Rhonda L. Griswold - Lawyer in Honolulu, HI

Rhonda L. Griswold is a Partner with Cades Schutte and Chair of its Trusts and Estates Department. Her practice focuses on estate planning, trust administration and fiduciary duties, and probate, conservatorships, and guardianships.

Ms. Griswolds practice includes advising clients as to all areas of estate planning, from basic wills and trusts to more sophisticated planning such as generation-skipping dynasty trusts, sales to irrevocable trusts, qualified domestic trusts, charitable gifts, and family limited partnership planning.

Ms. Griswold also devotes a substantial amount of her practice to counselling corporate and individual fiduciaries as to their duties in the administration of estates, the proper interpretation of wills and trusts, and the termination and distribution of trusts. In addition, Ms. Griswold represents clients in contested probate and trust proceedings.

Ms. Griswold is a fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a court appointed member on the State of Hawai?i Committee on Uniform Probate Code and Probate Court Practices. Ms. Griswold was selected by her peers to be included in Best Lawyers in America for the past 10 years. She has been listed in Honolulu Magazines Best Lawyers in Hawaii for the same period. She has a Martindale-Hubbells Peer Review rating of AV (highest level of professional excellence for attorneys admitted to the bar for 10 years or more), and has been identified as one of Hawaiis Super Lawyers.

Ms. Griswold is a member of the American Bar Association, the Hawai?i State Bar Association, Gift and Estate Tax Section (former Chair), former President and current Director of Hawai?i Womens Legal Foundation, Secretary and Director of the Hawai?i Justice Foundation, a Director of the Hawai?i State Bar Association, and a Director of the Cades Foundation.

REPRESENTATIVE CASES

• In re Elizabeth J. K. L. Lucas Charitable Gift, 125 Haw. 351 (2011) (clarifying cy pres doctrine in Hawaii).
• In re Robinson Trust, 110 Haw. 181 (2006) (trust interpretation case).
• In re Medeiros Testamentary Trust Life Insurance Trust, 105 Haw. 284 (2004) (trust interpretation case).
• In re Estate of Ferdinand Marcos, 88 Haw. 148 (1998) (finding no Hawaii domicile in probate proceeding).

EDUCATION

• J.D., William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii
• B.A., California State University at Chico

ADMISSIONS

• Hawaii State Bar
• United States District Court for the District of Hawaii

AWARDS AND HONORS

• Best Lawyers
• Super Lawyers

PUBLICATIONS

• Encyclopedia of Estate Planning, Hawaii State Bar Association (Editor-in-Chief 2007 ed.)
• Hawaii Conservatorship and Guardianship Manual (contributing author 2005 and 2010 Ed.)
• Estate Planning Forms Manual (contributing author, 2000)
• You and the Law in Hawaii, Estate Planning and Probate, Kapiolani Community College Television Series (Panelist)
• Hawaii Probate Sourcebook (1992 and 1996 Ed.)

MEMBERSHIPS/ACTIVITIES

• Hawaii State Bar Association (Estate and Probate Section, Elder Law Section)
• American Bar Association (Tax Section, Probate and Trust Section)
• American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
• Committee on Uniform Probate Code and Probate Court Practices (Court Appointed Member)
• Director, Hawaii Women Legal Foundation
• Secretary/Director, Hawaii Justice Foundation
• Director, Hawaii State Bar Association
• Director, Cades Foundation
• Estate Planning Council

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Ms. Griswold has given numerous seminars and speeches in a wide variety of estate planning and trust administration issues.