Adam T. Gusdorff

Family Wealth Management, Litigation, Business and Finance

Adam T. Gusdorff is of counsel in the Family Wealth Management Group. He focuses his practice on litigation involving trusts, estates, guardianships, and other fiduciary matters, and also handles non-fiduciary litigation.

Mr. Gusdorff has represented both individual and corporate clients in a variety of matters before Registers of Wills and in the Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, including Will and trust interpretation disputes, probate disputes, Will contests, fiduciary surcharge actions, guardianship proceedings, control of nonprofit corporations, and the sale of a charitable organization's assets to a for-profit entity.

Before attending law school, Mr. Gusdorff worked for eight years as a sportswriter in suburban Philadelphia, winning a Keystone Press Award for outstanding sports writing.

Representative Cases

• Beasley Estate, 1 Fiduc. Rep. 3d 374 (O.C. Montg. 2011) (Pursuant to Pa. R. Civ. P. 213.1, the Montgomery County Orphans' Court Division, presiding over litigation involving estate administration, denied the opposition's request to coordinate an abuse of process action filed in the Philadelphia County Civil Trial Division, primarily on grounds that there was no commonality of issues.)
  
• Levit Estate (No. 2), 1 Fiduc. Rep. 3d 234 (O.C. Montg. 2011) (Satisfied clear and convincing evidence standard in successful defense of claim against estate brought by the surviving spouse)
• Levit Estate, 29 Fiduc. Rep. 2d 250, 146 Montg. Co. L.R. 249 (O.C. Montg. 2009) (Court set forth the burdens that would apply in a case involving a claim by the surviving spouse and granted our motion that the surviving spouse was incompetent to testify under the Dead Man's Rule)
• Robinson, Incapacitated Person, 28 Fiduc. Rep. 2d 65 (O. C. Montg. 2007) (Standard to execute power of attorney during contested guardianship proceeding)
• Vanderkraats Estate, 27 Fiduc. Rep. 2d 328 (O.C. Chester 2007), aff’d 972 A.2d 567 (Pa. Super. 2008) (On remand from Superior Court, persuaded Court to reverse its earlier ruling and apply anti-lapse statute under 20 Pa. C. S. § 2514(9) to gift forfeited pursuant to an in terrorem clause, rather than 20 Pa. C.S. § 2514(10))
• McCann Estate, 27 Fiduc. Rep. 2d 100 (O.C. Montg. 2007) (Court agreed that, under the terms of the Will, a testamentary gift was offset by debt to decedent despite legal discharge of debt via bankruptcy) 
• Robison Estate, 26 Fiduc. Rep. 2d 493 (O.C. Phila. 2006) (Successfully argued that tax clause was not sufficiently specific to overcome statutory apportionment)
• Kravitz Estate (No. 2), 26 Fiduc. Rep. 2d 406 (O.C. Montg. 2006) (Convinced Court to re-open 40-year-old adjudication due to the failure of the personal representative to give written notice to residuary beneficiaries and his failure to file a Court-ordered schedule of distribution)
• Kendall Estate, 27 Fiduc. Rep.2d 62 (O.C. Montg. 2006) (Interpretation of prenuptial agreement)
• In re: The Newell Foundation, 27 Fiduc. Rep.2d 52 (O.C. Montg. 2006) (Interpretation of charitable remainder trust)
• Willing Trust, 23 Fiduc. Rep. 2d 276 (O.C. Montg. 2003) (Secured multimillion-dollar award in Will and trust interpretation case)

Professional Activities

Pennsylvania Bar Association

Philadelphia Bar Association
Member, Probate and Trust Law Section, Executive Committee, Orphans' Court Litigation Committee, and Rules and Practice Committee

Publications

"Litigating a 'No-Contest' Clause," Pennsylvania Bar Association, Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section Newsletter, Summer 2011 (No. 69)

"Bosley Estate and DeHass Estate Further Develop Issue of Capacity to Execute a Power of Attorney," Philadelphia Bar Association, Probate and Trust Law Section Newsletter, June 2011 (No. 127)

"Sipe Estate and Waiver of the Dead Man's Rule," Philadelphia Bar Association, Probate and Trust Law Section Newsletter, October 2010 (No. 126)

"Decoupling the Pennsylvania Estate Tax from the Federal Estate Tax," Philadelphia Bar Association, Probate and Trust Law Section Newsletter, April 2003 (No. 106)

Speaking Engagements

"Dead Men Tell No Tales, So Neither Can You," Estate Law Institute, Philadelphia, November 17, 2011

"Orphans' Court for the Uninitiated," Philadelphia Bar Association Bench-Bar & Annual Conference, Atlantic City, N.J., October 16, 2011

"Litigating in Orphans' Court," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Philadelphia, July 27, 2011

"Litigating in Orphans' Court," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Mechanicsburg, Pa., July 12, 2011

"The Dead Man's Rule," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Mechanicsburg, Pa., March 14, 2011

"Get What’s Coming to You: Remedies in the Orphans' Court," Estate Law Institute, Philadelphia, November 12, 2010

"Remedies in the Orphans' Court," Pennsylvania Bar Association, Real Property, Probate and Tax Section Annual Meeting, Hershey, Pa., May 12, 2010

 "The Dead Man's Rule," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Philadelphia, September 22, 2009, and January 20, 2010

"Introduction to the Dead Man's Rule," Montgomery Bar Association, Norristown, Pa., October 29, 2009

"Orphans' Court Practice and Procedure," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Mechanicsburg, Pa., August 9, 2007

"Orphans' Court Practice and Procedure," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Philadelphia, August 2, 2007

"Beyond the Will: What Every Lawyer Should Know About Living Wills and Other Personal Planning Tools," Ballard Spahr CLE for Free, Philadelphia, May 5, 2005

Board Memberships

The National Hemophilia Foundation, Delaware Valley Chapter, 2003-2007

Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law (J.D. 2001, magna cum laude)

Pennsylvania State University (B.A 1990)

Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania