Kay Bittner Schwartz, Attorney

Mrs. Schwartz devotes her practice to estate administration, elder law and estate planning matters. Her estate administration practice involves assisting personal representives with opening and administering decedents' probate and non-probate estates before the Registers of Wills in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, Maryland. Her representation of personal representatives in these proceedings includes completing all documents required to be filed with the courts, addressing final income tax return issues, handling federal estate and gift tax return filing requirements and compiling the information required to be reported on the estates' fiduciary income tax returns.

Mrs. Schwartz also works closely with clients to develop comprehensive estate plans which address both the practical and tax aspects of managing their wealth during their lives and transferring their wealth during their lives or at death. Her estate planning practice includes preparing wills, powers of attorney, medical directives and trust agreements. As an adjunct to her estate planning and elder law practice, she frequently assists clients with organizing and maintaining their financial papers. In several instances, she performs work which is necessary to manage a client's personal and financial lives. In addition, she acts as an advocate for clients who are hospitalized or facing changes in continuum of care facilities.

Mrs. Schwartz joined Bregman, Berbert & Schwartz, L.L.C., as an attorney in 1996. Prior to that time she worked with the firm for several years as a law clerk and legal assistant. However, she has been involved in the field of law since 1976 when she began working as a legal secretary and later as a paralegal for other firms in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area.

Mrs. Schwartz obtained her J.D. from the George Washington University's National Law Center in Washington, D.C., in 1995 where she graduated with highest honors. At her graduation from George Washington's Law School she was awarded with the following prizes: the Anne Wells Branscomb Prize (awarded to the graduating evening division student who obtained the highest g.p.a.), the Willard Waddington Gatchell Prize (awarded to only three members of the graduating class who have attained the highest g.p.a. in the last year of law school) and the Jennie Hassler Walburn Prize (awarded to the outstanding student in the field of civil procedure).

Prior to transferring to George Washington for her J.D., Mrs. Schwartz attended the University of Maryland's School of Law, in Baltimore, Maryland, where she received the American Jurisprudence Prize for Property I.

Mrs. Schwartz earned her B.S. degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she graduated summa cum laude.