Jeffrey M. Fetter is President of Scolaro Fetter Grizanti & McGough, P.C. in Syracuse, New York, and is Chairman of the Business & Tax Practice Group. His practice focuses on business, estate, tax, succession and transactional planning for closely-held and family-owned enterprises throughout New York and Pennsylvania. Legal services Jeff provides his clients include: state, federal and international tax and business transactional planning; estate and long-term care planning; business and succession planning for closely-held and family-owned business enterprises; e-commerce planning; employee and shareholder/principal relations and employee benefits; protection of intellectual property; transactional planning; acquisitions, dispositions, mergers, tax-free reorganization of business entities; entity structuring; contract negotiation, dispute resolution; international contracts and business planning and the dissolutions of business entities.

Jeff is licensed to practice in the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Clients Jeff represents are involved in agriculture-related businesses, professional service, e-commerce, manufacturing, communications and retail businesses.

Jeff is a frequent lecturer in the area of business, succession, tax and estate planning. He has authored several articles on business, succession and estate planning for various periodicals.

Practice Groups

• Agricultural Services
• Business & Tax
• Estate Planning & Wealth Preservation
• Real Estate & Land Use

Education

• Ohio Northern University College of Law, J.D. (cum laude), 1983
• State University of New York at Geneseo, B.S., 1977

Memberships

• Onondaga County Bar Association
• New York State Bar Association
  – Former Chairperson, General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section
  – Member, Tax Section and Elder Law Section
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Fellow of the New York Bar Foundation
• American Agricultural Law Association
• Member of the New York Farm Bureau
• Board of Directors of Cornell University’s FarmNet Program
• New York State SILO Task Force Committee Member (Strategic Interagency Task Force Lessening Obstacles to Agriculture) – 2023

Publications

• “Agri-Succession Planning for 2016, The Role of the Banker and the Advisory Team in a Difficult Economy” (2016), Ag Banking Magazine, ag-banking.com
• Reward and Retain, December 2015, Top-Producer Magazine, topproducer-online.com
• “Estate, Business and Estate Planning: New Strategies for Family Business Succession Planning” (2014)
• “How to Stay Down on the Farm,” Washington State Agriculture Institute (July 2008)
• “The Law and You – Prenuptial Agreements & Farm Business Planning,” Northeast Dairy Business
• “Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements in Business and Estate Planning”
  for the NYSBA publication
• “Business Succession Planning: Passing on to the Next Generation.”
  International Association of Financial Planners – Fourteenth Annual Symposium
• “Formation and Maintenance of the Close Corporation and Limited Liability Company.”
  New York State Bar Association
• “Choice of Operating Entity – Liability, Tax, Succession and Business Issues.”
  New York State Bar Association
• Agri-Succession Planning 2022 – Planning and Utilization of the Advisory Team in a Difficult Economy – DFA/Agri-Max Financial Services July 2022

Awards

• Best Lawyers in America
• New York Super Lawyers
• Martindale-Hubbell – Preeminent Attorney