Rutkin & Wolf PLLC

Focus and practice areas

The firm works from a single office in White Plains, New York, and its practice covers three areas of law. Estate planning at the firm includes trusts, wills, powers of attorney, probate, trust administration and estate litigation. The business law work includes company and LLC formation, contracts, shareholder disputes, business purchases and sales, mergers and acquisitions, and succession planning. Family law covers prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, divorce, child support and child custody.

Three areas under one roof is a common shape for a small firm, and it tends to suit clients whose lives cross those lines. A business owner often needs an estate plan. A divorce can raise questions about a family company. In my opinion, keeping that work in one place spares clients the handoffs between separate offices.

How the team is built

The site names two attorneys, Mitchell Rutkin and Jason M. Wolf, each listed as Attorney at Law. Rutkin handles estate planning for individuals and families along with legal counsel for businesses. Wolf represents businesses in employment and disciplinary hearings, and he takes on business litigation and family law. The two roles overlap on the business side, where one partner can advise on a deal and the other can litigate a dispute that follows.

Rutkin worked for other firms early in his career before he started the private firm with Wolf. Wolf grew up with a father who worked as a lawyer, an early exposure to the profession that predates his own practice. Their split of work is clear on the page: Rutkin leads on estate and business counsel, and Wolf leads on litigation and family matters.

A two-attorney firm keeps the client close to the person doing the work. There is little distance between the partner and the file, so the lawyer who takes the first call often handles the matter through to its end. For estate and family work, where the facts are personal, that continuity has real value.

How estate matters tend to proceed

Estate planning covers the documents a person signs while living and the steps a family takes afterward. A will directs who receives property and names an executor. A trust can hold assets and set terms for how they pass, which is why the firm lists both. Powers of attorney let someone act on another person's behalf when that person cannot.

Probate is the court process that proves a will and settles an estate, and it runs through the Surrogate's Court in the county where the person lived. Westchester County, which includes White Plains, has its own Surrogate's Court. Trust administration follows a separate track and stays largely out of court when the terms are clear. Estate litigation begins when someone contests a will, an accounting or the conduct of a fiduciary. The firm lists all of these, so a client with either a planning need or a dispute has a starting point here.

Several of the estate services connect in practice. A person who signs a will often signs a power of attorney at the same time, so the plan addresses both property and the chance of later incapacity. When that person dies, the executor named in the will opens probate, gathers the assets, pays debts and distributes what remains. A trust set up during life can hold some of that property and pass it under its own terms, which keeps it apart from the probate estate. The firm lists both the planning documents and the probate and administration work, so it can act at each of these stages.

Business and family matters

On the business side, the firm lists formation, contracts, shareholder disputes, purchases and sales, mergers and acquisitions, and succession planning. Formation sets up the entity and its governing documents. Shareholder disputes turn on those same documents once owners disagree. Succession planning ties the business work back to the estate work, since an owner's exit often runs through both. Wolf's experience with employment and disciplinary hearings gives the firm a route for the workplace side of a company's legal needs.

Business disputes often trace back to documents drafted at the start. A shareholder disagreement turns on the operating agreement or bylaws. A failed sale turns on the purchase contract and its representations. Because the firm both forms companies and litigates over them, it sees how the early paperwork reads when a deal goes wrong. Mergers and acquisitions bring their own diligence, where a buyer reviews contracts, liabilities and corporate records before closing.

Family law at the firm covers prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, divorce, child support and child custody. Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements set financial terms before or during a marriage, and New York courts review them for fairness and proper disclosure. Divorce in New York can proceed on no-fault grounds, and it settles questions of property, support and, when children are involved, custody. Child support follows state guidelines tied to income. Custody splits into legal custody, which is decision-making, and physical custody, which is where the child lives, and New York courts weigh the child's welfare in setting both. As a reviewer, I read the family law list as a standard set of matrimonial services that a general family practice would handle.

What the record shows

The firm presents itself plainly, with two named attorneys and three defined practice areas run from one White Plains office. Every service on the site fits within estate planning, business law or family law, and the two partners' descriptions match those areas. A visitor can take in the scope of the firm's work in a few minutes, and the practice-area page and the attorney bios describe the same three areas. In my opinion, that consistency is a fair signal for someone deciding whether the firm covers the matter they have.

The setup suits a Westchester client whose needs match these three areas, and above all one whose business and personal affairs touch each other. A local owner planning both a company and an estate can keep that work with one firm. A family with a closely held business and a divorce ahead can do the same. The details of timelines and strategy belong in a direct conversation, and the site gives a client enough to decide whether to start one.

What a prospective client sees is a small firm with named lawyers and a defined scope of work. The estate and business practices connect through succession planning. The business and family practices meet in matters involving family-owned companies. A client can confirm the specifics of any matter, along with each attorney's admissions and education, at that first meeting. The firm keeps one office, in White Plains, and both named attorneys practice from it.