Attorney Carol Cioe Klyman, a shareholder at Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., has been named Lawyer of the Year in the fields of Trusts and Estates and Elder Law in the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, marking the 19th consecutive year she has been honored by her peers.
A Westhampton resident, Attorney Klyman is widely regarded as one of western Massachusetts’ preeminent elder law and estate planning attorneys. She began her legal career at Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin more than 30 years ago working with clients in the areas of elder law, estate planning, special needs planning, estate planning, estate administration, trust and estate litigation and MassHealth appeals.
In addition to her client work, Attorney Klyman has dedicated her career to advancing the practice of elder law and special needs planning and educating lawyers interested in representing elder and disabled clients facing difficult financial, personal and legal choices. Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, a leading multi-disciplinary law firm with offices in Springfield and Northampton, has a deep, ongoing commitment to serving these populations, who have diverse economic and family backgrounds, throughout the four western Massachusetts counties and elsewhere in the Commonwealth.
Attorney Klyman is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and the American Bar Foundation, and is an active member of the national and Massachusetts chapters of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). She is co-author of the third edition of Massachusetts Elder Law, a treatise published by LexisNexis, chapters on tax issues in the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) treatise Elder and Disability Law in Massachusetts. For 20 years prior to entering the legal field, Attorney Klyman worked as a journalist in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Florida.