William D. Zabel

Chair Emeritus

William Zabel is a founding partner of the firm Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP and head of the Individual Client Services Group. Based in New York, he practices in the areas of estate planning, wills, trusts, charitable foundations, income and gift-tax planning, estate administration, and family law.

Bill’s civic and philanthropic activities are legion. He has served as trustee or director of: New York University, The New School, Princeton University Planned Giving Committee, Sakharov Archives, Soros Foundations, Lincoln Center Theater, and The Academy of American Poets. Bill is a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations, a fellow of Brandeis University, a member of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel and the American Bar Foundation, and an academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. Bill is the recipient of many honors for his legal and community service. In 2006, Bill received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Lawyer and has also received an Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Award, Brandeis University Distinguished Community Service Award, Distinguished Service Award (conferred by The New School) and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First) Extraordinary Leader Award.

Bill is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.