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Stefan C. Nicholas, Attorney

COLUMN = LAW

Stefan C. Nicholas is a director and chair of Jackson & Campbell’s Estates and Trusts practice group and a member of the Business Law practice group. He has extensive experience in drafting wills, trusts, and all ancillary documents in connection with estate and gift-tax planning, as well as asset-protection planning, including both on- and off-shore asset-protection trusts and the use of corporate entities. Stefan also has extensive experience with sophisticated wealth transfer techniques such as grantor retained interest trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, and defective grantor trusts.

In addition, Stefan specializes in developing exit-planning strategies for business owners, and has counseled clients on estate planning, business succession planning, and asset-protection planning with an emphasis on managing the tax impact that liquidity events have on a client’s personal assets. He has guided clients on completing mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, and has negotiated partnership, management, shareholder, employment, and confidentiality agreements on behalf of numerous clients.

Stefan earned his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Moore Society of International Law and the Black Law Students Association. Before that, Stefan earned his master’s in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia Wilson School of Foreign Affairs. He received a BA in International Relations from Georgetown University, which he followed with academic stints in Prague in the Czech Republic and Berlin, Germany, where he earned a Certificate of German Language and Culture from the Goethe Institute.

Stefan is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and the State of New York.

Stefan is a member of the American Bar Association and the Estates and Trusts Bar of the District of Columbia. He is a member of the Wealth Counsel and the Business Enterprise Institute, and is currently treasurer and a member of the board of directors for DC Vote and the chairman of the board of the Hilda & Charles Mason Charitable Foundation. Stefan also serves on the advisory board for Eagle Bank and the George Washington Cancer Institute, as well as the Alumni Board for Georgetown Day School.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
 what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

– Basil King

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

– Christopher Robin to Pooh

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

– William Butler Yeats

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

– Leonard Cohen

Many people prefer to play it safe when it comes to business matters. Are you willing to take risks in the pursuit of entrepreneurial success?”

– Steven Schussler

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

– General Omar Bradley

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”

– John D. Rockefeller

A people who mean to be their Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

– James Madison

If you want to be busy, keep trying to be perfect. If you want to be happy, focus on making a difference.”

– Lisa Earle McLeod

Why am I whispering when I have something to say?”

– Eve Ensler

Do not be afraid of mistakes, providing you do not make the same one twice.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

Friendship is the only cement that will hold the world together.”

– Woodrow Wilson

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Do one thing every day that scares you.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”

– Carl Rogers

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

– Lao Tzu

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”

– Robert Fritz

Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.”

– Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

The best hobbies are the ones that take us furthest from our primary occupation.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?
 A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

– Erica Jong

There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…”

– John Lennon

It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”

– J. Kristnhamurti, The First and Last Freedom

As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”

– Brian Tracy

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”

– Marcel Proust

A truly forgiving person is someone who experiences all the anger merited by injustice and still acts with fairness and compassion.”

– Martha Beck

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

– Winston Churchill

We never know how high we are
 till we are called to rise;
 And then, if we are true to plan,
 Our statures touch the skies.”

– Emily Dickinson

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Your own words are the bricks and mortar
of the dreams you want to realize.
 The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience.”

– Sonia Croquette

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

– Magical

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow.”

– Langston Hughes

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

The awakening to the mystery of life is a revolutionary event; in it an old world is destroyed so that a new and better one may take its place.”

– J.J. Van Der Leeuw, The Conquest of Illusion

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.”

– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

The gem cannot be polished without friction; nor man perfected without trials.”

– Chinese proverb

A lot of people have ideas, but few decide to do something about them now. Not next week. But today.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Atari

Traveling is one way of lengthening life, at least in appearance.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation that indicate opportunities for success.”

– Peter F. Drucker

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

– Henry David Thoreau

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

– Abraham Lincoln

I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.”

– Thomas Edison

You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star.”

– Frederic Nietzsche