The power to move on

A BIG STEP: Renee Evangelista recently took the step of moving on from her home at the firm now known as Locke Lord to become a partner in boutique firm Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg Burnett. / PBN PHOTO/JAIME LOWE
A BIG STEP: Renee Evangelista recently took the step of moving on from her home at the firm now known as Locke Lord to become a partner in boutique firm Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg Burnett. / PBN PHOTO/JAIME LOWE

Rhode Island native Renee Evangelista, a specialist in complex estate planning and settlement techniques, showed the courage of her convictions in 2014 when she left the international legal player Edwards Wildman (now Locke Lord) to form a boutique firm focused on trusts and estates.

It was an amicable split, Evangelista said.

“Edwards Wildman, as we see it, and we commend them for it, is trying to position itself to handle corporate work internationally, and with private client work it’s much more of a personal and individual practice,” Evangelista said.

Evangelista’s new firm, based in Providence, is called Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg Burnett. She brings heavy-duty experience to the mix, having served as the first female partner-in-charge in the 100-plus-year history of Edwards Wildman’s Providence office.

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Evangelista graduated from Brown with her bachelor’s degree and from New York University with her law degree. She was just starting a legal career in New York at Edwards & Angell (as Edwards Wildman was then called) a quarter-century ago, when family events changed her plans for her.

Her father, in his late 40s at the time and the superintendent of the Providence School Department, died.

“When Dad passed away, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to be in Providence,’ ” Evangelista said.

Recently equipped with some hard life experience regarding death and dying, Evangelista saw things take an ironic turn: The only spot open at Edwards & Angell was in trusts and estates.

“I think I have been more empathetic, because I have been through it,” Evangelista said. “We do see a lot of sad stories. I think that experience has helped me be a better lawyer.”

She said that leaving Edwards & Angell was bittersweet, but that the relationships with her former partners are actually thriving.

“We represent a lot of the partners there, we do a lot of the estate planning,” Evangelista said.

She loves to play tennis, golf, and ski whenever she can, and particularly enjoys connecting with athletes professionally.

“We represent some athletes, and some team owners,” Evangelista said. Athletics is a world she is familiar with: at age 12, Evangelista’s Little League softball team won the World Series down in Waco, Texas. It was an experience that the then-third baseman would not soon forget.

“I loved Waco, I thought it was very nice,” Evangelista said.

As for the nuts and bolts of her practice today, Evangelista says Rhode Island took a big step in the right direction by raising the estate tax exemption to $1.5 million in January.

“That was wonderful,” Evangelista said.

She added that the state, nonetheless, is losing wealthy residents to other parts of the country, due to its estate taxes.

“We lose a lot of people who move to Florida or New Hampshire, because their estate taxes are so much less,” Evangelista said. “Here you only have $1.5 million sheltered. If you have $10 million and you’re a Florida resident, you pay zero, so that’s a big difference to a family.” •

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