Shep Abell was a founding partner of Furey Doolan & Abell in 1975, and is now Of Counsel to the firm. After service in the United States Navy as a Lieutenant from 1967 to 1971, Shep served as the Executive Assistant to the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1970 to 1974, and briefly as Cabinet Secretary of the Maryland Department of Employment and Social Services.

Shep has frequently lectured on estate planning topics for lawyers and lay groups. Since 1985 he has been an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where he has taught courses on legal ethics, the Supreme Court, estate planning, and lawyers and poverty.

Shep has served on the boards and committees of over a dozen charitable, educational and religious organizations. He has been and continues to be active with a number of charitable and religious organizations.

Shep has written and lectured on the following topics:

• Estate Planning for Families with Handicapped Members
• Post-Mortem Planning
• Planning and Drafting Wills and Trusts
• Estate Planning for Families with Handicapped Dependants
• Income Shifting
• Basic Fiduciary Income Tax Program
• Post-Mortem Estate Planning
• Estate Planning for Closely Held Businesses
• Last of the Big Tax-Savers
• Hot Topics in Estate Planning
• Post-Mortem Planning with Retirement Plan Distributions
• Planning for Disability
• Will Contests
• Program Co-Chair, Advanced Estate Planning Institute
• Technology and Estate Planning
• Practical Charitable Giving
• Ethics in Estate Planning

Georgetown University Law Center
Adjunct Professor

• Seminar on Judicial Philosophy on the Supreme Court, 1985-1992
• Professional Responsibility, 1993-1995
• Estate Planning Seminar, 1998-2005
• The Practicing Lawyer and the Poor, 2007-2014