New York’s Second Department Appellate Division has upheld a decision of Queens County Surrogate Robert Nahman that the the fact that an attorney-drafter of a will was also named as an executor and the trustee of a testamentary charitable trust did not raise a presumption of undue influence. In the Matter of Gladys Coopersmith 852 N.Y.S.2d 247, the motion for summary judgment filed by the petitioner (who was the attorney-drafter) was granted dismissing objections claiming that the mere fact that petitioner had played multiple roles equated to undue influence. The court found that in the absence of the attorney-drafter also being a beneficiary under the will, no such inference could be raised.