Cristina Papanikos
Senior Counsel
Overview
Cristina Papanikos is a private wealth services attorney in Holland & Knight's Miami office. She focuses her practice on complex trust and estate litigation, trust and estate administration, and guardianship matters.
Ms. Papanikos provides a wide array of litigation services to her clients, including representation in will and trust contests, actions to construe will and trust terms, accounting actions, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and proceedings to remove and surcharge fiduciaries. She also assists her fiduciary and beneficiary clients in modifying trusts, reforming trusts and wills, as well as terminating trusts. In addition, she advises clients at all stages of guardianship proceedings, from determining incapacity and appointing guardians to representing and counseling her clients who serve as guardians.
Ms. Papanikos is actively involved in shaping Florida's laws, court rules and standards for ethical and competent practice in her field through her work in The Florida Bar's Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section and Probate Rules Committee. She also is a published author and lecturer on these topics.
Credentials
- University of Florida Levin College of Law, J.D.
- University of Florida, B.A.
- Florida
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Fellow; New Fellows Steering Committee, Bylaws and Manuals Committee, 2025
- The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Executive Council
- The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Probate Law & Procedure Committee, Co-Vice Chair
- The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Probate & Trust Litigation Committee
- The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Trust Law Committee
- The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Elective Share Review Committee, Co-Vice Chair
- Journal of Law and Public Policy, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Senior Notes Editor, 2003
- JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes, 2011-2013
- Florida Super Lawyers magazine, 2021-2024
- Holland & Knight Pro Bono All-Star, 2020
- Rising Star, Florida Super Lawyers magazine, 2012-2019
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Florida Fellows Institute, Inaugural Class, 2015-2016
- Up & Comers Finalist, South Florida Business & Wealth, 2016
- 40 Under 40, Outstanding Lawyers of South Florida, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 2016