On-Demand Video
CC

Litigating in Orphans’ Court 2025


  • City:
  • Start Date:2025-08-20 05:00:00
  • End Date:
  • Length:
  • Level:Various
  • Topics:Trusts & Estates

$399.00 ProPass

[{"jurisdiction":"Supreme Court of Delaware Commission on Continuing Legal Education","status":"Approved","state":"Delaware","credits":"","expiration_date":"August 19, 2026","speciality_credit":[{"category":"General","state_category":"General","credit":"5.0"},{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Enhanced Ethics","credit":"1.0"}]},{"jurisdiction":"Virginia State Bar","status":"Self Apply","state":"Virginia","credits":"","expiration_date":"October 31, 2026","speciality_credit":[{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Legal Ethics and Professionalism","credit":"1.0"},{"category":"General","state_category":"General","credit":"5.0"}]},{"jurisdiction":"Supreme Court of New Jersey Board on Continuing Legal Education","status":"Reciprocity ","state":"New Jersey","credits":"","expiration_date":"August 19, 2028","speciality_credit":[{"category":"General","state_category":"General","credit":"6.0"},{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Ethics and Professionalism","credit":"1.2"}]},{"jurisdiction":"The Florida Bar","status":"Self Apply","state":"Florida","credits":"","expiration_date":"February 19, 2027","speciality_credit":[{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Ethics","credit":"1.0"},{"category":"General","state_category":"General","credit":"6.0"}]},{"jurisdiction":"New York CLE Board","status":"Approved","state":"New York","credits":"","expiration_date":"August 19, 2028","speciality_credit":[{"category":"General","state_category":"Areas of Professional Practice","credit":"6.0"},{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Ethics and Professionalism","credit":"1.0"}]},{"jurisdiction":"Supreme Court of Ohio","status":"Approved","state":"Ohio","credits":"","expiration_date":"December 31, 2026","speciality_credit":[{"category":"General","state_category":"General","credit":"5.0"},{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Attorney Professional Conduct","credit":"1.0"}]},{"jurisdiction":"West Virginia State Bar Continuing Legal Education Commission","status":"Approved","state":"West Virginia","credits":"","expiration_date":"August 19, 2028","speciality_credit":[{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Ethics","credit":"1.2"},{"category":"General","state_category":"General","credit":"6.0"}]},{"jurisdiction":"Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board","status":"Approved","state":"Pennsylvania","credits":"","expiration_date":"August 19, 2027","speciality_credit":[{"category":"Ethics and Professional Responsibility","state_category":"Ethics","credit":"1.0"},{"category":"General","state_category":"General","credit":"5.0"}]}]
Credit States Status Credits Earn credit until

This program is eligible for 6 hours of CLE credit in 60-minute states. In 50-minute states, this program is eligible for 7.2 hours of CLE credit. Credit hours are estimated and are subject to each state’s approval and credit rounding rules.

Overview

Learn the Orphans’ Court litigation process from beginning to end. Our impressive faculty will discuss jurisdiction, procedural matters, evidence and damages as they arise in a variety of Orphans’ Court actions.

Enjoy this interactive program taught by leading trusts and estates lawyers and…

• Learn how and when to conduct hearings in a variety of Orphans’ Court matters

• Get the latest word on how attorneys’ fees and fiduciary commissions are evaluated by the Orphans’ Court

• Gain insight into important ethical questions regarding the use of artificial intelligence

• Learn about new developments in guardianship practice

• Take away practical tips and advice on Orphans’ Court practice in Pennsylvania – the ones you will never read about in books!

Recorded in August 2025.

Faculty

Todd Jordan, Esq.

Todd is an attorney with over 25 years of experience representing clients in fiduciary litigation, estate planning, estate administration and taxation. He represents families trying to protect and pass wealth to successive generations while minimizing taxes. He represents clients in Orphans’ Court throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania and any associated appeals before the appellate courts in Pennsylvania. His litigation practice involves representing executors, trustees, beneficiaries, charities, agents under Power of Attorney’s and guardianship matters. He has argued before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and Pennsylvania Superior Court. Mr. Jordan is currently the Vice-Chair of the Allegheny County Probate and Trust section and was the past Secretary and Treasurer after serving 9 years on the Council. He is a frequent presenter at numerous continuing legal education seminars ranging from Litigating in Orphans’ Court to How to prepare the Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax Return.

Rebecca L. Hagan, Esq.

Ms. Hagan is Managing Senior Counsel at PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. and provides support to PNC’s Asset Management Group, advising on all aspects of trust and estate administration, with a focus on Pennsylvania fiduciary litigation. Prior to joining PNC, she was in-house counsel at the Bank of New York Mellon. Before moving in-house, Ms. Hagan concentrated her practice in the areas of gift and estate tax planning and estate and trust administration, with an emphasis on probate and trust litigation. Ms. Hagan is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and has lectured frequently on fiduciary topics for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. She received her J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law and her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Virginia.

Richard L. Holzworth, Esq.

With over a decade of experience representing high net worth families, world-class financial institutions, and closely-held businesses in high-stakes estate and trust litigation, Rick brings a formidable blend of diligence, knowledge, and sophistication to his practice. Rick immerses himself in every legal matter, delivering steadfast guidance to trustees, executors, agents, not-for-profit organizations and clients of HomeBase, The Family Office at Cozen O’Connor. He is skilled at developing thoughtful strategies and discreetly matters through alternative dispute resolution. Yet, as an accomplished trial attorney, he is fully prepared to fiercely advocate for his client’s interests in the courtroom when circumstances demand. Rick’s broad experience in trust and estate matters includes defending and prosecuting claims for breach of fiduciary duty, forgery, fraud, undue influence, and lack of testamentary capacity, as well as navigating complex questions of statutory and document interpretation, modification of trusts, and fiduciary accounting. Rick’s skills extend to appellate advocacy, and he has argued appeals before the Pennsylvania Supreme, Superior, and Commonwealth Courts involving complex questions of statutory interpretation, beneficiary rights, and issues of first impression. Actively engaged within the legal community, Rick serves on the Council for the Real Property and Trust and Estate Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and as a member of the Litigation and Rules and Practice Committees of the Philadelphia Bar Association Probate Section. Rick is graduate of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Mid-Atlantic Fellows Institute and is a frequent writer and lecturer on trust and estate topics, such as will contests, attorney-client privilege and the fiduciary exception, remote notarization of documents, and navigating the legal uncertainty of cannabis in estate and trust planning and administration. Outside of his legal practice, Rick is a devoted husband and father, an avid cyclist, and an active community member. He currently holds a position on the Board of Directors for Ardent Credit Union, and has previously held the role of President of the Board of Directors for the nonprofit overseeing Pittsburgh’s bike-sharing network.

Thomas A. Boulden, Esq.

Mr. Boulden is a partner in the Fort Washington firm of Timoney Knox, LLP, where he concentrates on estate litigation he also does estate administration and estate planning. He received his B.A. with honors from West Chester University and his J.D. from the Widener University School of Law, where he served on the Moot Court Executive Honor Board and was named to the Order of Barristers. Mr. Boulden has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for the years 2007 through the present. He has been recognized as a Super Lawyer since 2014. Mr. Boulden served as an officer of the Montgomery County Bar Association Probate and Tax Section. He has served as a co-chairperson of the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court Rules Committee.  Mr. Boulden is a frequent lecturer on estate- and orphans’ court–related topics and has served on the faculties of numerous Pennsylvania Bar Institute programs. Mr. Boulden currently is a co-author of The Law of Wills in Pennsylvania.   He has previously co-authored or assisted with Hunters Orphans’ Court Commonplace Book (second edition), and The Pennsylvania Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code Annotated. 

Timothy J. Holman, Esq.

Timothy J. Holman, Esquire, is a partner at the law firm of Smith Kane Holman, LLC, with offices in Malvern and Philadelphia. He limits his practice to fiduciary and commercial litigation (including will contests, power of attorney financial abuse matters, Executor and Trustee misconduct litigation, will and trust interpretation disputes, and guardianships). He lectures frequently for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Philadelphia Bar Association and others on fiduciary litigation topics, ethical issues facing lawyers and trial advocacy. He served previously as the Representative of the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Probate and Trust Law Section (the “Probate Section”) to the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association. He also served a three-year term as an elected member of the Probate Section’s Executive Committee, and for six years served as chair of the Probate Section’s Orphans’ Court Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. Mr. Holman taught a class on “Probate Process and Practice” for several years in the Villanova Law School’s Graduate Tax Division. He has been recognized from 2012 through 2025 by the “Best Lawyers in America” in the field of Litigation – Trusts and Estate, and as a “Super Lawyer” from 2016 through 2025 in Estate and Trust Litigation. Mr. Holman authors the popular blog “Around the Pennsylvania Orphans’ Courts” which can be found at the firm’s website – www.skhlaw.com.

John Higgins, Esq.

Mr. Higgins is a partner at Mannion Prior, LLP. His practice focuses on litigation involving trusts, estates, guardianships, powers of attorney, and other fiduciary litigation matters before the Orphans’ Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas, Register of Wills, and the Pennsylvania Superior and Commonwealth Courts. He is a member of the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Montgomery Bar Associations, and serves as Chair of the Legislation Committee of the Probate and Trust Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Mr. Higgins has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star® in estate and trust litigation each year since 2020 and was honored as a Lawyer on the Fast Track by ALM at its Pennsylvania Legal Awards in 2024. Before joining Mannion Prior in 2018, Mr. Higgins clerked for the Honorable Richard M. Hughes, III, of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. Mr. Higgins is a graduate of Colgate University (B.A., Classics), the Penn State Dickinson School of Law – Carlisle (J.D.), and King’s College London (LL.M.).

Brittany J. Camp, Esq.

Brittany J. Camp focuses her practice on trust and estate planning and administration. She also focuses on fiduciary aspects of guardianships and litigation settlements for minors and incapacitated persons. Brittany earned her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 2009. She then graduated from Villanova University School of Law in 2012 where she was Managing Editor of Operations of the Sports and Entertainment Law Journal. During law school, Brittany was a student attorney for the Villanova Law Federal Tax Clinic where she represented low-income taxpayers in controversies before the Internal Revenue Service and in the U.S. Tax Court. Prior to joining Heckscher, Teillon, Terrill & Sager, Brittany was an associate in a small general practice law firm in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Brittany went on to earn her Masters of Law in Taxation and Estate Planning Certificate from Villanova University School of Law in 2014.


You have a lot on your plate. We’ll help you stay on top of your compliance — in PA and beyond.