Ryan M. Harding is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm’s Chicago office.
Ryan focuses his practice on tax, estate planning, and family and closely held business governance and succession issues. He also regularly advises family offices on a wide range of business, corporate, real estate and tax matters. Ryan frequently represents clients on complex estate administration and sophisticated wealth transfer planning as well as the formation and operation of private trust companies.
Ryan is active in the Firm’s Estate, Trust and Guardianship Controversy group, and he often appears in court on behalf of clients for probate, estate, trust and guardianship administration. He also has successfully represented taxpayers on contested tax matters through audits, administrative appeals and litigation. In the fall of 2009, Ryan appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court to argue a case regarding the application of the Illinois state death tax.
Ryan received his B.A. and B.B.A. degrees, cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame and his J.D. degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as an associate editor of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.
Ryan has written for Trusts & Estates magazine, the Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the Journal of Practical Estate Planning, Family Business Magazine and the IICLE handbook on Estate, Trust and Guardianship Litigation. He also has given lectures on family businesses and succession planning, trust administration and investments, the creation and operation of private trust companies, professional responsibility and ethics in estate planning, and the application and administration of state death taxes.
Ryan is admitted to practice in Illinois, the Eastern District of Michigan and the Northern District of Indiana.
Ryan is a member of the Chicago Bar Association and the American Bar Association, Section on Real Property, Probate and Trust Law, where he is the vice-chairman of the Estate and Gift Tax Committee.
Education
- University of Michigan Law School, J.D. (cum laude), 2002
- University of Notre Dame, B.A./B.B.A. (cum laude), 1999
