Heather J. Rhoades Appointed Chairman of Cummings & Lockwood’s Private Clients Group
December 15, 2021
Cummings & Lockwood is pleased to announce that Heather J. Rhoades has been appointed the new Chairman of the firm’s Private Clients Group, effective January 1, 2022. She will replace Laura Weintraub Beck who will assume the role of Chairman and Managing Director of the firm.
“We are delighted to have a Partner of Heather’s expertise and ability to manage our firm-wide trusts and estates practice,” noted Jonathan B. Mills, Chairman and Managing Director of Cummings & Lockwood. “She is an outstanding lawyer and a talented leader who has been actively involved in the management of the firm in various roles, including as a member of Cummings & Lockwood’s Board of Directors, Compensation Committee, Marketing Committee and as Principal-in-Charge of the West Hartford office.”
Based in the firm’s West Hartford office, Heather focuses her practice in the areas of estate planning, estate settlement, trust administration and charitable planning. Heather is also a member of the Firm's National Charitable Planning Group.
Heather received her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Connecticut School of Law and her B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Connecticut.
She is on the Executive Committee of the Estate and Probate Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, a member of the American Bar Association, and Past President of the Estate and Business Planning Council of Hartford. She writes extensively on estate and tax planning and philanthropic giving for Trusts & Estates Magazine and for Thomson Reuters Practical Law Guides.
Heather is a Fellow with the prestigious American College of Trusts & Estates Counsel (ACTEC), has been recognized as a Notable Practitioner in Chambers High Net Worth Guide from 2017 to the present. She was also selected as The Best Lawyers in America from 2013 to the present, as Trusts & Estates Lawyer of the Year in the Hartford region in 2016, 2019 and 2021, ranked as a Connecticut and New England Super Lawyer from 2014 to the present, and identified as a Rising Star from 2008 - 2013 by Super Lawyers.
Heather serves on the Philanthropy Committee of the Editorial Advisory Board of Trusts & Estates Magazine and is a Former Member of the Public Giving Professional Advisory Committee of the Hartford Foundation.
Heather lives with her husband, Jon Morton, in Glastonbury, Connecticut.