“I am a compassionate advocate who ensures clients feel heard and understood during sensitive matters like estate planning, estate and trust administration, and disputes involving wills and trusts, often among family members.”
Melissa concentrates her practice exclusively on estate and trust law, including estate planning and administration, and on litigation involving trusts, estates, guardianships, and other fiduciary matters. She counsels individuals and families in the preservation and transfer of wealth by crafting customized estate plans to accomplish each client’s estate and tax planning goals. Melissa also advises individual and corporate fiduciaries regarding estate and trust administration issues.
With her comprehensive experience in trust and estate planning, administration, and litigation—combined with her prior role at a corporate fiduciary—Melissa takes a holistic approach, using her planning knowledge to enhance her administration and litigation work, and vice versa.
Outside of her legal practice, Melissa is an avid music enthusiast who loves attending live shows and discovering new artists. She also enjoys traveling and visiting museums, embracing her love for history and cultural exploration.
Melissa has extensive experience litigating a wide range of issues related to estates, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney, and charitable interests in the Orphans’ Court, Register of Wills, and appellate courts. Her litigation work includes guardianship proceedings, fiduciary surcharge actions, compensation disputes, will and trust interpretation, trust modifications, probate disputes, and charitable matters. She has also developed comprehensive estate and tax plans for high-net-worth clients, creating trusts and other wealth transfer vehicles to meet their goals efficiently. Her previous role at a corporate fiduciary involved overseeing trust administration for ultra-high-net-worth clients, where she worked closely with bankers, wealth advisors, and attorneys to craft customized estate plans.
Melissa has been recognized on the Pennsylvania Rising Stars® list for Estate and Trust Litigation from 2019 to 2024 and was named a “Bar Star” by the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Probate and Trust Law Section in 2023. She is a graduate of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Mid-Atlantic Fellows Institute. Additionally, she serves as Court-Appointed Counsel for Alleged Incapacitated Persons at the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court in Norristown, PA, and has previously volunteered for the Montgomery Child Advocacy Program representing children in dependency matters.
Melissa’s Professional Associations include:
- Pennsylvania Bar Association, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section Member, 2016-Present
- Montgomery County Bar Association, Member, 2016-Present
- Philadelphia Bar Association
- Member, 2016-Present;
- Probate and Trust Law Section Liaison to the Young Lawyers Division, 2022-2023;
- Young Lawyers Division Executive Committee Member, 2024-Present;
- Probate and Trust Law Section Executive Committee Member, 2024-Present
- American Bar Association, Member, 2016-Present
- Philadelphia Estate Planning Council, Member, 2020-Present
During law school, Melissa served as Articles Editor for the Villanova Law Review, was a Dean Merit Scholar, and received the Daniel F. O’Dea Jr. Fellowship Award. She graduated cum laude from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. Melissa also has a Masters of Laws in Taxation from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.
