Amy J. Smith is a Managing Partner of Lambariello, Smith & Speed, LLC, where she focuses her practice on estate planning, trust and estate administration, and business and succession planning. Amy works with individuals, families, and business owners to make thoughtful decisions about what they have built, the people who depend on them, and what should happen when circumstances change. Her practice includes sophisticated estate and trust planning, planning for business owners, business succession, and buy-sell agreements, and matters where legal, tax and financial considerations intersect.
Amy has spent nearly her entire legal career with the firm, first joining in 2008 as a law clerk while attending Seton Hall University School of Law and later practicing alongside the firm's founder, Joseph A. Lambariello. Following Joe's death, Amy and Mary Kate Speed assumed responsibility for leading the firm forward. For Amy, that responsibility has meant protecting the relationships and trust built over many years while continuing to grow and improve the firm for its clients and team. She takes seriously the responsibility that comes with being entrusted with a family's future, a business someone has spent years building, or a difficult transition that requires both sound advice and a clear path forward.
Amy believes good legal advice starts with understanding what a client is actually trying to accomplish. She listens, asks questions, explains her recommendations in plain English and tells clients what she thinks, including when the answer may not be what they expected to hear. She wants clients to understand not only what their documents say, but why their plan is structured the way it is. Once a course of action is decided, Amy believes in moving it forward, anticipating issues rather than waiting for them to become problems, and working collaboratively with a client's accountants, financial advisors, and other professionals when a coordinated approach is needed. She earned her LL.M. in Taxation from Villanova University School of Law, her J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law and her B.A. in Economics from Wagner College.
Outside the office, Amy's priorities center on her family. She and her husband are raising their children in New Jersey, and some of the time she values most is spent traveling with them and having the opportunity to simply be together. That perspective carries into her professional life. Amy believes in setting meaningful goals, working hard, and following through on commitments, but also understands that what clients are ultimately working to protect and provide for is deeply personal. Her goal is for clients and professional advisors who work with her to know that she understands what matters to them, will give them clear and practical advice, and will be there to help them move forward with confidence.
