Michael W. Galligan is a partner in the Trusts & Estates Department at Phillips Nizer LLP, where he practices primarily in the areas of domestic and international estates and trusts, estate and income tax planning and immigration.

Mr. Galligan specializes in complex U.S. and international estate planning and the administration of U.S. and non-U.S. trusts, estates and other wealth transfer and wealth preservation vehicles.  He advises a wide range of persons, including U.S. and non-U.S. individuals, beneficiaries, corporate and individual fiduciaries, as well as their accountants, investment professionals and legal counsel.  The field of wealth transfer and wealth preservation involves property and tax rules of great complexity.  At the same time, it also involves applying these rules with great sensitivity to the personal backgrounds, perspectives and aspirations of the present and future generations whose lives will be profoundly affected by the wealth planning and fiduciary decisions of today.  Mr. Galligan is very proud to practice in this area where humanity and the legal craft so profoundly interact.

In connection with the international aspect of his practice, Mr. Galligan also advises clients on immigration law and directs Phillips Nizer’s services to clients who need specialized assistance in obtaining or maintaining legal immigration status in the United States.

Mr. Galligan is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, an Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  In 2009, he began his tenure as chair of the New York State Bar Association International Section (NYSBA International), which counts among its members over 2200 international legal practitioners from New York and around the world.  He has for many years co-chaired NYSBA International’s Committee on International Estates and Trusts and is a past chair of the Committee on International Estate Planning of the New York State Bar Association Trusts and Estates Section.

Mr. Galligan regularly lectures and writes articles and reports in the area of domestic and international estate planning and administration, including:

• “International Estate Planning for U.S. Citizens: An Integrated Approach,” Estate Planning, a Thomson Reuters publication (October 2009);
• "Ties to U.S. and Canada: Differences in taxation of transfers affect bequests and gifts," New York Law Journal (September 17, 2007);
• “Buying USA: Ways of minimizing US transfer taxes on US property interests of non-US persons,” in STEP USA (June 2007); 
• “Modern Inheritance Develops in China: U.S. investments are affected by changes in requirements on ownership and disposition of property,” New York Law Journal (February 13, 2007); 
• "You Must Remember This: Ten key principles to keep in mind when planning for U.S. clients with non-U.S. family or property, and non-U.S. clients with U.S. family or property," Trusts & Estates (December 2005); 
• "Making Sense of Four Transatlantic Estate Tax Treaties: US-Netherlands, US-Germany, US-France and US-UK," New York State Bar Association International Law Practicum (Spring 2004); 
• "International Charitable Giving and Planning Under U.S. Tax Law," Tax Management Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal (May – June 2004);  
• "Ten Important Points to Remember About International Estate Planning," New York State Bar Association International Law Practicum (Spring 2003);  
• “U.S. Trust Law and the Hague Convention on Trusts,” New York State Bar Association Trusts and Estates Section Newsletter (Fall 2000); 
• "Foreign Trusts and U.S. Estate Planning: A Client-Centered Analysis," published in the Journal of Asset Protection (July/August 1999); and 
• “Maintaining a Trust’s U.S. Tax Status,” New York Law Journal (March 24, 1999).

Mr. Galligan is a graduate of the Columbia University Law School (J.D., 1985), where he was an Editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.  He received his B.A. Degree from the University of San Francisco and also holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Religious Studies from the Yale University Graduate School and a Masters Degree in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of Public and International Affairs.  He is the author of God and Evil (Paulist Press, 1973).

Mr. Galligan served as a director of the United Nations Association of New York from 2000 to 2008 and is now a member of the Advisory Council.  In 1990, he was a member of the delegation of the Committee on International Human Rights of the New York City Bar Association to Kosovo.  A co-chair of the Committee on Asylum and Refugees of the American Immigration Law Association from 1989 to 1991, he was the principal author, with the late Arthur C. Helton, of the 1989 publication of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, “Immigration Options for Chinese Nationals.”  With the late Mr. Helton, he drafted, for the Human Rights Committee of the Russian Parliament, a Statement of Principles on Refugee Protection.  Mr. Galligan was also a member of the team that developed pioneer legal instruments regarding health care decisions and health care agents for clients of the New York-based Gay Men’s Health Crisis [GMHC] during the height of the AIDS crisis in the late 1980’s.

Mr. Galligan was selected as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" for 2009 and 2010 in Trusts and Estates.  He was also selected as a "Super Lawyer" in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 in Estate Planning & Probate, International and/or Immigration in the Metro New York area.

Professional Memberships:

• American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
• International Academy of Estate and Trust Law
• New York State Bar Association
• The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP USA)
• Association of the Bar of the City of New York
• American Society of International Law
• American Immigration Lawyers Association

Foreign Language Competencies:

Working knowledge of --

• Italian
• French
• German
• Spanish

Awards:

• Woodrow Wilson Fellow
• Berger Prize in International Law, Columbia University