Michael W. Galligan

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, U.S. and cross-border estate and income tax planning, private international law, and immigration. Mr. Galligan concentrates his practice 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. In addition to clients who are U.S. citizens and residents with family members and property holdings located only in the United States, his clients include U.S. citizens and residents with property holdings abroad; non-U.S. citizens and residents who own property and invest in the United States; families whose members are citizens and residents of different countries and often own property in different countries; non-U.S. persons planning to become U.S. residents; and U.S. citizens and residents leaving the United States permanently or temporarily. He also represents individual and corporate fiduciaries in connection with these matters. With the assistance of qualified counsel in the relevant jurisdictions, Mr. Galligan has worked on cross-border wealth transfer, trust and succession projects involving well over thirty countries worldwide. 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 as well as close coordination of their immigration goals with their tax and estate planning objectives. 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 Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of Public and International Affairs.