managing partner of the Duane Morris San Diego office.
S. Andrew Pharies practices in all aspects of domestic and international estate planning, trust and estate administration, tax planning, charitable planning, exempt organizations, family business planning, trust and estate dispute resolution and tax controversies. He is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law, a Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC), a member of the advisory board of the UCLA-CEB Estate Planning Institute and a former member of the executive committee of the California State Bar Trusts and Estates Section (TEXCOM). He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2013 and has been designated a Super Lawyer since 2008. Pharies has authored numerous articles in statewide and national publications on trusts and estates and tax law, and he has spoken on various topics related to trusts and estates and tax law at over 50 conferences nationwide, including the University of Miami Heckerling Estate Planning Institute, the ACTEC Annual Meeting, the UCLA-CEB Estate Planning Institute, the USC Tax Institute, the Tulane Tax Institute and the Washington Estate Planning Institute.
Pharies is a graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law (J.D., 1992), where he was editor-in-chief of the Oregon Law Review, and the University of California, Riverside (B.S., 1989).
Ellen H. Whelan has more than 30 years of experience in estate planning; estate, gift and generation-skipping taxation; family succession planning; stock option gifting; living trust formation and administration; irrevocable trust planning; charitable planning; and life insurance planning. The Daily Transcript selected her for its list of Top Attorneys for 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015, and the Los Angeles Times has recognized Whelan among Los Angeles’ Women Leaders in the Law. San Diego Magazine lists Whelan in its annual publication of Top Lawyers and Lawyers of Distinction has selected Ellen as one of its Lawyers of Distinction for 2020.
Whelan is a graduate of Stanford University (J.D., 1984) and the University of California, Davis (B.A., summa cum laude, 1981), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.