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Abigail LeGrow ’04 appointed to Master in Chancery for Delaware Judiciary


Abigail LeGrow ’04 was recently appointed Master in Chancery for the Delaware Judiciary, a court which has been ranked first in the nation since 2002.

“To me, working on this court, and for the Delaware Judiciary in general, is a tremendous honor,” said LeGrow. “The Court of Chancery is held in high esteem nationwide, both because of the qualifications and dedication of the chancellor and vice chancellors (past and present), and because of the court’s willingness to consider and decide expedited cases in a very prompt fashion.

The Court of Chancery’s jurisdiction is primarily limited to cases based in equity. Historically speaking, the Masters in Chancery have handled the “traditional” equity jurisdiction of the Court, particularly trusts and estates, guardianship, and disputes involving real property.

Photo of Abigail LeGrow“I’ve only been here a few months, but so far the thing I most enjoy is being in a position to help people and make decisions that (hopefully) resolve stressful problems that have arisen in their lives,” said LeGrow. “There is a human, real-life element to the cases on my docket that was sometimes missing in private practice.”

Prior to joining the Delaware Judiciary, LeGrow was an associate in the Corporate Group of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP. “During my time in private practice, I was able to represent different corporations which gave me the chance to learn about a variety of fields,” said LeGrow.

“Each corporation is different and in order to represent them effectively I usually had to learn about their business. I became intimately familiar with orphan drugs, the New York real estate market, differentiated chemicals, residential mortgage-backed securities, and high speed lasers for cardiac imaging, to name a few. It helped keep each case interesting when I was engaged in some of the more mundane aspects of litigation.” Among the many reasons LeGrow chose to practice in corporate law is its dynamic nature. “It is always changing and evolving as businesses grow and change,” said LeGrow.

Her switch from advocacy to impartiality has been challenging for LeGrow, “but in a good way,” she said. “I think advocacy comes easier to most lawyers (myself included), because we are usually arguers by nature, and it is fun to be told ‘here is your side, here is where you want to end up, now go do it.’ But so far I’ve enjoyed the role of impartial decision-maker. It is nice to consider a case from all sides and all angles, and then try to reach the ‘right’ result. In that sense, it is similar to a law school exam, only there is a lot more riding on the outcome.”

LeGrow enjoys living and working in Delaware. “When I was in practice, I worked in a sophisticated, challenging, high-profile field while enjoying the advantages of life in a relatively small city. As a corporate litigator, I represented multinational corporations, yet my job was a ten-minute commute from my home in the suburbs. Very few people can have the best of both worlds, in that sense. Now, the commute is the same and I’m part of a court that I’ve admired since my summer associate year. It doesn’t get much better than this.”

Her husband, Brian LeGrow ’04 is an associate with the Law Offices of Vincent B. Mancini & Associates, and focuses his practice on business litigation, commercial litigation, real estate, civil rights section 1983, property law, federal civil practice, and landlord-tenant law. They met during law school and are the parents of two children.


 

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