Overview

Practice Areas

Maggie has nearly 30 years of experience representing clients in a wide variety of matters including estate and trust litigation; estate planning; probate; and estate and trust administration.

She provides counsel to clients at every stage of life, from recently married couples and young families to business owners and retirees. Maggie has extensive experience in estate planning as well as wrongful death matters, will contests, trust disputes, and obtaining guardianships for both minors and adults. She also serves as a mediator for the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Probate Division.

Maggie serves as chair of Frantz Ward’s Women’s Initiative, which prioritizes the recruitment, promotion, and mentoring of women attorneys through leadership training, networking, and community involvement.

Practice Areas

Representative Experience

  • Successful resolution of litigation involving a multimillion-dollar trust.
  • Successful resolution of a disputed family trust.
  • Successfully obtained a court order vacating an arbitration award in favor of an employee against her employer.
  • Successfully represented executor and settled a will contest action brought by disinherited heirs of the decedent.
  • Successfully defended the executor in a dispute amongst the heirs of a decedent’s estate.
  • Successfully represented trustee in multimillion-dollar divorce matter in which the wife ineffectively attacked the validity of the trust in an attempt to increase the value of the marital estate.
  • Successful trial and appellate work regarding a high-profile post-decree custody dispute where the court awarded sole custody of the children to her client.

Education & Admissions

Education

  • Cleveland State University College of Law, J.D., 1995
  • Hiram College, B.A., 1987

Bar and Court Admissions

  • State of Ohio
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio
  • U.S.. District Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • U.S.District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Arkansas
  • U.S.. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
  • U.S.. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

Involvement

Professional Affiliations

  • Ohio State Bar Association, Member (1995 – Present)
  • Ohio Women’s Bar Association (2023 – Present)
  • Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Member (1996 – Present)
  • Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division, Mediator (2022 – Present) 

Community Involvement

  • Hospice of the Western Reserve Planned Giving Advisory Council, Member

Firm Involvement

  • Women’s Initiative, Chair (2023 – Present)
  • Mentor (2020 – Present)
  • Event Planning Committee, Member

Awards & Honors

  • Recognized by Crain’s Cleveland Business as Notable Woman in Law (2024)
  • Recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® in Family Law and Trusts and Estates (2024 – Present)
  • Named to the Ohio Super Lawyers List (2025)

Publications

Presentations & Lectures

  • “Prenuptial Agreements: Divorce Planning v. Estate Planning and the Pitfalls of Drafting for Second Marriages,” Center for Principled Family Advocacy (August 2021)
  • “When Closely Held Businesses Are Held Too Closely?” Association of Corporate Counsel, Cleveland, OH (August 2021)
  • “COVID-19’s Impact on Estate Planning,” Association of Corporate Counsel Webinar (October 2020)
  • Maggie is a frequent panelist and speaker at various mass tort litigation conferences held throughout the country, including San Diego, CA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and Dallas, TX.

Media Coverage

Representative Experience

  • Successful resolution of litigation involving a multimillion-dollar trust.
  • Successful resolution of a disputed family trust.
  • Successfully obtained a court order vacating an arbitration award in favor of an employee against her employer.
  • Successfully represented executor and settled a will contest action brought by disinherited heirs of the decedent.
  • Successfully defended the executor in a dispute amongst the heirs of a decedent’s estate.
  • Successfully represented trustee in multimillion-dollar divorce matter in which the wife ineffectively attacked the validity of the trust in an attempt to increase the value of the marital estate.
  • Successful trial and appellate work regarding a high-profile post-decree custody dispute where the court awarded sole custody of the children to her client.

Education & Admissions

Education

  • Cleveland State University College of Law, J.D., 1995
  • Hiram College, B.A., 1987

Bar and Court Admissions

  • State of Ohio
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio
  • U.S.. District Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • U.S.District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Arkansas
  • U.S.. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
  • U.S.. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

Involvement

Professional Affiliations

  • Ohio State Bar Association, Member (1995 – Present)
  • Ohio Women’s Bar Association (2023 – Present)
  • Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Member (1996 – Present)
  • Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division, Mediator (2022 – Present) 

Community Involvement

  • Hospice of the Western Reserve Planned Giving Advisory Council, Member

Firm Involvement

  • Women’s Initiative, Chair (2023 – Present)
  • Mentor (2020 – Present)
  • Event Planning Committee, Member

Awards & Honors

  • Recognized by Crain’s Cleveland Business as Notable Woman in Law (2024)
  • Recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® in Family Law and Trusts and Estates (2024 – Present)
  • Named to the Ohio Super Lawyers List (2025)

Publications

Presentations & Lectures

  • “Prenuptial Agreements: Divorce Planning v. Estate Planning and the Pitfalls of Drafting for Second Marriages,” Center for Principled Family Advocacy (August 2021)
  • “When Closely Held Businesses Are Held Too Closely?” Association of Corporate Counsel, Cleveland, OH (August 2021)
  • “COVID-19’s Impact on Estate Planning,” Association of Corporate Counsel Webinar (October 2020)
  • Maggie is a frequent panelist and speaker at various mass tort litigation conferences held throughout the country, including San Diego, CA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and Dallas, TX.

Media Coverage