Evelyn Moreno has built her career at Nixon Peabody, with nearly four decades in estate and gift tax planning, estate administration, and trust administration. For the past 12 years, she has also served as the leader of the firm’s Private Clients practice, guiding the team while continuing to serve clients with a focus on precision, collaboration, and care.
We recently spoke with Evelyn to learn more about the qualities that have guided her work, her approach to client service, and what she enjoys outside of work. Her thoughtful perspective reflects the values that have shaped her career, particularly her ability to combine complex tax and estate planning knowledge with empathy in some of life’s most personal matters.
What professional qualities have been most instrumental to your success?
I am an incredibly detail-oriented person, which I think is critical for trust and estates lawyers. Estate planning documents often do not get closely read by anybody else until someone has died, so you want to make sure you have not made any mistakes.
The other thing I am good at is distilling very complex concepts. I have had clients tell me that I make things understandable when it seems like a real quagmire. Estate planning and trust administration can seem like a foreign language, so I do my best to make sure clients understand what they have created and what the implications of it are down the road.
What advice would you give to future private client attorneys?
I think the challenge as a private client lawyer is that you have to bring together two things. You have to produce a really good work product—it has to be very detail-oriented and perfect. At the same time, you need to be empathetic to your clients. We often deal with clients who have lost a loved one and are dealing with grief, and being empathetic is critical for clients to be able to trust you.
What do you like to do when you are not working?
I am a real homebody at heart. I do love to travel, but I do not do it often, maybe one big trip every couple of years. I am in a book group, I love to go to restaurants, and we have a little dog that I absolutely adore. We came late to having a dog in our lives, and now we really, really love him. In the end, I just love hanging out at home and being with my family.
