Six Eastburn and Gray Attorneys Selected for Inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2021 Edition
Eastburn and Gray shareholders, Mark S. Cappuccio, D. Rodman Eastburn, Sarah A. Eastburn, Marc D. Jonas, John A. VanLuvanee, and Julie L. Von Spreckelsen, have been selected by their peers for inclusion in the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®. Best Lawyers is one of the oldest and most respected peer review publications in the legal profession.
The 2021 publication named Mr. Jonas the recipient of “The Lawyer of the Year” award in the field of Litigation: Land Use and Zoning in the Philadelphia market.
Mr. Cappuccio has been included in the field of Land Use and Zoning law. His legal practice includes tax assessment law, commercial litigation, real estate, and zoning and land use law. He represents individuals, businesses and municipalities in a variety of real estate matters including land use, zoning and condemnation cases. He is an experienced civil trial and zoning attorney with a wide breadth of industry knowledge in commercial litigation matters and has extensive experience in litigating tax assessment cases. While he litigated for taxing authorities in excess of two decades, ten years ago the focus of his work shifted to the representation of numerous real estate entities and large corporations for whom he has litigated valuation cases extensively before the courts at the trial and appellate levels. Mr. Cappuccio earned his law degree from Capital University Law School and two undergraduate degrees from the University of Delaware.
Mr. Eastburn is recognized for his work in the field of Trusts and Estates law. He works extensively with the owners of closely-held businesses and their families to organize their estate planning and business succession planning. He appears regularly before the Internal Revenue Service, Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, and the Orphans’ Court Divisions of the Bucks and Montgomery County Courts of Common Pleas which have jurisdiction over probate, estate and trust matters. He is a frequent consultant to other attorneys in the Bucks County area with respect to tax, estate and trust matters. Mr. Eastburn is a graduate of Amherst College, Georgetown Law School, and Temple Law School’s graduate tax program.
Ms. Eastburn received the “Ones to Watch” award for her work in the field of Trusts and Estates and Litigation – Trusts and Estates. She practices in the areas of Wills, Trusts and Estates, Orphans’ Court Litigation and Taxation. She frequently advises clients at all stages of estate planning including wealth transfer, asset protection, elder law, and succession strategies. Ms. Eastburn is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Hofstra University School of Law and Villanova University School of Law’s graduate tax program.
Mr. Jonas’ 2021 Lawyer of the Year recognition repeats his selection as The Best Lawyers in America®2018 “Lawyer of the Year” for Litigation: Land Use and Zoning Law and the 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” for Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia market. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Mr. Jonas has established a reputation by his peers as one of the preeminent land use attorneys in Pennsylvania with extensive experience in real estate, land use/zoning, and municipal law, representing individuals, businesses, and municipal boards. He serves as solicitor to the Zoning Hearing Boards of Towamencin, Upper Merion, and Lower Salford Townships. He also serves Straban Township as special counsel for litigation matters. Following his service in the United States Air Force Reserve, Mr. Jonas began his legal career as law clerk to President Judge James S. Bowman of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. He is a previous board chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Commission.
Mr. VanLuvanee was named The Best Lawyers in America® Lawyer of the Year for Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia market in 2018 and in 2014. Mr. VanLuvanee has been continuously ranked in this publication since 2007. As one of Pennsylvania’s premier land use attorneys, Mr. VanLuvanee handles zoning, subdivision and land development matters, as well as real estate transactional matters, for both developers and property owners. During his career, he has been involved in many significant, precedent-setting land use cases decided by the Commonwealth Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. For more than 30 years, he has served as counsel to the Home Builders Association of Bucks/Montgomery Counties. He is an active member of the Legal Action Task Force and Judicial Task Force of the Pennsylvania Builders Association and the Legal Action Network for Development Strategies (LANDS) sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders. Mr. VanLuvanee is a graduate of Kalamazoo College and the University of Michigan Law School.
Ms. Von Spreckelsen is recognized for her work in the field of Land Use and Zoning. She has been representing commercial, institutional, industrial, and residential real estate developers, businesses, individuals, and distinguished industrial and institutional clients in all aspects of real estate law, including zoning, subdivision, land development, municipal-related, and transactional matters for more than 15 years. She frequently represents clients in front of municipal bodies and state courts throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Ms. Von Spreckelsen is a graduate of the University of Delaware and Dickinson School of Law.
Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. For the 2021 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America©, 9.4 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 67,000 leading lawyers being included in the new edition. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.
