Legal articles & insights
The paper heist: a history of deed theft in America
Deed theft is older than the internet. How America built a recording system that files what it is handed and verifies nothing — and why the law was never the gap. Part one of six.
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Keeping the family home in New York when Medicaid pays for care
In New York, Medicaid can reach the family home after death. How a Medicaid trust, a life-estate deed, and the five-year look-back protect it.
New York real estate in a trust or an LLC: what each protects
Should you hold New York property in a trust or an LLC? What each does for probate, liability, privacy, and taxes — and the traps of moving a home into one.
Co-op or condo in New York: what you own, and how it passes
In New York a co-op is shares in a corporation; a condo is real property. What each form means for financing, board approval, taxes, and how it passes at death.
Negotiating an AI vendor agreement: data, IP, indemnity, and exit
A guide for a company procuring a third-party AI tool: the data, IP, indemnity, security, liability, and exit terms worth reading closely before signing.
Trademark clearance and registration: protecting a brand name in the United States
Protecting a brand name in the United States: what a trademark covers, the clearance search, the federal application and examination, registration, and the renewals that keep it alive.
The executor's job in New York: from letters testamentary to final accounting
What a New York executor does: qualify and take letters, marshal assets, pay creditors and taxes, keep accounts, and account to beneficiaries before distributing.
The New York statutory power of attorney, explained
The New York statutory power of attorney, explained: what it governs, what it does not, the 2021 reforms, durable versus springing, an agent's duties, and gifting.
Art law in New York City: galleries, artists, and collectors
Art law in New York City for galleries, artists, and collectors: the trust that protects consigned work, authenticity and title risk, sales tax, resale, and where disputes are heard.
Elder law in Westchester County: long-term care and Medicaid planning
Westchester elder law in plain terms — the high cost of long-term care in the lower Hudson Valley, how Medicaid is filed through county social services, and why to plan early.
How long does probate take in New York?
A straightforward, uncontested New York estate often takes several months to over a year through Surrogate's Court; contested or complex estates run longer.
What happens to your cryptocurrency when you die?
Your cryptocurrency is part of your New York estate — but your family only inherits it if they know it exists, hold legal authority to act, and can reach the keys.
How to include cryptocurrency in your will and estate plan
How to include cryptocurrency in your New York will: keep private keys out of the document, keep a secure inventory, and grant your executor digital-asset authority.
Estate planning for artists and collectors in New York
Estate planning for New York artists and collectors — protecting an artist's copyrights and archive, and passing a valued collection without a forced sale to pay tax.
AI governance for companies deploying AI: a legal checklist
A legal checklist for companies deploying AI — inventory and risk, human oversight, vendor and data rules, bias and NYC hiring-tool duties, and a named accountable owner.
IP strategy for founders and companies: building a defensible portfolio
IP strategy for founders and companies — an IP audit across copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret, clean ownership, and what to register versus keep secret.
Revocable vs. irrevocable trust: which does your family need?
The decision that sits underneath most family planning in New York — whether to hold assets in a revocable living trust that you control and can change, or an irrevocable trust that gives up control in exchange for creditor protection, Medicaid planning, and removal from the taxable estate. The core tradeoff is control against protection, and the right answer depends on the facts.
Medicaid planning: protecting assets before long-term care
How a family approaches Medicaid planning and Medicaid asset protection in New York before long-term care is needed — why Medicaid is the payer of last resort and the spend-down trap that follows, the separate income and asset limits and the line between countable and exempt assets, the five-year look-back and the transfer penalty for nursing-home Medicaid, the difference between community and institutional Medicaid, and the planning tools that depend almost entirely on timing.
Who owns AI-generated content?
Who, if anyone, owns content produced with generative AI — the U.S. copyright human-authorship requirement and the Thaler line of authority that purely machine-generated material is not protectable, what that means commercially for businesses and creators, the separate contract layer in a vendor's terms of service, the distinct input and training-data infringement exposure, and practical governance, stated generally and as of 2026 for a New York audience.
Trademark vs. copyright: which protection does your business need?
The two protections business owners confuse most often — copyright for original works of authorship and trademark for the words, names, and logos that identify the source of goods or services — set side by side, with the line between creative expression and brand identity, the places they overlap, where patents and trade secrets fit, and how a New York business inventories its assets and matches each one to the right protection.
How to choose a healthcare proxy and power of attorney
The New York documents that work while you are alive but cannot act for yourself — the health care proxy, the living will, the durable power of attorney, MOLST, and a HIPAA authorization — and how to choose the people who carry that authority when you cannot speak for yourself.
Digital assets in a New York estate: planning for access
The pillar guide to digital-asset estate planning in New York — the five questions a complete plan has to answer, from documenting holdings to securing access, granting a fiduciary lawful authority under EPTL Article 13-A, carrying the assets in the right instruments, and valuing them for tax. Each question links to its deeper article.
Digital-asset funds and token vehicles: structuring the entity
Why a dedicated entity holds or invests in digital assets — liability isolation, custody, defined investors, and clean books — and why pooling outside capital to hold tokens is a securities offering that the Investment Company Act and investment-adviser rules can reach in New York.
Fiduciary access to digital assets in New York
What gives an executor, trustee, agent under a power of attorney, or guardian the lawful authority to reach someone's digital assets in New York — the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act as adopted in EPTL Article 13-A, the three-tier priority that decides what controls, the line between a catalogue of communications and their content, and the drafting that grants the authority before it is needed.
How cryptocurrency is lost at death
The practical taxonomy of failure modes that defeat a digital-asset inheritance — lost keys, hidden holdings, custodial-exchange process, device lockout, unsafe key transfer, and jurisdiction conflicts — and the planning that prevents each in New York.
Cryptocurrency in a New York estate: valuation, tax, and reporting
What a fiduciary must do with cryptocurrency after a death — identify and secure the assets, fix a date-of-death fair market value for volatile or thinly traded tokens, understand the stepped-up basis the heirs receive, account for the federal and New York estate tax, and manage the income tax and price risk that run through administration.
Licensing creative work: artists, brands, and the terms that matter
What a license actually grants, how it differs from an assignment, and the terms that decide an art or brand licensing deal — scope, exclusivity, term, territory, media, royalties, approval, credit, sublicensing, reversion, warranties, and audits — from a New York perspective.
Special-purpose vehicles: when a project, a deal, or a fund needs its own company
What a special purpose vehicle is and is not — liability isolation, single-asset discipline, fundability, and the entity as counterparty — and how the same structure serves a film, a music catalog, an art fund, a real-estate holding, or a digital-asset vehicle in New York.
Chain of title for film and television
What chain of title is, the rights it has to account for, and why distributors and errors-and-omissions insurers require it clean before a New York production can deliver.
Financing an independent film in New York
How an independent film gets funded in New York — the capital stack of investor equity, senior and gap debt, pre-sales and minimum guarantees, the New York film tax credit, the completion guaranty, and the collection account that pays everyone in order.
Music rights in the streaming era
How music rights actually work for artists, songwriters, producers, and small labels — the two copyrights behind every song, the income streams each one earns, the modern streaming-royalty plumbing in the United States, sync licensing, splits, and what happens when a catalog is sold or financed.
Selling and consigning art in New York
How art changes hands in New York — the artist-protective consignment statute, what a sound consignment agreement covers, provenance and title warranties in private sales, the entrustment rules of the Uniform Commercial Code, and holding significant works in a dedicated entity.
Special-purpose production entities for film and series
Why a film or series gets its own company in New York — liability isolation, chain of title, financing and collateral, investor and tax-credit structure, and the wind-down.
Self-custodied crypto and the New York estate: multi-signature inheritance
How self-custodied crypto passes at death in New York — multi-signature succession, fiduciary access under RUFADAA, and the EPTL gaps to plan around.
Estate planning — beyond wills: building a family legacy architecture
Why estate planning is more than a will: the instruments that compose a complete plan, how they coordinate, and what review keeps them effective.
Real & intellectual property — protecting what you own
Why real property and intellectual property require separate planning disciplines, how they intersect in business and estate contexts, and what professional attention protects both.
AI law — law at the edge
How copyright, contracts, and emerging regulation govern artificial intelligence — and what founders, creators, and enterprises need to decide before the law settles.
Digital assets — securing digital wealth
What digital ownership actually means, how custody arrangements determine whether wealth survives its owner, and what planning instruments make digital assets transferable across generations.
Art, streaming & entertainment law — the legal architecture of a creative life
How copyright, contracts, and right of publicity work together (and against each other) in the modern entertainment economy — and what creators need to control before the work becomes valuable.
Trusts & estates — the foundations of a lasting plan
How trusts work, why they do things wills cannot, and what the planning decisions that determine whether a family's wealth transfers cleanly or expensively.
Elder law — protecting dignity and assets
How elder law addresses the intersection of long-term care, Medicaid planning, guardianship, and estate preservation — and why the planning window is narrower than most families expect.
Beneficiary audit rights — what New York law gives you and when to use it
New York law gives estate beneficiaries the right to demand a formal accounting and, when that is not enough, to pursue an independent audit. Learn how both tools work and when the firm's estate audit practice applies.
When technology outpaces the law: electric air taxis and the legal landscape taking shape
Joby Aviation is already flying over Manhattan. The regulatory, intellectual property, and liability frameworks governing commercial air taxis are still being assembled — and the founders and investors moving fastest are the ones most exposed to what the law has not yet decided.