isherwyn@tourolaw.edu

Estate & Trust Administration

Ilene Sherwyn Cooper is a partner in the prominent Long Island firm Farrell Fritz P.C. where she practices litigation and estate planning in Surrogate’s Courts throughout the Metropolitan area. Before joining Farrell Fritz, she served for ten years as the Chief Law Assistant of the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court. Her responsibilities there included preparing judicial opinions on complex and novel issues; acting as the Trial Assistant to the Surrogate, preparing pretrial memoranda, jury charges, evidentiary rulings and post-trial decisions; and administering the daily operation of the Law Department, supervising staff attorneys, advising department heads and developing court policy. She is a graduate of Cornell University and Hofstra University School of Law.

 

Ilene is a Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Council (ACTEC). She is a former Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Trusts & Estates Law Section and is currently an Executive Committee Member of the section. Additionally, she is on the Committee on Legal Education & Admission to the Bar, the Committee on Professional Discipline, and the Nominating Committee. Ilene is a Board Member and Fellow of the New York Bar Foundation, and she is a member of the Grants Committee and the Co-Chair of the Development Committee. Ilene belongs to the New York City Bar Association and is on the association’s Trusts, Estates, and Surrogate’s Court Committee. She is a past President of the Suffolk County Bar Association, where she also served on the Board of Directors and in various roles on multiple committees. Ilene is a former Board Member of the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association, where she remains a member. She was a member of the New York State Grievance Committee for the 10th Judicial District from 2006-2013.

 

Ilene writes a column, “Trusts and Estates Update,” for the New York Law Journal, is the author of “Case Notes,” a quarterly column published in the New York State Bar Association’s Trusts and Estates Law Section Newsletter and is a columnist for the Suffolk County Bar Association’s publication, the Suffolk Lawyer. In 2002, she published a textbook entitled “Wills, Trusts and Estates—Essential Tools for the New York Paralegal,” which serves as a practice tool and guide for paralegals.

 

Ilene is a Board Member of The Safe Center and Suffolk County Child Care Council and a former Board Member of Child Abuse Prevention Services. She is on the Advisory Committee of Friends of Karen and is an appointed member of the Museum of Modern Art’s Friends of Education Committee and a member of Nassau County Museum of Art’s Annual Ball/Journal Committee. In recent years, Ilene has served on the Suffolk County Youth Board and the SYJCC Board.