Meet Our Team
Meet Our Expert Lawyers
James P. Seidl
Attorney James P. Seidl holds a Master of Laws in Taxation degree from the College of William and Mary, and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Antioch School of Law. He has over 400 credit hours in Continuing Legal Education in Estate and Tax Planning.
Mr. Seidl has served as a Judge Advocate in the armed forces, and was honorably discharged with ten awards and decorations. He also served as an elected State’s District Attorney. He has been practicing law for over thirty years. Attorney Seidl has practiced estate and business planning for eighteen years, and he has prepared over 2,000 estate plans to date.
Attorney Seidl is a member-owner of the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, a nationwide interactive “attorney cooperative” dedicated to providing cutting edge estate planning services to clients throughout the United States.
Mr. Seidl is a graduate of the Abts Institute for Estate Preservation, and is a certified Attorney-Advisor with The National Estate Plan. He is also a graduate of the Renaissance School of Charitable Remainder Trusts and has completed advanced courses on Life Insurance Trusts and Family Limited Partnerships. Additionally, he has been an approved instructor for Estate Planning courses for insurance professionals.
James Seidl provides a full range of estate and business planning services – from simple wills and living trusts to the most sophisticated planning vehicles. He regularly presents individual and public seminars on Estate Planning. He has been a member of his local, state and American Bar Association Estate Planning Committees.
Mr. Seidl is a second generation attorney. His late father, who began his practice in 1941, was a three-time elected District Judge. Mr. Seidl is licensed to practice law in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Wisconsin (inactive), and before the United States Tax Court.
Mr. Seidl has two children.
Sonia M. Rustici
Sonia M. Rustici has been working in the area of estates and trusts since the mid-1990s. Her knowledge of the industry currently spans almost three decades.
Sonia graduated at the top of her class, magna cum laude, at Avila University, a Catholic University, based in Kansas City, Missouri. She obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration and Scientific Management with Major in Paralegal Science in 1994.
Sonia began her experience as an estate and probate paralegal, for a prestigious Washington D.C. law firm in mid-1994. During her tenor with that firm, for approximately twelve years, she assisted executors with the probate process, throughout Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. In addition to her probate work for the firm, she assisted attorneys, to prepare estate plans for their clients, with a focus on living trusts.
In 2005, Sonia went to work for the National Bank of Fredericksburg, a historic bank, located in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia, as a Trust Officer, supporting and managing trusts (and settlement of traditional wills), where the bank was named as a corporate fiduciary.
While working as a Trust officer, Sonia studied law at Concord Law School, a California based law school, founded in 1998, and the nation’s first online law school. She obtained a Juris Doctorate degree in 2012, and sat for, and successfully passed California’s “Baby” bar in 2013.
In 2020, Sonia successfully completed Virginia’s historic Thomas Jefferson “Read the Law” program; and she passed the Virginia bar exam in July 2022. She received her Virginia law license in October 2022, and she was admitted to the practice of law by the Virginia Supreme Court in December 2022.
Additionally, Sonia established, owned and ran a successful business, providing contract paralegal services to estate and trust attorneys.
Sonia regularly speaks at estate planning workshops and seminars, for the James P. Seidl Law Office, as well as for, and partnering with affiliated organizations, though out Northern Virginia.
Sonia has been working with the James P. Seidl Law Offices since 2013.
Sonia resides in Stafford, Virginia with her husband Dr. Thomas C. Rustici. Their three children and grandchildren also reside in Virginia.
Sonia hobbies include playing the piano, painting, and gardening.
Ron Smallwood
Amanda Layman
Managing
Paralegal
David Wise
Associate
Paralegal
Jilleian Thomas
Administrative
Paralegal
Judi Sullivan-Phillips
Finance
Paralegal
Christine Martin
Paralegal