Virginia Symmes Sheehan
Overview
ShareholderVirginia (“Ginger”) is a director and shareholder in the Trusts and Estates Department. She focuses her practice in the areas of estate planning, estate (probate) and trust administration, succession planning for family businesses, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning, guardianships, special needs trusts, and elder law. Ginger represents a broad range of clients including individuals planning their personal affairs, beneficiaries of estates and trusts, and individuals and professionals serving as executors, trustees, guardians, and agents under powers of attorney. On estate planning matters, she works closely with her clients to understand their concerns and goals. Ginger believes in a team approach and frequently works with her client’s financial advisor and accountant to create an estate plan tailored to the client’s unique circumstances. On probate and trust administration matters, Ginger, with assistance from a paralegal, works closely with the executor and trustee to ensure that the administration is handled efficiently and that the executor or trustee fulfills their fiduciary duties. In some situations, at the request of her clients, Ginger will serve as executor and trustee.
Past Experience
Ginger has practiced exclusively in the areas of estate planning and estate and trust administration for more than 30 years. After law school, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable William R. Johnson of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and then as an associate with a local firm before joining Orr & Reno in 1994. In 2004 she became a founding member of Flood, Sheehan & Tobin, PLLC, a “boutique” estate planning and estate and trust administration law firm, where she practiced until rejoining Orr & Reno in 2022.
Hobbies
Ginger enjoys skiing, rowing, and spending time with her family.
Professional and Community Involvement
Professional Involvement
- Member, New Hampshire Bar Association, Trust and Estate Section
- Member, New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association
- Member, New Hampshire Estate Planning Council
- Presenter at New Hampshire Bar Association and ACTEC continuing legal education programs on estate planning and estate and trust administration topics
Community Involvement
- Trust and Estate Legislative Working Group, Chair 2018-present
- Former Board Chair, Concord Community Music School
- Former Board Member, Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire
- Former Chair, American Cancer Society- Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Event, Concord, NH
- Former Board Member, American Cancer Society, Merrimack Unit
- Speaker for civic and business groups on basic estate planning and probate avoidance
Honors & Distinctions
- Fellow, American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), elected 2006
- New Hampshire State Chair Elect, ACTEC
- AV Peer Review Rating, Martindale Hubbell
- AV Rating-Judicial Edition, Martindale Hubbell
- Cited in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Trusts and Estates, and Elder Law, since 2007
