Megan E. Cannella

Megan Cannella focuses her practice on guiding individuals and families through the legal aspects of life’s transitions.  She has extensive experience in estate planning, estate and trust administration and litigation, business succession planning, and charitable planning.

Estate Planning: As Counsel in Bressler’s Private Client practice, Meg helps her clients transfer assets to the next generation while keeping their personal and tax-saving goals in mind. She assesses complex federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax issues and manages income tax planning for trusts and estates. Meg regularly prepares sophisticated wills, durable powers of attorney, and advance directives for health care. She drafts various trusts, including: living trusts and insurance trusts, grantor-retained annuity trusts, Delaware trusts, special needs trusts, charitable trusts, qualified domestic trusts, asset protection trusts, and qualified personal residence trusts, among others.

Administration and Probate Litigation: On the administration side, Meg helps clients efficiently navigate the probate system.  She counsels executors, administrators, trustees and beneficiaries on the administration and taxation of estates and trusts. She represents beneficiaries in will contests, construction of wills and trusts, approvals of accountings, undue influence actions, and other probate actions.

Business Succession Planning: Meg advises many owners of closely held and family owned businesses in business succession planning, which can include the integration of next generations into the business, consideration of investment and charitable philosophies of the family, or an outright sale. She works closely with attorneys in Bressler’s related practice areas, including corporate, employment, and real estate law, to provide clients with an expert legal team for their business needs.

Charitable Planning: Philanthropy is also an important part of her clients’ planning. She assists clients in tax-efficient charitable giving and provides general representation to tax-exempt organizations, advising them on qualifications for tax-exempt status, governance best practices, and policies for financial and legal compliance.

Prior Experience: Before joining Bressler Amery & Ross, Meg was an associate at an Am Law 100 law firm and at a boutique tax law firm. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Clarkson S. Fischer Jr., P.J.A.D., of the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, and interned for the Honorable Stuart Rabner, Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. During law school, she gained significant tax experience as an intern for both the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and a Big Four accounting firm.

Awards & Accolades

• Included in the list of Best Lawyers in America®, "Ones to Watch", 2021-2022
• Recognized on the New Jersey Super Lawyers "Rising Stars" List, 2020-2022

No aspect of this or any advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. A description of the award methodologies can be found here.

News & Alerts

Speaking Engagements & Events

Articles & Publications

Professional Affiliations

• American Bar Association
• Community Foundation of New Jersey – Legal, Wealth & Tax Advisory Network
• New Jersey State Bar Association
• New Jersey Women Lawyers Association
• Pro Bono Work:

  • Pro Bono Volunteer, Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, Estate Planning for Veterans, 2022-2023

  • Pro Bono Volunteer, Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, Veterans Legal Wellness Clinic,  2022-2023

  • Pro Bono Partnership – Volunteer Attorney 2017- 2019
  • The Waterfront Project – Volunteer Attorney, 2014 - 2016

Get to know Meg

Meg lives with her husband and three children in Chester, New Jersey.  They spend as much time as they can outdoors and love escaping to Lake George and the Green Mountains of Vermont to boat, hike, and ski.