PATRICK J. HOWLEY

Shareholder

Shulman Rogers

Patrick J. Howley is a shareholder at Shulman Rogers, specializing in Trusts & Estates law. Licensed in Maryland and the District of Columbia, Howley focuses on estate planning for individuals and families, and represents fiduciaries in estate and trust administration.

Howley counsels clients on estate planning instruments including Wills, Revocable Trusts, Financial and Health Care Powers of Attorney and Living Wills. He advises on advanced wealth transfer techniques to minimize tax burdens, including Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts and Charitable Trusts.

What’s the most important thing you do in your job?

As a trust and estates attorney, my most important function is to listen to my client’s wishes and then help them create a plan that satisfies all of their objectives. Discussing death isn’t easy – my job is to put my clients at ease and enable them to make difficult decisions about their transfer of possessions and wealth.

What is one aspect of your profession you would like to change?

If I could change one thing about estate planning it would be the notion that online forms are good enough. The old saying “you don’t know what you don’t know” is extremely applicable to the creation of a will and supporting documents. Trust the experts and save your heirs a lot of heartache down the road.

If you weren’t in this industry, what would you be doing?

I wanted to be an attorney for as long as I can remember so it’s difficult to envision myself doing anything else. If helping people plan for the future were no longer an option, I guess I’d like to be a high school basketball coach.

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This profile is part of The Daily Record's Estate & Trust Law Power List for 2025. Information used in this profile was sourced from the honoree. See the full list at thedailyrecord.com.