McCarthy Fingar LLP

Roots in White Plains and the clients it serves

The firm began in 1946 in White Plains, New York. Robert J. McCarthy and Elmer Lee Fingar founded it, and it has worked in Westchester County and the Lower Hudson Valley for more than 70 years. Its reach now covers New York, Connecticut, Florida and clients beyond those three states.

The client base is mixed. It takes in municipal corporations and charitable organizations. It also takes in companies across financial services, banking, manufacturing, real estate, insurance, private equity, accounting and software. The types of clients that appear on public listings line up with the sectors the firm names, municipal bodies and financial institutions among them.

The spread of practice groups

The firm sorts its work into practice groups. Trusts & Estates, Estate & Trust Litigation and Taxation make one cluster. Commercial Litigation, Municipal Law & Land Use and Real Estate Transactions make another. Guardianship Practice and Matrimonial & Family Law fill out the main list.

Beyond those, the firm names Corporate & General Business, Charitable Gift Planning, Exempt Organizations, Appellate Practice, Tax Certiorari & Condemnation, Collaborative Law, Mediation & Arbitration and Commercial Finance. Trusts and estates work is one of the firm's larger areas, and it connects to the taxation and estate litigation groups.

Across these groups, the firm handles transactional matters, litigation in state and federal courts, estate planning and Surrogate's Court work. In my opinion, that mix of deal work and courtroom work is what lets a trusts and estates practice also carry the disputes that follow it, through the Estate & Trust Litigation group.

How the team is built

The attorney roster carries partners, counsel and associates, plus lawyers listed as retired. The firm says its attorneys have come from a range of law schools, from other firms, from government and from the judiciary.

Partners and counsel

Susan Taxin Baer and Gail M. Boggio are partners whose work centers on trusts and estates, taxation and charitable gift planning. Boggio also practices in Estate & Trust Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration and Guardianship. Lori Lee Dickson, a partner, handles Commercial Litigation and Municipal Law & Land Use.

Several lawyers hold the title of counsel. Howell Bramson works in taxation, trusts and estates, and charitable and exempt-organization matters. Stephen Davis practices in Appellate Practice, Commercial Litigation and Tax Certiorari & Condemnation. Anna L. Georgiou and Jeannette Arlin Koster both cover Municipal Law & Land Use with litigation and real estate work. Joseph P. Harrington handles Commercial Finance and Real Estate Transactions.

Associates

Natalie M. Burke works across Guardianship, Municipal Law & Land Use, Estate & Trust Litigation, Taxation and Trusts & Estates. Emily A. DiGiacomo practices in Municipal Law & Land Use, Commercial Litigation and Real Estate Transactions, and she wrote an article for the Pace Environmental Law Review's Greenlaw Blog on the environmental impact of high-speed rail.

Recent hires and bar activity

The firm added attorneys in 2026. Ian W. MacLean joined with more than three decades of experience, and Olivia T. Incerto joined as an associate in Estate & Trust Litigation, Trusts & Estates and Taxation. Kathleen Donelli, a former partner of many years, returned as counsel and practices in Matrimonial & Family Law, Collaborative Law, Appellate Practice and Mediation & Arbitration.

Bar service runs through the roster. Irma K. Nimetz Co-Chairs the Estate & Trust Litigation group and was elected President of the White Plains Bar Association. Natalie M. Burke was elected a director of that same association. Lori Lee Dickson was elected to the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association's Local and State Government Law Section.

What the practice areas involve

The groups the firm names give a reader a sense of the matters it takes on. Trusts and estates work covers wills, trusts and the documents that set out how property passes, along with the administration of an estate after a death. An estate usually begins with probate, where the Surrogate's Court admits the will and appoints an executor. The executor then gathers assets, pays debts and taxes, files an accounting, and distributes what remains to the beneficiaries.

When beneficiaries dispute a will or an accounting, the matter lands in that same Surrogate's Court through the Estate & Trust Litigation group. A will contest often turns on questions of capacity or undue influence. Guardianship Practice runs on a separate track, with petitions to appoint a guardian for a person who can no longer manage their own affairs, a court process that often turns on medical and financial records.

Land use, tax and municipal work

A property owner seeking approval for a project files with the local planning or zoning board, attends public hearings, and waits on environmental and site review before a vote. Municipal clients work the other side of that table, and they draft local laws and defend board decisions. The firm's client list, which names municipal corporations, fits work on both sides of these questions.

Tax Certiorari & Condemnation runs close to this municipal work. A tax certiorari case challenges the assessed value a town places on a property, since that value drives the tax bill. Condemnation, also called eminent domain, deals with property the government takes for a public purpose and the compensation the owner is owed.

Litigation, real estate and family matters

Commercial litigation covers business disputes in state and federal courts, including contract fights and claims among the owners of a company. Appellate Practice picks up after a trial court rules, with briefs and argument before a higher court. The firm lists lawyers in both, so it can take a matter through trial and then into an appeal.

Real Estate Transactions covers the purchase, sale, leasing and financing of property, with the contracts, title work and closings that each deal brings. The firm pairs it with Commercial Finance, which covers loans and the security that backs them. Taxation runs under many of these groups, since estate plans, property deals and business matters all carry tax questions, and the firm folds tax work into charitable gift planning and exempt-organization advice for its nonprofit clients.

Matrimonial & Family Law covers divorce and related family matters, and the firm pairs it with Collaborative Law and Mediation & Arbitration, which give negotiated and mediated routes to resolve a matter. As a reviewer, I read that pairing as a sign the firm can move a family case through negotiation or through the courtroom, depending on what the case calls for.

What the record shows

The firm's public record ties its work to estate planning and estate litigation, taxation, municipal and land use law, real estate, family law and commercial disputes. Its named client sectors run to municipal bodies, financial institutions, and companies in manufacturing, insurance and technology.

Recent notices show attorneys joining in 2026, a former partner returning as counsel, and current lawyers elected to bar association posts. The roster mixes partners and counsel with associates across the same practice groups. The office has operated from White Plains since 1946.