Ronald P. Weiss

Biography:

Ron Weiss is chairman of the firm’s Business and Finance Department and works with the firm’s Estate Planning and Estate Administration Department. His practice is focused in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, general corporate and business matters, taxation and estate planning for professionals and owners of closely-held businesses.

Ron serves as general counsel for the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and as general counsel for the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, where he has also served as president and chairman and continues to serve on its executive board. He is a founder and member of the board of advisors of the University of Massachusetts Family Business Center and the board of advisors of the Hanson Initiative for Language and Literacy at The MGH Institute of Health Professions, Inc.

He has served as chairman of the Taxation Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA), on the Councils of the Business and Probate Law Sections of the MBA, and as a member of the MBA board of delegates and executive committee. He has also served as a trustee of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. and as a member of its curriculum committee, as well as a member and chairman of the appropriations committee for the town of Longmeadow. He is also actively involved as a board member and volunteer for several other non-profit organizations.

Ron has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® for the past 20 years and in 2011 was named "Lawyer of the Year" in corporate law for the Springfield area by Best Lawyers®. Ron was named one of the "Top 100 Massachusetts Super Lawyers" in 2004 by Boston magazine. He is also listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law and Who’s Who in the World. 

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Related Professional Experience:

Ron was an instructor in estate planning at Western New England College School of Law from 1975 to 1976. 

Publications:

Ron has co-authored several books on taxation and estate planning, and regularly writes articles on business and tax planning issues.

Co-Author: "Drafting Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts," MCLE, 1990. Co-Editor, "Massachusetts Corporate Tax Manual," 1986.  Author: "Family Limited Partnership" (1995); Co-Author: "Family Limited Partnerships" (1996); "Limited Liability Companies and Limited Liability Partnership in Massachusetts" (1996); Author: "Buy-Sell Agreements" (1996); Co-Author: "All You Need is Love and a Business Assets Prenuptial Agreement" (2011).

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Representative Experience:

Represented private and publicly-held corporations as lead counsel in more than 400 stock and asset transactions, many involving consolidations in various industries.

Counseled closely-held business clients include professional and business corporations, partnership and limited liability companies.

Provided strategic advice and counsel with respect to a variety of matters, including choice of entity, agreements among owners, financing, structuring transactions for tax minimization, long-term supplier and customer contracts, licensing contracts, deferred compensation arrangements, employment and consulting agreements, and joint ventures.