Attorneys
Amy K. Kanyuk
Amy is a founding member of the firm, and is licensed to practice law in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and South Dakota. She concentrates her practice on estate, gift and generation-skipping planning for individuals and families of high net worth, as well as estate and trust administration. She holds the highest rating of A-V from Martindale Hubbell, and is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), where she serves on the Tax Policy Study Committee, the Program Committee and the Asset Protection Committee. Amy is the official ACTEC observer to the Uniform Law Commission's Conflict of Laws in Trusts and Estates Committee, which is drafting a uniform law to address the problems of conflicts of laws in trusts and estates. In addition, she is a co-Chancellor of ACTEC's New England Fellows Institute. Previously, Amy served as the ACTEC state chair for New Hampshire from 2014 to 2017, and served for six years on both ACTEC's Board of Regents and its National Membership Selection Committee.
Amy has been selected by her peers for inclusion in Woodward and White’s Best Lawyers in America, in the fields of tax law and trusts and estates, each year since 2007, and as a New Hampshire Super Lawyer. She was named by Best Lawyers as the 2011 and 2017 Concord Trusts and Estates Lawyer of the Year, and as the 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024 Concord Tax Lawyer of the Year. In a survey by Business New Hampshire magazine, Amy was selected by her peers as the best tax and trust and estate attorney in New Hampshire. In each year since 2016, Amy has been named a “Band One” New Hampshire private wealth lawyer by Chambers and Partners.
Amy’s articles and comments about tax and estate planning have appeared in a number of publications, including Trusts and Estates, Estate Planning, Barron’s, the Journal of Accountancy, Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly, the New Hampshire Bar News and the New Hampshire Business Review, and she wrote the New Hampshire chapter in the treatise, “Domestic Asset Protection Trusts - A Practice and Resource Manual,” which was published by the American Bar Association in 2021. She frequently lectures before professional and civic groups throughout the United States on tax and estate planning topics. Amy also has served as an adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, teaching Wills, Trusts and Estates.
Amy is a member of the New Hampshire, Massachusetts and South Dakota Bar Associations. She served on the Legislation Committee of the New Hampshire Bar for ten years, and has worked extensively on legislation to improve and modernize New Hampshire’s trust laws, testifying many times before the state legislature in this regard.
Amy received her bachelor of science in finance, with highest distinction, from Penn State University, and she earned both her law degree and M.B.A. from Boston College. She currently is pursuing her master's degree in creative writing and literature from Harvard University (extension school).
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Megan C. Knox
Megan is a member of the firm, and licensed to practice law in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She concentrates her practice in the area of trusts and estates law for middle to high net worth individuals. Her practice includes gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax planning, business succession, asset protection planning and trust and estate administration. Megan’s practice also includes drafting prenuptial agreements and serving as a trust expert in divorce litigation.
Megan is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC).
In 2015 and 2017, Megan was named as a Rising Star by New Hampshire Super Lawyers. In 2018, Megan was named as a Rising Star by Massachusetts Super Lawyers and was selected by her peers for inclusion in Woodward and White’s The Best Lawyers in America in the field of trusts and estates.
Megan’s articles about estate planning have appeared in The New Hampshire Bar Journal and the New Hampshire Bar News. She has also presented at multiple seminars for various Bar and other professional organizations.
Megan is a member of the New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island Bar Associations. She currently serves as a member of the Boston Bar Association’s Tax Committee.
She also serves as a member of the Continuing Legal Education Committee for the New Hampshire Bar Association.
Megan served as co-Chair of the Trusts & Estates Section of the New Hampshire Bar Association during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 fiscal years. She is also a member of the New Hampshire and Boston Estate Planning Councils. In May of 2013, she joined the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Estate Planning Council, and served as its President during the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
Megan earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Dance, magna cum laude, from Skidmore College and her Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law. Megan earned her LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University School of Law, where she finished 5th in her class and received the Ernest M. Haddad Award, which is presented to the Graduate Tax Program student who best exhibits overall ability, taking into consideration academic achievement, character and potential to serve the public interest. She was the first part-time student at Boston University School of Law to receive this award. With a life-long passion for the arts, Megan also holds her A.R.A.D. as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance and has studied ballet at The Juilliard School in New York City.
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Michael P. Panebianco
Michael is of counsel to the firm, and is licensed to practice law in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida, and New York. He concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning and estate and trust administration for high net worth individuals and families. He advises and represents individuals and families on their estate planning and estate and trust administration needs, and also represents individual and corporate fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and charitable organizations on trust, tax, and other legal matters. His practice includes gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax planning, business succession, and asset protection planning.
Michael is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). His articles on estate planning have appeared in Business NH Magazine, NH Business Review, and the NH Bar News, and he has been a speaker at various NH Bar Association seminars, estate planning counsel meetings, and other professional association seminars.
Michael is involved in updating New Hampshire legislation with respect to trusts and estates, and participated in the drafting and enacting of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act and the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, among others, in New Hampshire.
For many years, Michael was an adjunct professor at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law where he taught Wills, Trusts, and Estates.
Michael has been a Director for the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils since 2017, is a past President of the New Hampshire Estate Planning Counsel, past Chair of the Trust & Estate Section of the New Hampshire Bar Association, has been a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation since 2016, a Corporator for Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, NH since 2016, and is on the Advisor Board for Best Buddies – New Hampshire.
Michael obtained his law degree from Hofstra University School of Law, and his LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.
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Joseph F. McDonald, III
As of January 1, 2023, Joe has retired from the full time practice of law. In 2023, he will remain with the firm on an of counsel basis, and attempt to finally get through all of the emails in his inbox.
Joe graduated from St. Anselm College in 1978 and earned his law degree from Suffolk University in 1983. He holds a masters degree in taxation (L.L.M.) from the Boston University School of Law. Joe practiced for fourteen years at the Concord, New Hampshire law firm of Cleveland, Waters and Bass, P.A., where he was a Director and Shareholder and chaired the firm's Trusts and Estates Department. He also made a mid-career foray into the banking world, working in 1992 and 1993 as a Vice President with New London Trust's Trust Division, where he managed two fully-staffed trust offices.
Joe has written and lectured extensively on the topics of asset protection, business succession and philanthropic planning for wealthy individuals and their families. His comments and articles have appeared in The Journal of Taxation for Accountants, The Back Forty, ACTEC Notes, The Dow Jones Investment Advisor, Trust and Estates, The New Hampshire Bar Journal, New Hampshire Bar News, Journal of the American Society of CLU and ChFC, Private Asset Management and other publications.
Joe has served as an adjunct professor at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, where he taught a course on wills, trusts and estates. He also frequently lectures to other professionals on all aspects of tax and estate planning. He is often retained as an expert witness to provide opinions and testimony in trust and estate litigation.
Joe is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and is included among Woodward and White's listing of the Best Lawyers in America. He holds the highest rating of A-V from Martindale Hubbell.
In addition to his legal work, Joe has served on several charitable and civic boards, including the NH State Arts Council, Concord Hospital, the Concord Area Chapter of the American Red Cross (Chairman), the American Automobile Association of Northern New England (Director) and the New Hampshire Trust Advisory Committee for the State Street Bank and Trust Company.
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