Erika Hooker is an attorney in Bousquet Holstein's Trusts and Estates and Agriculture Practice Groups. Traveling between the firm's Syracuse and Ithaca offices, Erika represents estate planning and farming clients from across New York state.
Agriculture
As a native of Central New York, Erika grew up working in the agriculture community and has a specific knowledge of succession planning for family farms. She is particularly sensitive toward the complicated nature of transitioning or expanding family farms, and the detail involved in such transactions. Agriculture business clients can count on Erika’s unique understanding of their industry to inform her legal knowledge and assist them in coming up with the best plan possible.
Services available for her agriculture clients include:
- Farm Succession Planning for Intergenerational Transfers and Estate Tax Considerations
- Medicaid Planning to Protect Farm Assets
- Formation of New Entities
- Business Document Review and Inclusion of Buy-Sell Agreement Terms
- Farm Mergers and Acquisitions
- Farm Winery and Farm Brewery Licenses
- Negotiation of Renewable Energy Contracts for Farmland
Estate Planning and Estate Administration
Erika cares deeply about understanding her client’s background and individual needs. She appreciates how this affects everyone's estate planning and administration and works to find a plan tailored to every client’s requirements. Erika’s natural curiosity and love of problem solving give her an advantage in understanding and working through complex legal issues. She believes in a practical approach to law with an emphasis on being diligent and responsive to her clients.
Erika's trusts and estate planning and administration services include:
- Comprehensive Advice on Estate Plans Including Wills and Trusts
- Estate and Gift Tax Planning for Family Wealth Preservation
- Consideration for Providing for Loved Ones with Special Needs
- Post-Death Administration of Wills and Trusts
Experience
Erika is the lead attorney and advisor to large farms and agriculture businesses across New York state with intergenerational transfer, wealth preservation, and estate tax concerns. She has advised clients in multi-million dollar farm sales and purchases, assisted and led the negotiation of solar leases and anaerobic digestor leases for farms, and overseen the transfer of major operations and ownership between several generations of family businesses. Erika is also a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having lived and worked in Senegal as an agriculture extension agent for two years.
Acknowledgements
- Super Lawyers Upstate New York Rising Star, 2021-2023
- President's Pro Bono Award – New York State Bar Association, 2022
- Pro Bono Champion – Volunteer Lawyer's Project of Central New York, 2021
Community Involvement
- Volunteer Lawyers Project of Central New York, Inc. – Surrogate's Court Clinic and Landlord Tenant Clinic Volunteer
Education
J.D., Syracuse University College of Law, magna cum laude, 2019
- Member, Syracuse Law Review
- Member, Travis H.D. Lewin Advocacy Honor Society
- Member, Justinian Honor Society
B.S., in Communications and International Agriculture and Rural Development, Cornell University, 2013
Admissions
New York
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