Building a Legacy with Sharna Favuzza

As a Trust and Estate attorney Sharna Favuzza, partner at DeMoura|Smith, her job is more than documents and signatures, “It’s all about the heart of what it means to take care of your family.” She is a dynamic, thorough and smart attorney who cares deeply about her clients, something you can tell after just speaking a few minutes with her. And she has built a heart-centered practice helping her clients take on the most important, difficult and emotionally charged tasks on their to-do lists. Sharna doesn’t just provide a legal service, she provides education and peace of mind. Using competence and compassion, Sharna successfully provides an experience that makes her clients feel fully supported and less anxious about planning for their future.

When asked how she sets herself apart at a time when so much of our professional lives are being automated, outsourced, templated, and sped up, Sharna replied that she does not compete with AI.  “My career is rooted in something that can never be replicated by software and AI: human connection. I provide context.”  Sharna brings something irreplaceable to the table. The ability to bring context, good judgment, and human understanding to her work with her clients. “AI can’t sit at a table, or a couch as she has in her office, with a family and understand their dynamics. It can’t ask the right follow up questions or help people think through the things they didn’t even realize they needed to consider.” She spends significant time upfront getting to know her clients, their concerns, their stories, and their values. Then she helps them design plans that don’t just distribute assets, but pass on guidance, structure, morals, values and intention. 

Sharna is the mother of two teenagers and a long-standing champion of women building harmony between having meaningful careers and not sacrificing motherhood. What truly sets Sharna apart is the way she helps families think about the deeper questions:  What do you want your children to inherit emotionally, not just financially? Who do you want making decisions if you’re not there? That perspective didn’t come from a textbook or a chatbot. It came from her life. 

Sharna was raised by her grandparents in a close, tight-knit extended family where Sunday dinners were sacred.  Her family showed up for each other for the small things, the big things, the happy things and the hard things.  Her grandfather, a blue-collar master of all trades, despite not having a formal education or training was “The smartest guy I’ve ever known.”  Both of her grandparents were excellent cooks and food was the center of all of her family memories.  This is the legacy that was passed on, these are the important pieces of Sharna’s estate plans, not the assets, but the more important details that make a family, a family. 

Unfortunately, her Papa passed away at the age of 65, forcing her Nana to have to work.  That experience stayed with her. “We had everything we needed,” she says. “But I realized early on that I needed to make sure that no matter what life brings, I had to be able to independently support myself and my family.”  She was the first in her family to attend college.  As a self-described lifelong learner, obtaining another degree was the next step.  “My grandfather often said ‘you should be a lawyer’.”   Looking back, she recognizes that was a tongue-in-cheek compliment.  Sharna put herself through law school by working during the day and attending classes at night. 

Sharna says she was not an “A” student.  She did not know any lawyers prior to attending law school.  Despite her being admitted to law school, she said, “Through most of my first year, I sat in class feeling like an imposter.  I assumed that every student was smarter than me and I was not going to make it.”  As a young female lawyer, she felt the same way in the presence of other attorneys or courtrooms.  The best advice she gives to other women finding their way in the world is “You belong there!  Never assume anyone else is smarter than you, smart comes in many forms.”

About 10 years ago, she and her partner, Ken DeMoura turned a virtual law firm into a space where they built a firm culture that puts families first, without sacrificing excellence. At DeMoura|Smith, flexibility comes with accountability, and schedules and seasons of life are respected. “That harmony is how we built what we have.” 

When she met Melissa Gilbo and the idea of the Women’s Business League, she realized Melissa was building her own table.  Those same values of education, family, and community are what drew her so deeply into Women’s Business League. Sharna met Melissa ready to assist her form an LLC.  Turned out to be so much more. Melissa boldly thought outside of the box.  She took a male-dominated traditional networking space and created a space where women could show up with vulnerability and authenticity and still be treated as professionals.  A place where the other members appreciated the “mental load.”

Helping bring WBL to life and walking into her first meeting as a founding member, remains one of the highlights of her career. “The openness, the vulnerability, and the way women showed up as their true selves, it was different. Powerful. It allowed me to do the same.” Said Sharna.  She continued, “WBL remains a place where you can be seen. Find courage.”  Over the years she’s watched countless women find the courage to leave golden handcuff jobs, start businesses, and build lives that actually fit their unique circumstances.  She has brought many WBL practices, like vulnerability and sharing wins into her own team meetings. 

She sees WBL’s impact continue for generations and reach girls long before college or career crossroads, so they can see what’s possible and who they can become. As for the legacy she wants to leave? “For my kids, I want them to never see ceilings,” she says. “Choose faith over fear. Take the first step, even if you can’t see the whole path. Have the courage to know you belong there and you are smart enough.” For clients she wants them “to always feel heard, in an unknowing world, to know that they have control over the important things. Over the legacy they’re shaping for their families, not just in assets, but in values and stories. The result is those quiet and powerful moments where people realize they’ve finally put the right plans and the right intentions into place. 

And that, for Sharna Favuzza, is what building a legacy is really about. 

Sharna is actively involved in her community.  She is a founding member of the Women’s Business League and sits on its Advisory Board. She is active in the Reading-North Reading Chamber of Commerce and Wakefield Chamber of Commerce and has a seat as a DECA judge.