Renée is the Co-Managing Partner of the Firm's Rhode Island Offices.

Renée and her colleagues in the Private Client Department employ sophisticated estate planning and estate settlement techniques to save clients gift, estate and income taxes, while ensuring that their property passes according to their wishes. Renée is a trustee of numerous private trusts and has routinely served as executor of client estates.

Renée's clients include professional athletes, venture capitalists, retirees, family business owners, CEOs, trust companies and banks. Renée represents single individuals, married couples and same sex couples.

Renée has been recognized in the area of Trusts and Estates by Best Lawyers in America since 2011.

Notable Experience

· Renée regularly appears in Superior Court representing trustees and trust beneficiaries on accounting actions and trust reformations. For example, in December of 2011, Renée successfully arranged for the approval of a five year, $22 million trust accounting action involving over one hundred and fifty beneficiaries. Other cases Renée has worked on include the successful coordination of the settlement of a $55 million trust dispute; the successful division of a $24 million trust to allow principal distributions to trust beneficiaries; and the successful division of a $25 million trust into separate shares for each family line.

· Drawing on Renée's five years of experience as an assistant probate judge for the City of Warwick, Rhode Island, she actively represents clients in a wide variety of probate court matters such as will contests, creditor claim issues and contested guardianship matters.

· Renée routinely drafts and oversees the execution and administration of Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Dynasty Trusts (also known as generation-skipping trusts), special needs trusts, private foundations, limited liability companies, and other such entities when providing estate planning for clients.

· Renée worked on the probate proceedings in the Newport Probate Court for the Estate of Doris Duke, and routinely settles estates for clients and their families.

· Renée utilizes asset protection techniques including the Rhode Island Qualified Disposition Trust Act to protect clients' assets.

· Renée has a number of clients with disabled children and/or grandchildren and prepares special needs trusts and other similar trusts to protect the assets while ensuring the beneficiary receives his or her governmental benefits.

Recent Speaking Engagements and Publications

· Co-Author, Chapter for the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Publication, "Estate Planning for Nontraditional Couples and Their Families: Selective Issues," 2011.

· "Estate Planning and Administration in Ethical Issues in Representing Fiduciaries and Beneficiaries," and "Traps and Triggers of Fiduciary Liability," moderator and conference chair, American Heart Association and American Stroke Association's Second Invitational Conference on Estate Planning and Administration, May 19, 2011.

· "Year-end financial, tax and estate planning strategies," speaker, The University Club, Providence, Rhode Island, December 1, 2010.

· "2010 Estate Tax Laws and Probate Practice from the Court's Perspective" moderator, in conjunction with the American Heart Association Conference on Estate Planning and Administration, May 13, 2010.

· "Womenomics," speaker, Women's Fund of Rhode Island, Providence, Rhode Island, November 16, 2009, alongside with BBC reporter Katty Kay.

· "Charitable Giving," speaker, Pennfield School, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, April 13, 2009.

· "Creating Financial Strategies and Family Protection for You and Your Partners," speaker, Marriage Equality Rhode Island, January 22, 2009.

News & Publications

September 27, 2012, Best Lawyers Recognizes 56 Edwards Wildman Attorneys

September 11, 2012, Rhode Island Media Covers Three Providence Attorney Appointments

July 31, 2012, Renee A.R. Evangelista Appointed to the Hasbro Children's Hospital Advisory Council

January 30, 2012, Edwards Wildman Inks 11-Year Extension to Lease at One Financial Plaza
Established in 1894, growing law firm continues core commitment to Providence business community

August 10, 2010, Sixty EAPD Attorneys Recognized by the Best Lawyers in America

January 13, 2008, Creating Financial Strategies and Family Protection for You and Your Partners

November 21, 2007, EAPD Honored by the Rhode Island Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals

Besides Edwards Wildman

Renée is an appointed member to the Board of Trustees for The Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island where she serves on its trustee subcommittee, and institutional advancement subcommittee. Renée is also a member of the Board of Directors and serves on the Development Committee for the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Renée recently was appointed to serve on the International Board of Advisors for The Anthony Quinn Foundation, a non-profit organization established by Mrs. Katherine Quinn to continue the actor's passion for the arts by helping young people develop their artistic talent. Renée has recently been appointed to the advisory council for Hasbro Children's Hospital, the premier pediatric facility for clinical care, research and education for Rhode Island and surrounding southeastern New England.

Renée has also served on the Rhode Island Foundation Professional Advisory Council, the Trinity Repertory Board of Trustees, the Providence Children's Museum Board of Trustees, the Board of Governors for the Providence Catholic Diocese, and she served as chair of the Ethics subcommittee and as a member of the financial subcommittee for the Women's Sports Foundation in New York, a foundation established by Billie Jean King. Renée was an appointed member by the Rhode Island Supreme Court to the Rhode Island Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Commission (MCLE). The Commission met periodically to review policy, applications for CLE accreditation and correspondence from attorneys. From February 2007 to January 2013, Renée was appointed to serve on the Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners by then sitting Rhode Island Chief Justice Frank Williams.

In addition, Renée enjoys tennis, skiing and golf. She is the wife of Edward M. Evangelista and the mother of three boys, Alex, Edward and Robert.

Events

May 19, 2011, Providence, RI Rhode Island's Second Invitational Conference on Estate Planning and Administration

November 16, 2009, Providence, RI Womenomics

January 22, 2009, Providence, RI Creating Financial Strategies and Family Protection for You and Your Partners

June 12, 2008 - June 13, 2008, Providence, RI 2008 Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island Bar Association

April 11, 2007, Providence, RI Wills, Probate, And Trusts Seminar

Memberships

· Connecticut Bar Association

· Massachusetts Bar Association

· Planned Giving Counsel of Rhode Island

· Rhode Island Bar Association

· RI Bar Foundation, (Co-Partner-in-Charge, Rhode Island Office)