Meet your attorney
The Law Offices of
Christine Thea Rubinstein
& Associates P.C.
Christine Thea Rubinstein has practiced on Long Island for more than two decades, counsels families through estate, elder law and probate matters, sits on the Suffolk County Senior Citizens Advisory Committee, and hosted “Estate Law Exposé” on WOR 710 AM.
On the radio
Estate Law Exposé The attorney that listens!
Christine took listener questions on wills, trusts, Medicaid, probate and the family home on New York’s 710 WOR AM radio station and iHeart Radio. Every episode is archived here, searchable by topic.
Where we meet
East Setauket& Hampton Bays
The firm meets clients at its East Setauket headquarters on 6 S Jersey Avenue, and by appointment at the Hampton Bays satellite office on Ponquogue Avenue — and Christine offers video meetings, in-home meetings, and hospital and nursing home meetings.
Who the firm serves
Planning that keepslife on your terms
Good planning is what lets people go on living the life they built — at home, independent, with the house and the savings intact. The firm plans for the whole family, not one signature at a time.
Start with the problem, not the legal label
Most people arrive with a situation, not a practice area. Pick the one that sounds closest to yours.
Eight practices that keep running into each other
A house, a trust, a Medicaid application, a mortgage default and a probate file are usually the same problem viewed from different desks. The firm works across all of them so a fix in one place does not create a failure in another.
Estate Planning
Wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, health care proxies, trust funding, tax planning and special needs trusts.
Explore this practice 02Elder Law & Medicaid
Nursing home and community Medicaid, asset protection trusts, crisis planning, pooled income trusts, estate recovery and guardianship.
Explore this practice 03Probate & Estate Litigation
Surrogate’s Court administration, executor and trustee guidance, accountings, will contests and fiduciary disputes.
Explore this practice 04Foreclosure Defense
Answering the complaint, settlement conferences, loss mitigation, modifications, short sales and deeds in lieu.
Explore this practice 05Reverse Mortgages
Pre-closing review, default and maturity notices, reverse-mortgage foreclosure, and the estate side after a borrower dies.
Explore this practice 06Bankruptcy & Debt Relief
Chapter 7, 13 and Subchapter V, debt negotiation, judgments, frozen accounts, garnishments and collection defense.
Explore this practice 07Real Estate Law
Residential and commercial closings, leases, title and deed problems, inherited property, partition and 1031 exchanges.
Explore this practice 08Business Planning & Succession
LLC formation and governance, operating and buy-sell agreements, and coordinating the business with the owner’s estate plan.
Explore this practiceOne file, not five separate problems
A family calls about a nursing home. Underneath it there is a deed from 1998 that was never corrected, a reverse mortgage nobody mentioned, a will that leaves everything to a spouse who died first, and a daughter who was added to the bank account “just in case.” Each of those is someone’s specialty. Together they are one situation, and the order in which they are handled changes the result.
The firm’s approach is to read the actual documents before recommending anything. Deeds, mortgage statements, beneficiary designations, prior trusts, court papers, account histories. That review often finds the real problem, which is frequently not the one the client called about.
What a first meeting covers
- What documents actually exist, and what they say
- How the house and the accounts are really titled
- Any deadline that is already running
- The realistic options, including doing nothing yet
- What it would cost and what happens next
The initial phone consultation is free and confidential. In-person meetings can be arranged by special arrangement and are charged.
The attorney
Christine Thea Rubinstein, Esq.
A Long Island practice built on estate and elder law, probate and estate disputes, and the property and debt problems that tend to arrive with them.
Christine Thea Rubinstein’s practice spans litigation, estate and elder law, real estate and commercial matters. Before returning to private practice she served as lead counsel to an international commercial mortgage fund — experience that shapes how the firm reads loan documents, servicer correspondence and payoff statements when a mortgage or reverse mortgage is part of the problem.
She has been appointed by Suffolk County legislators to the county’s Senior Citizens Advisory Committee, and hosted “Estate Law Exposé,” an estate law program broadcast on WOR 710 AM and iHeart Radio. All 34 episodes are archived here.
Practice emphasis
- Estate & Probate Litigation
- Medicaid and long-term-care planning
- Probate, administration and fiduciary disputes
- Real Estate, Foreclosure and reverse-mortgage matters
- Bankruptcy and debt resolution
- Estate planning and trust design
Two Long Island offices
Meetings are by appointment at both locations. Telephone and video consultations are available where appropriate.
East Setauket — Headquarters
Main officeEast Setauket, NY 11733
1-800-488-6734
Serving Stony Brook, Port Jefferson, Setauket, Smithtown, Huntington, Riverhead and the North Shore, plus Nassau County and the outer boroughs.
Office details & directionsHampton Bays — Satellite
By appointment onlyHampton Bays, NY 11946
1-800-488-6734
A convenient meeting point for clients on the South Fork and the East End — Southampton, Westhampton, Quogue, Sag Harbor, East Hampton and the surrounding hamlets.
Office details & directionsRequest a confidential consultation
Tell us a little about the situation and we will get back to you. If a deadline is close, please call rather than write.