Smith Green Wax & Gold, LLP

Counselors at Law

Virginia Stanton Smith

Virginia Smith web IIPartner
vsmith@smithgreen.com

Virginia concentrates in the areas of estate planning, estate administration, and real estate. She represents clients in complex trust and tax planning as well as simple estate plans, retirement planning, charitable gift planning, Medicaid, and elder law. With more than 30 years of experience, Virginia represents individuals and couples in planning their estates, and families and institutions as personal representatives and trustees in administering estates. She willingly makes the occasional house call for clients with mobility issues.

Virginia’s personal warmth is an asset in the estate administration area in particular. The weeks and months after the death of a loved one can be traumatic at many levels, and the job of the personal representative and trustee is often uncharted territory for our clients. With our wonderful staff and decades of experience, we do our best to ease the process and make it understandable.

Buyers and Sellers of residential properties, Bed and Breakfast establishments, and commercial buildings have likewise relied on Virginia’s expertise in handling their purchases, sales, and leases in a timely and efficient manner. [Read more…]

Pamela R. Green

GRC40898-Green, Pamela RPartner
pgreen@smithgreen.com

A partner in the firm, Pamela concentrates her practice in the areas of sophisticated trust and estate planning, estate administration, and residential and commercial real estate transactions. As part of her probate and estate planning practice, she provides advice and guidance to elders and their families in the areas of long-term care planning, conservatorship, and guardianship. Pamela believes strongly in providing compassionate, thorough advice to clients coping with the long-term illness of a loved one, or loss of a family member. Pamela also enjoys working with first-time home buyers, and people looking to buy or build their dream homes.

Pamela served as Managing Editor of the Law Review at Western New England College School of Law and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in World Politics from The Catholic University of America.

In 2013, 2014, and 2015, Pamela was named to Boston Magazine’s “Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Stars” list, an honor limited to no more than 2.5% of the attorneys practicing in the state. [Read more…]

Farrah S. Wax

A partner in the firm, Attorney Wax focuses her practice in the areas of family law, child welfare law, probate litigation and estate administration. She successfully handles all aspects of complex family and probate litigation, including divorce, child custody and support issues, alimony, real estate and retirement account divisions, pre and post-nuptial agreements, guardianship, and adoption, will contests, and partition actions.  She has a unique experience representing clients who have experienced difficulty and struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, particularly opioid addiction, and has lectured on this topic.

Born and raised in New York City, Attorney Wax began her career in a challenging and rewarding family law practice before deciding to make the bucolic Berkshires her home in 2009.  Prior to joining the firm, she opened her own family law practice in 2012.  She advocates for her clients with calm, intelligent and passionate fervor, never losing sight that at the heart of the dispute, is a family.

Attorney Wax achieved her undergraduate degree from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1999 majoring in Political Science.  She attended New York Law School, from where she received her J.D. in 2002.  While a student, Attorney Wax worked at the New York City Department of Education, serving children with multiple disabilities and those on the Autism spectrum, in various capacities including special education teacher.

Attorney Wax resides in Southern Berkshire County with her husband and two daughters.

Attorney Wax is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and New York.

Mark S. Gold

Over the course of more than 40 years of practice, Mark has represented and counseled businesses ranging from entrepreneurial start-up companies to more established clients in the manufacturing, museum, service, tourism, and nonprofit sectors. He has worked with and represented banks and venture capital providers and companies being financed. He has assisted clients with their strategic planning, as well as change management and urgent problem-solving for organizations in crisis.

Mark has a concentration in:

  • Corporate and business law, including organizational and structural issues, capitalization, acquisitions and sales of businesses, contracts, and succession planning;
  • Business financing and venture capital, including representation of lenders, borrowers, start-up companies, and providers of venture capital at angel-round and Series A levels;
  • Nonprofit law, including assistance in strategic planning, financing, governance and dissolution; and
  • Museum law, including the complex legal issues relating to deaccessioning and the use of proceeds.

In counseling his clients, Mark seeks to gather and analyze all of the relevant information and develop a clear understanding of what the client wishes to accomplish. The client is presented with a series of options and the pros and cons of each — and a recommendation supported by rationale. Mark helps his clients select the option best for them and then implements it as efficiently and economically as possible. Often this will include negotiations with other parties, and these are done in the context of achieving the goal while preserving or improving the relationship if possible. [Read more…]

Allyson Holmes

Holmes, AllysonAssociate
aholmes@smithgreen.com

Allyson joined the firm as an associate in 2016 upon returning home to the Berkshires after practicing law in Boston.  Her areas of concentration include estate planning, estate administration, and real estate. Allyson has three years of prior experience representing the City of Boston on various municipal matters ranging from drafting and reviewing contracts, City ordinances, state legislation, license and intergovernmental agreements, and various litigation.

She enjoys the challenge of assessing issues related to a particular matter and advising her clients on the most effective means to accomplish their desired outcome.

Allyson attended Suffolk University Law School and earned her bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from Williams College.

Since her return to the Berkshires, Allyson once again immersed herself in the community by serving on the North Adams Planning Board and as a member of the Board of Directors of Community Health Programs.