Mr. Farrell is a director in the Estates & Trusts Group.  With more than 25 years of legal experience, Mr. Farrell concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning and administration, personal taxation, and charitable organizations.  He lectures extensively and has authored numerous articles on estate planning and estate administration topics.  Mr. Farrell is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and in Philadelphia Magazine’s “Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.”  Prior to joining Cohen & Grigsby, Mr. Farrell was a partner with the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll in Pittsburgh.

Chris’s areas of concentration include:

• Estates and Trusts Administration
• Corporate Law
• Personal Taxation
• Nonprofit Corporations 

Bar Admissions

• Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. Tax Court

Education

• LL.M., Taxation, New York University, 1989
• J.D. (Phi Beta Kappa; Member, University of Pittsburgh Law Review; American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Contracts and the Law of Credit), University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 1976
• B.S. (summa cum laude), Lehigh University, 1970

Clerkships

• Law clerk, Honorable J. Frank McKenna, Administrative Judge of the Orphans’ Court Division, Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County

Noteworthy

• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America
• Listed in Philadelphia Magazine’s “Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.”

Representative Matters

• Assist non-profits and charitable organizations in state incorporation and compliance matters, drafting articles and bylaws, litigation matters, applying for tax-exempt status, and assisting in Internal Revenue Service audits
• Handle Orphans’ Court litigation involving administration of estates and trusts and also in guardianships, adoptions and will contests
• Involved in forming a trust company for a large Pittsburgh bank which required approval from each of the courts in 25 Pennsylvania counties in which it sought to operate, thus enabling the company to legally exercise fiduciary powers and to act on behalf of its predecessor institutions
• Helped evaluate and rewrite a book of standard trust and custodial forms for a corporate banking client in Central Pennsylvania. Oversaw the tax issues, including writing the tax matters section of the client’s reorganization plan, in one of the largest corporate bankruptcy reorganizations in the history of the United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania.

Memberships

• Fellow, American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
• Member, Estate Planning Council of Pittsburgh
• Member, Allegheny County Bar Association
• Member, Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Member, American Bar Association

Seminars & Speeches

• Co-chair, Preparation of Fiduciary Income Tax Returns, Pennsylvania Bar Institute
• Speaker, Post-Mortem Estate Planning, Pennsylvania Bar Institute
• Speaker, Fiduciary Taxes, Pennsylvania Bar Institute
• Speaker, Orphans’ Court Litigation, Pennsylvania Bar Institute
• Speaker, Will Drafting, Pennsylvania Bar Institute

Publications

• Author, Tax Reporting Requirements, Journal of Taxation of Exempt Organizations