Cheri Dorsey is known for creating a warm and comfortable space for her clients’ wishes to be heard. She helps her clients and their families navigate the difficult issues of planning for disability and death. Her clients remember her for her kind heart and sympathy and often remark that she gives them the peace of mind they have been looking for.
Cheri handles all areas of estate planning, estate administration, and trust administration. She advises her clients on the foundations of estate planning, as well as more complex areas, including Life Insurance Trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts, and Qualified Personal Residence Trusts.
Her clients often come to her for assistance with fulfilling their charitable wishes, from entering into pledge agreements with organizations, to even creating charitable organizations. She also works with artists and art collectors to guide them on achieving their goals for the continuity of their collections.
She works with business owners and succession planning, particularly with respect to transferring interests in family businesses to the next generation through various gifting and other transfer techniques.
Cheri regularly handles the administration of trusts and estates and often serves as a fiduciary with respect to those matters. She is known for holding the hand of the surviving spouse and other family members after the death of a loved one, helping them through the grieving process one step at a time.
Cheri started Sessa & Dorsey with Tom because she wants to provide high-level estate planning services in a family-like environment for her clients. She enjoys working with her clients and their families throughout their lives as their needs and wishes change over time.
When Cheri is not helping her clients, she enjoys spending time with her husband, children, and extended family. The Dorsey family lives in Parkton, Maryland, and they enjoy music, various sports, and attending Hunt Valley Church.
Professional and Civic Involvement
- Member, Planned Giving Council, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
- Member, American Bar Association
- Member, Maryland State Bar Association, Estates and Trusts Section
- Member, Baltimore Estate Planning Council
- Member, Baltimore County Bar Association
- Member, Hunt Valley Business Forum
Awards & Recognition
- Super Lawyer, Top Rated Estate Planning & Probate Attorney in Hunt Valley, MD (2020 – 2022, 2024 – 2025)
- Super Lawyer, Rising Star, (2014 – 2016)
Education
- J.D., with Honors and Distinction, University of Maryland School of Law, 2001
- B.A., Goucher College, 1998
Bar Admissions
- Maryland, 2001
Publications, Interviews, & Lectures
- Presenter, “Because Every Gopher Needs a Plan – Estate Planning 101,” Goucher College (August 2022)
- Presenter, “No Excuses: Estate Planning for Creatives,” Charm City Legal Workshop (August 2022)
- Co-Presenter, “5 Things You Should Do Now to Prepare for Possible Estate Tax Law Changes,” Sessa & Dorsey webinar (July 2021)
- Guest on the podcast “Ask Buckingham” (July 2020)
- Guest on the podcast/radio show “Money, Riches & Wealth” (June 2018)
- Presenter, “Protecting your Legacy,” Broadmead Retirement Community (November 2015)
- Presenter, “Estate Planning 101,” Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Giving Circle (January 2013)
- Co-Presenter, “The Maryland Estate Tax,” Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants Annual Conference (October 2007)
- Co-Presenter, “Death, Taxes and New Health Care Regulations,” Gordon Feinblatt Seminar for Physicians (March 2007)
- Co-Presenter, “The Maryland Estate Tax, Revocable Trusts vs. Wills, a Primer on Maryland Probate and Beneficiary Designation Issues,” Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants (January 2007)