James K. Estabrook

Jim Estabrook is a shareholder of the firm of Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C. He has devoted most of his forty-two years with the firm attending to the legal requirements of privately held businesses. Jim has developed several areas of emphasis including federal and state estate and gift taxation, ERISA and employee benefits law.

Jim serves as general counsel for the firm to the Mechanical Contractors Association of New Jersey, Inc. and the Mechanical Contracting Industry Council of New Jersey. He also regularly provides legal counsel to the Northern New Jersey Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA-NNJ) and the Sheet Metal Contractors Association of Northern New Jersey (SMCA-NNJ). Through that role, Jim has served since 1982 as co-counsel to the Boards of Trustees of Pipefitters Local Union No. 274 Employee Benefit Funds, Steamfitters Local Union No. 475 Employee Benefit Funds, Plumbers Local Union No. 24 Employee Benefit Funds, and Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union No. 9 Employee Benefit Funds. Most recently, he serves as co-counsel to the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 486 Pension Fund of Baltimore, Maryland, IBEW Local 400 Employee Benefit Funds, Steamfitters Industry Local 638 Employee Benefit Funds, and UA Local 322 Employee Benefit Funds.  

Jim serves as a Professional Trustee for the IBEW Local 102 Employee Benefit Funds, IBEW Local 164 Employee Benefit Funds, the New Jersey Electrical Workers Temporary Disability Benefit Trust Fund, the Plumbers Local Union No. 17 Employee Benefit Funds and U.A. Local Union No. 614 Employee Benefit Funds of Memphis, Tennessee, Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 21 Employee Benefit Funds of Peekskill, New York, Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 373 Employee Benefit Funds of Mountainview, New York, Teamsters Local 816 of Garden City, New York, Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union No. 72 of, Atlanta, Georgia, the Sheet Metal Workers Local 28 in New York, and the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 520 Employee Benefit Funds, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has recently completed assignments as a Professional Trustee to the U.A. Local 502 Employee Benefit Funds of Louisville, Kentucky, and the Plumbers & Steamfitters UA Local 486 Pension and Medical Funds of Baltimore, Maryland.

He is approved counsel for all fiduciary liability insurance claims with St. Paul Travelers and defends Trustees of both single and multi-employer plans before the United States District Court and investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service. In 2018 Jim was appointed as Chairman of the Probate Early Settlement Program of the Superior Court in Union County.

Jim’s most recent achievement was as legal counsel to the Construction Industry’s Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Committee. The Committee developed financial disclosures, in a cooperative working relationship with FASB and its staff, for employers contributing to multiemployer Taft Hartley Plans without the necessity of calculating withdrawal liability.

Jim regularly speaks before clients and civic organizations on estate planning and employee benefits. In estate planning he has appeared before the National Council on Aging, Committee on Aging and the Law; New Jersey State Bar Association; Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers of New Jersey; New Jersey Association of Area Agencies on Aging (Elder Abuse and Neglect Project); the Elder Law Committee of the Union County Bar Association; the National Society of Fund Raising Executives; and the assembled staffs of many of the firm’s clients.

On employee benefits, he has consistently appeared as a featured speaker before the International Conference and Specialized Conferences of the International Foundation of Employee Benefits; the Plumbing Contractors Association of Chicago; the Annual Conference of the Union Affiliated Contractors of the National Association of Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors; the Taft-Hartley Trustee seminar sponsored by the United Association and the Mechanical Contractors Association of New Jersey, Inc.; the Mechanical Contractors Association of America, Inc., Industry Improvement Funds Seminar; and the Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors of Northern Illinois Industry Promotion Fund Seminar.

Jim is the co-author of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America, Inc.’s Industry Improvement Fund Operations Guide, and co-author with the New Jersey Division of Taxation of the Mechanical Contractors Association of New Jersey, Inc.’s Sales and Use Tax Manual for New Jersey Mechanical Contractors.

Jim also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of several of the firm’s clients including the Gateway Regional Chamber of Commerce (Legal Counsel); Kean University Foundation; Community Foundation of New Jersey (Legal Advisory Committee); and Linden Industrial Association (Secretary).