Practice

Basil Zirinis leads Sullivan & Cromwell’s international private client practice. He represents individuals, fiduciaries and family-controlled businesses throughout the world in a broad range of matters, including estate and trust planning, family business governance and transition, estate and trust administration and litigation.

Mr. Zirinis also has extensive experience in trust and estate litigation and has been involved in many of the leading litigations in this area in the last 25 years in the United States and abroad. Recently, for example, he and S&C have been counsel in the highly publicized litigation involving Chicago’s Pritzker family in the United States and the Bahamas, and the America’s Cup trust litigation in New York.

In addition to The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, Mr. Zirinis is a member of The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He has been a trustee of the Leeds Castle Foundation and a member of the board of trustees of the American Foundation for the Blind.

Recent Publications and Presentations

· Unintended Consequences: Does an Offshore Trustee’s Disclosure of Privileged Legal Advice to a Beneficiary Pursuant to Local Law Waive the Attorney-Client Privilege in the United States?, Trust Quarterly Review, November 2010

· An Unwelcome Embrace: Potential Exposure of Offshore Trustees to U.S. Litigation, Trusts and Trustees, November 2010

· Trusts and Trends -- The Future of Trust Structuring and Resulting Litigation Trends, Legal Week Trust & Estates Litigation Forum, March 2012

· How Do You Pick Your Trustee?, International Wealth Advisors Forum, May 2011

· Shock and Law – the Long Arm of the US Courts, Legal Week Trust & Estates Litigation Forum, March 2011

· Real Estate Structuring – Avoiding Pitfalls and Sharing Tips, Legal Week Private Client Forum Europe, November 2010

· Beating the Statistics – Reorganizing the Family Business for a Successful Transfer to the Next Generation, International Bar Association Annual Conference, October 2009

· Non-U.S. Trusts with U.S. Beneficiaries: Issues and Potential Developments Under the New Administration, Private Banking World Conference – (hosted by the Bahamas Financial Authority), February 2009

Educational History

Bowdoin College, B.A., 1980

Columbia Law School, J.D., 1985