John F. Sherwood, Jr.

John Sherwood’s practice focuses on real estate, estate planning, probate, trust, business planning, and tax law.  He advises clients on estate planning matters, including family business planning, commercial and residential real estate transactions and litigation, business transactions, business planning, probate and trust administration, and disputes.

Real Estate

John’s real estate practice includes virtually all issues developers, landlords, tenants, and others in the real estate market space.  This includes purchases and sales of commercial real estate, commercial leasing, land use matters (such as easements, restrictions, and covenants and conditions), and homeowner association (HOA) formation and disputes.  He regularly represents commercial landlords and tenants, in connection with large commercial leasing projects for retail, industrial and office space.

John’s real estate clients include developers and builders, national and regional commercial landlords and tenants, and real estate buyers and sellers.  He represents clients in real estate acquisitions and sales, commercial leasing and subleasing matters, easement issues, due diligence investigations, secured financing transactions involving banks and private lenders, and development matters.

Along with drafting purchase and sale agreements, leases easements, covenants and other title matters, John works with his clients, brokers and other professionals through the process of land transactions.  He is known for providing practical advice and for his pragmatic approach to transactions.

Estate Planning & Probate

John represents a wide range of clients, from those with modest net worth to ultra-high net worth clients.  He often assists clients in developing estate plans during family transitions that involve a change in the family dynamic.  This includes the arrival of a first child through biological birth or adoption, and a death in the family.

For clients with higher net worth or potentially taxable estates, John’s services extend to creating tax-advantaged estate plans.  These plans, which may include establishing generational irrevocable/remainder trusts, and lifetime gifts, that are designed to maximize tax benefits for the client while recognizing/addressing family dynamics that need to be considered when transferring wealth and are not necessarily tax driven.

John also assists in the administration of estate in probates.  In this capacity, he provides counsel and advice to administrators, he prepares court filings, and assists with asset transfers, including helping administrators reach agreements with beneficiaries (when necessary).