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Deborah Manus, Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP Photo

Deborah J. Manus

Chair / Boston

Overview

Deb Manus is chair of Nutter and a partner in the firm’s Private Client Department. As an estate planning attorney, she focuses her practice on estate and trust administration, estate planning for high net worth individuals and families, and providing legal advice to trusts and trustees. She has extensive experience settling complex estates, helping clients structure large, tax-efficient gifts and implementing other planning techniques to reduce transfer taxes. Deb also assists clients with pre-nuptial planning and helps clients accomplish their philanthropic goals, advising on lifetime and testamentary gifts to public charities, private foundations and charitable trusts. The firm’s Trusts and Estates practice is ranked in top tiers in Boston and nationally by U.S. News & World Report/Best Lawyers.

Deb serves as trustee of a significant number of private trusts. She is also a principal of Nutter Investment Advisors, LLC, which provides investment advisory services to trusts, individuals, foundations and retirement plans.

Deb is active in many business and civic organizations, including:

  • Boston Bar Association, past president (2021-2022)  
  • Boston Bar Foundation, Trustee and member of the Society of Fellows

  • The Nantucket Atheneum, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees

  • Boston Probate and Estate Planning Forum

  • Massachusetts Women Forum
  • Ad Hoc Committee on the Massachusetts Spousal Elective Share, formed by the Boston Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association and Women's Bar Association to reform the Massachusetts elective share statute. In 2014, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly recognized Deb's critical role in bringing the bar associations to consensus on a bill to reform the state's current elective share statute (after eight years of work) by selecting her as a 2013 Lawyer of the Year.
  • Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association, past president and board member
  • New England Aquarium, Board of Overseers
  • Cornell Law Association, former Executive Committee Member

Deb is also a frequent contributor to professional publications related to her practice area. She co-authored “Strategies for Paying the Estate Tax that is Due” in MCLE’s A Practical Guide to Estate Planning. She is also a contributing author of MCLE’s Massachusetts Probate Manual (Chapter 2, “Pre Probate Considerations”) and MCLE’s Massachusetts Basic Practice Manual (Chapter 4, “The Probate and Administration of Estates in Massachusetts”).

News & Insights

News

Honors

Honors

  • Boston Business Journal, Women Who Mean Business” honoree, 2017
  • Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, "2017 Top Women of Law" honoree
  • Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, “2013 Lawyer of the Year”
  • The Best Lawyers in America, 2016-2024
  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers, 2006-2023

Education & Admissions

Education

Cornell Law School, J.D., cum laude
Bates College, B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

  • Massachusetts

Industries

In the Community

Deb is active in numerous business and civic organizations. In 2014, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly recognized Deb's critical role in bringing the bar associations to consensus on a bill to reform the state's current elective share statute (after eight years of work) by selecting her as a 2013 Lawyer of the Year.

Noteworthy

  • Boston Business Journal, Women Who Mean Business” honoree, 2017
  • Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, "2017 Top Women of Law" honoree
  • Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, “2013 Lawyer of the Year”
  • The Best Lawyers in America, 2016-2024
  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers, 2006-2023
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