Are you writing a scholarly article or book chapter in the field of trusts & estates and would like feedback on it?

The Global Wealth Management Project at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School is delighted to announce that it has received a grant from the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Foundation to host a conference to provide feedback on academic scholarship in progress.

The conference, known as the Trust and Succession Law Workshop, will be held on Friday, November 1, and Saturday, November 2, at the Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia. The Workshop is in-person; there is not an option for Zoom.

The format of the Workshop is as follows. The draft papers will be circulated in advance. All participants are expected to read the papers in advance. Each paper will be allotted 45 minutes. The author of the paper will have approximately 5 minutes to introduce the paper. The remaining 40 minutes will be devoted to the participants providing feedback on the draft.

The expected outcome of the Workshop is that each scholarly paper will be published in due course. Each paper is expected to acknowledge the feedback provided at the Workshop and the funding for the Workshop provided by the ACTEC Foundation.

Participants should plan to arrive in the afternoon or evening of Thursday, October 31. The Workshop will run all day on Friday, November 1, followed by a conference dinner, and on Saturday, November 2, in the morning.

On Friday, lunch and the conference dinner will be provided for all participants. For participants who are selected to present a paper, the Workshop additionally will arrange hotel accommodation for Thursday and Friday nights and will pay a $500 stipend toward airfare, ground transportation, and other expenses.

If you would like to present a paper, please send an email with the paper title and a brief abstract to Tom Gallanis at tgallani@gmu.edu by Friday, July 26 We hope for a diverse range of presenters and paper topics. If you would like to participate in giving feedback on the papers but not present a paper, this also is welcomed, and please let Tom know by email so that he can have an accurate count for the Friday lunch and dinner.

The Antonin Scalia Law School is located in Arlington, Virginia, across the river from Washington D.C. The law school and the conference hotel (the Westin Arlington) are reachable easily by Metro. The Blue line has a stop at Reagan National airport, the Silver line has a stop at Dulles airport, and the Red line has a stop at Union Station (rail).

Photo of Gerry W. Beyer Gerry W. Beyer

Dr. Gerry W. Beyer joined the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Law in June 2005 as the first holder of the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professorship. Previously, Prof. Beyer taught as a professor or visiting professor at several other…

Dr. Gerry W. Beyer joined the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Law in June 2005 as the first holder of the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professorship. Previously, Prof. Beyer taught as a professor or visiting professor at several other law schools including Boston College, Boston University, The Ohio State University, Southern Methodist University, the University of New Mexico, Santa Clara University, St. Mary’s University, and La Trobe University in Australia.

Prof. Beyer is admitted to practice in Texas, Illinois (inactive), Ohio (inactive) and before the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Prof. Beyer is the recipient of dozens of outstanding and distinguished faculty awards from three law schools including the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the most prestigious university-wide teaching award at Texas Tech, the 2015 President’s Academic Achievement Award, and the Outstanding (Law) Researcher Award in 2013 and 2017.

As a state and nationally recognized expert in estate planning, Prof. Beyer is a highly sought after lecturer. He presents dozens of continuing legal education presentations each year for many national, state, and local bar associations, universities, and civic groups. In recognition of his expertise and contributions to the legal profession, the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils inducted him into the Estate Planning Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2022, Prof. Beyer was awarded the Distinguished Probate Attorney Lifetime Achievement Award by the Real Estate, Probate, and Trust Law Section of State Bar of Texas.

Prof. Beyer is the editor of the most popular estate planning blawg in the nation which after being named for five consecutive years to the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 was awarded Hall of Fame status in 2015.

Prof. Beyer is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles focusing on various aspects of estate planning, including a two-volume treatise on Texas wills law, an estate planning law school casebook, and the Wills, Trusts, and Estates volume of the Examples & Explanations series. He has four times won awards from the American Bar Association’s Probate & Property magazine for his writing. He is one of the most often downloaded law authors on the Social Science Research Network with a ranking in the top .001%.  Prof. Beyer is the Editor-in-Chief of the REPTL Reporter, the official journal of the largest section of the State Bar of Texas, the Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section.

Prof. Beyer serves as a mentor to many students and various law school organizations as well participating regularly in pro bono activities. He is the advisor for the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal and its annual seminar, the Black Law Students Association, and the Estate and Property Law Society.

Prof. Beyer received his J.D. from the Ohio State University (summa cum laude) and his LL.M. and J.SD. degrees from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Order of the Coif, an Academic Fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a member of the American Law Institute, and was appointed by the Uniform Law Commission as the Reporter for the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act and the Integration of Probate and Non-Probate Transfers Study Committee.