Herzog Law Firm

Focus and practice areas

Elder law and estate planning form the core of this Albany, New York firm. The firm traces the work back to 1946. Its clients are individuals and families who want to plan for long-term care, protect what they have built, and pass those assets to the people they choose.

The service list is specific. Estate planning covers wills, trusts, and advanced directives. Medicaid planning addresses coverage for long-term care. The firm also handles probate and estate administration, special needs planning, and real estate law. A separate care management and advocacy service helps clients coordinate care for themselves or a family member.

In my opinion, that care service adds a practical dimension. Coordinating care is hands-on work, and pairing it with legal planning keeps the medical and legal sides connected.

A firm that holds this focus for decades tends to build habits around it. Wills, trusts, and Medicaid rules change with the law, and a team that has worked the same field for a long time has seen many of those changes arrive. Estate planning and elder law sit at the center of what the firm presents, and the roster backs that up.

How the team is built

The attorneys page names eight lawyers, spread across principal, of counsel, associate, and attorney titles. David A. Kubikian is the managing principal. He earned a finance degree from Hofstra University in 2002, a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 2005, and a master's in taxation from New York Law School in 2010. Before he moved to Upstate New York, he spent six years at the New York office of Stroock and Stroock and Lavan. That tax training fits a practice built around trusts and estates.

Jane-Marie Schaeffer, a principal, studied at New York University and took her law degree from St. John's University in 1993. Her work centers on estate planning and elder law. She also chairs Consumer Directed Choices, which ties her to the care side of the field.

Phillip K. Vacchio, another principal, attended Hofstra University School of Law. His practice reaches estate planning and probate, elder law, wills and living wills, family matters, and real estate. Daniel Glaser, also a principal, earned his law degree from Albany Law School in 2004 after a science degree from SUNY Oswego. His work centers on residential real estate for buyers, sellers, and lenders, and he handles estate matters too.

The mix of backgrounds is worth noting. Estate and elder law form the spine, and real estate sits alongside them through Glaser and Vacchio. Persing adds litigation and personal injury experience. A client whose estate matter turns into a dispute has that experience in the same building.

Of counsel and associate attorneys

Daniel J. Persing is of counsel and concentrates on personal injury, medical malpractice, and general litigation. He holds a law degree from Albany Law School, earned in 1981, after a bachelor's from Houghton College. His courtroom experience covers medical malpractice claims, motor vehicle accidents, and construction site accidents.

Timothy Casserly, also of counsel, studied communications at Boston College before his law degree at Albany Law School. He concentrates in elder law, estate planning, and probate, and his work extends into business law and tax. He practices at Burke and Casserly. Brady Dalton is an associate and a graduate of Albany Law School, and Michelle Casserly rounds out the roster as an attorney.

Where the firm works

Herzog Law Firm keeps four offices in New York: Albany, Saratoga Springs, Kingston, and Queensbury. Together they cover the greater Capital Region, the Hudson Valley, and the Adirondacks, which the firm names as its service area. Four locations give clients across a wide stretch of the state a place to meet close to home.

That geographic reach matters in this kind of practice. Elder law clients are often older, sometimes with limited mobility, and family members may live an hour or two apart. Offices in four towns cut the travel for everyone involved.

What estate and elder law planning involves

Estate planning turns on a handful of key documents. A will directs how assets pass after death. Trusts can hold assets during life and beyond it, and they shape how and when beneficiaries receive their share. Advanced directives, including health care proxies and powers of attorney, name who speaks for a person who can no longer speak for themselves. The firm prepares each of these.

Medicaid planning is its own discipline. Coverage for long-term care carries income and asset limits, and the timing of any transfer affects eligibility. Work here often begins years before care is needed, which is standard practice in the field. Herzog Law Firm lists Medicaid planning among its services.

Probate and estate administration starts after a death. An executor files the will with the local Surrogate's Court, gathers the assets, settles debts, and distributes what remains to the beneficiaries. Special needs planning uses trusts built so a person with a disability can keep public benefits while receiving extra support. Both areas sit inside the firm's stated service list.

Real estate law connects to much of this.A home is often a major asset in an estate, and its transfer, sale, or protection runs through the same planning. The firm lists real estate law as a practice area, and two of its principals work in that space. Care management and advocacy is a hands-on service that covers arranging and overseeing care and coordinating with providers and family. Paired with Medicaid planning and special needs work, it points to a firm that follows a client's situation past the signing of documents.

What the record shows

As a reviewer, I read the firm's public materials as a clear account of a firm with a settled focus. The center is elder law and estate planning, supported by real estate and litigation experience among the of counsel attorneys. The credentials on the page are concrete: named law schools, graduation years, and prior firm experience for most of the team.

One thing a reader can weigh is the breadth of titles. Principals, of counsel, and an associate suggest a layered team where senior lawyers can hand parts of a matter to others. For estate and elder law work, which often runs over months and involves several documents, that structure can keep a file moving.

The firm dates its elder law and estate planning work to 1946, and it operates today from Albany, Saratoga Springs, Kingston, and Queensbury. People weighing a will, a trust, or a Medicaid plan can arrange an initial consultation with the firm.