Shauna Monique Deans

Shauna M. Deans focuses her practice on estate and trust administration and estate planning for individuals and families in New Jersey and New York. She has extensive experience guiding clients from a wide range of financial and family backgrounds through wealth-preservation strategies, multigenerational planning, and tax-efficient transfers, including federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax considerations.

Before joining Levine Haddad & Gregory, LLC, Shauna served as a Senior Staff Attorney in the private clients group of a large international law firm in New York, where she advised high-net-worth clients on sophisticated estate planning and trust administration matters. Her work included preparing federal and state estate tax returns, facilitating probate and ancillary probate proceedings, and drafting complex planning instruments such as revocable and irrevocable trusts, pour-over wills, powers of attorney, and advance directives. She regularly worked alongside fiduciaries, accountants, financial advisors, and government agencies to implement efficient and compliant planning and administration strategies.

Prior to her work in New York, Shauna practiced at regional law firms in New Jersey, where she advised clients with estates ranging from modest to highly complex. She administered estates involving multi-jurisdictional assets, significant tax considerations, and sensitive family dynamics; prepared a broad array of estate, inheritance, and gift tax returns; and drafted settlement agreements, disclaimers, waivers, and refunding bonds and releases.

Shauna began her legal career as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Frederick J. Schuck, J.S.C., in the New Jersey Superior Court, Law Division, where she supported judicial decision-making through research, analysis, and mediation of disputes. She also previously gained experience as a Summer Associate at a large national law firm in New York.

Shauna is committed to client-centered representation that emphasizes clear communication, efficiency, and practical, tax-advantaged solutions. She has been recognized as a New Jersey Super Lawyers Rising Star and has presented on estate planning topics for the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education.