Education
- Boston University School of Law, LLM, 1977
- Georgetown University Law Center, JD, 1973
- Harvard University, AB, 1969
Admissions
- Massachusetts
John Cornish joins the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
John Cornish, co-chair of the Wealth Management Group, has been elected a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
John M. Cornish
John Cornish is co-chair of the firm’s Wealth Management Group, a member of the firm’s Operating Committee, and has served several terms on the firm’s Executive Committee.
He has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer.
Practice Focus
Family-Owned Businesses: general corporate, business and tax advice, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and structuring arrangements to transfer equity interests to younger generations in a tax-efficient manner.
Complex Gift & Estate Planning: advice on all aspects of gift and estate planning, including life insurance planning, family limited partnerships, sales to grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts and charitable planning.
Estate & Trust Administration: fiduciary services as executor and trustee of clients’ estates and trusts, including administration of large private foundations.
Representative Engagements
- Helped several families transfer equity interests in family-owned companies to younger generation members at little or no gift and estate tax expense.
- Successfully settled numerous income, gift and estate tax audits, including one case that reduced proposed tax deficiency from $50 million to $0.
- Managing Trustee of numerous family trusts and foundations with total assets in excess of $500 million.