Bien, Rachel

Sarita Bhandarkar joined TCLMM as an associate in June 2012. Sarita has practiced primarily in the area of wills, trusts and estates, and elder law since graduating from the College of William and Mary School of Law in 2002, An Orange County native, she worked first at a boutique trusts and estates firm in Manhattan before moving back to the Hudson Valley in 2008 to work in the trusts and estates department of a general practice law firm and then at elder law firms in Orange and Dutchess County.

Prior to beginning her legal career, Sarita worked as a high school English teacher in upstate New York. In order to continue working with adolescents and their families as an attorney, Sarita completed her mediation training at the Dispute Resolution Center in Goshen, where she volunteers as a mediator for parent-child conflict resolution. Through her experiences as a teacher and mediator, Sarita has learned to work with multiple generations to resolve conflicts and identify common goals and interests.

Sarita returned to law school in 2010, enrolling in New York Law School’s LL.M. Tax program, in order to deepen her understanding of sophisticated estate and tax planning. She completed her LL.M. studies in June 2012.

Sarita is admitted to practice in New York and is a member of the Tax, Trusts and Estates, and Elder Law sections of the New York State Bar Association as well as a member of the Hudson Valley Estate Planning Council and the Women’s Bar of Orange and Sullivan Counties.