William D. Zabel

William D. Zabel is a founding partner of the firm and head of the Individual Client Services Group. Based in New York, he practices in the areas of estate planning, wills, trusts, charitable foundations, income- and gift-tax planning, estate administration and family law. Bill represents many of the wealthiest individuals in the country on tax planning; succession planning; charitable giving (through the use of private foundations, public charities, split-interest trusts and direct giving); estates and trusts, including representation of individuals and institutions acting as fiduciaries with respect to both general administrative matters and litigated or contested ones; and family law matters, including the negotiation of prenuptial, postnuptial and cohabitation agreements, and the negotiation or mediation of large divorce matters.

Bill graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University and cum laude from Harvard Law School. In 1961, he was admitted to practice before the courts of New York State and, in 1966, before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2006, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Lawyer, and is also the honored recipient of an Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Award, Brandeis University Distinguished Community Service Award, Distinguished Service Award (conferred by New School University), and a Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Extraordinary Leader Award. Bill is a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow of Brandeis University, American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel and the American Bar Foundation, and an Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. His civic and philanthropic activities include, among many others, director, chair or trustee positions with Human Rights First (formerly Lawyers Committee for Human Rights), amfAR, New York University, The New School, Doctors of the World, Princeton University Planned Giving Committee, Sakharov Archives, Lincoln Center Theater and The Academy of American Poets.

Selected Publications

Selected Speaking Engagements

Memberships

Professional
New York City Bar Association
New York State Bar Association
American Bar Association
The Florida Bar

Civic and Philanthropic
Human Rights First (formerly Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) (Chairman)
amfAR (Director)
New York University (Trustee)
The New School (Trustee)
Doctors of the World (Director)
Human Rights Watch, 1996-2005 
Sakharov Archives
Princeton University Planned Giving Committee (Chairman)
Soros Foundations: Legal adviser to Open Society Institute and to
    Soros worldwide network of Foundations
JEHT Foundation
Lincoln Center Theater (Director)
The Academy of American Poets (Director)
Advisory Committee on Global Initiatives, The New School
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
American Friends of the Israel Museum
The Picower Foundation
Parents' Action for Children
The Lymphoma Foundation
Harmonie Club, (President, 1989-92)
Project on Death in America (Advisory Board 1994-99)

Other Distinctions

Lifetime Achievement Award, The American Lawyer (2006)
Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Award (2005)
Brandeis University Distinguished Community Service Award
Distinguished Service Award, New School University
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights 2003 Extraordinary Leader Award
Member, American Law Institute
Fellow, Brandeis University
Fellow, American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel
Academician, International Academy of Estate and Trust Law
Fellow, American Bar Foundation
Member, Council on Foreign Relations

Bar Admissions

• New York
• Florida

Court Admissions

• U.S. Supreme Court 1966

Education