John Pankauski

Mr. Pankauski has been rated AV®Preeminent by independent legal authority Martindale Hubbell. Mr. Pankauski's AV®Preeminent ranking is the highest rating available and means that his peers, lawyers and judges rank him at the top for professional excellence based upon legal knowledge, analytical capabilities, judgment, communications and legal experience.

He spends most of his time in the courtroom trying cases and in evidentiary hearings. When he is not in the court room, he devotes considerable time to detailed trial preparation & intense litigation strategy, including high level, high dollar negotiations on behalf of clients. His practice is restricted to “probate litigation”: disputes, controversies, litigation & lawsuits involving wills, trusts, estates, inheritances and guardianships.

His extensive experience involves litigating over jewelry, joint bank accounts, lifetime gifts, family owned businesses, real estate, Florida Homestead, beneficiary rights to trusts & estates, and rights of surviving spouses. Mr. Pankauski's, and the firm's, practice also includes defending Florida trustees and Personal Representatives of Palm Beach estates and advocating on behalf of family members and spouses in litigated family guardianships. Some of the legal issues which he has been involved in include: Palm Beach will contests, undue influence, lack of mental capacity, insane delusion, rights of family members & heirs, tortuous interference with an inheritance, a widow's Florida elective share, validity and claims of prenuptial agreements, challenges to wills & trusts, investments and Florida's prudent investor rule.

Mr. Pankauski has over 20 years of legal experience. He is a member of the Florida Bar's Trial Lawyers Section and the Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section as well as the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section. He attended the University of Massachusetts – Amherst where he studied liberal arts and political science and was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He studied law at Suffolk University Law School on Beacon Hill where he obtained a law degree and the University of Miami School of Law where he obtained his LLM.