(February 28, 2019) Mannion Prior, LLP, a trust and estate litigation firm headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is delighted to announce that the Honorable Stanley R. Ott (Ret.) joins the firm in an Of Counsel role.
Mannion Prior’s focuses its practice on trust and estate litigation across Pennsylvania in the Orphans’ Court Division. The firm has successfully represented clients in seminal trust and estate matters for nearly twenty years.
In 2018, Judge Ott retired as a Senior Judge in Montgomery County – the 38th Judicial District – after 31 years of experience on the bench. Judge Ott’s decisions are highly regarded throughout Pennsylvania’s legal community and are often referenced by Orphans’ Court practitioners and estate and trust planners.
Judge Ott has issued over 200 published opinions including leading decisions on the rights of alleged incapacitated persons, trustee and executor fees, the mental capacity necessary to execute estate planning documents, and the fiduciary duties of trustees. Notably, it was Judge Ott’s 2004 ruling that allowed the Barnes Foundation to move from Merion to its current home in Philadelphia.
James Mannion, Founder and Managing Partner of Mannion Prior shares, “As the author of hundreds of opinions, many of which are cases of first impression, Judge Ott has been one of the greatest influences on estate and trust law of our time. I’m thrilled that Judge Ott is joining Mannion Prior and will be sharing his talents with our clients and with others through mediation and arbitration.”
Mannion Prior Partner Karl Prior states that “the timing of Judge Ott joining us is ideal, as our firm expands into mediation. His affable manner, deep knowledge of trust and estate law and judicial temperament are ideally suited to helping clients avoid the expense and loss of privacy that accompany public litigation.”
Judge Ott will spearhead the development of Mannion Prior’s mediation and arbitration practice, engage in select trust and estate consultations and counsel, and expert witness engagements.
He will be available for clients beginning March 1.
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About the Honorable Stanley R. Ott
Judge Ott served as a Common Pleas Judge in the 38th Judicial District in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania since 1988. In 1994, he became Administrative Judge of the Orphans’ Court Division. In 2016, he assumed Senior Judge status until his retirement at the end of 2018. Two hundred of his written opinions have been published in the Fiduciary Reporter.
Judge Ott taught the Orphans’ Court practice course at the Court of Common Pleas Judicial School – for newly elected judges – from 2014-2018. Additionally, he served as a leader among his fellow judges as the Chair of the Orphans’ Court Section of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges from 1998 to 2006, and as a judicial representative to the Joint State Government commission’s working group on guardianships in 2006-2007.
Judge Ott remains a frequent lecturer for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, where he served as Director from 2003-2008. He served as adjunct faculty at both Temple and Villanova Law Schools, where he taught Trial Advocacy. He is currently a member of the Joint State Government Commission’s Advisory Committee on Decedents’ Estates Laws and he serves on the Orphans’ Court Procedural Rules Committee. He graduated from Lafayette College and the Cornell Law School.
About Mannion Prior, LLP
Mannion Prior, LLP is a fiduciary litigation boutique. Since its founding in 2001, the firm has established itself as a leading force in will contests, trust and trustee litigation, fee and commission disputes, estate litigation, and guardianship and incapacity proceedings. Led by partners James F. Mannion and Karl Prior, the firm pursues, defends, and counsels on issues involving the standards of care applicable to fiduciaries such as trustees, executors, guardians, charitable organizations, banks, trust companies, partners, attorneys, and officers and directors of corporations. Mannion Prior is a U.S. News and World Report Best Law Firm. Learn more at www.mannionprior.com.