Private Client
The Private Client Department of McDermott Will & Emery is one of the largest and best-known departments of its kind in the United States. The 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business ranked our wealth management practice in the top tier nationwide. While in 2006 and 2007 we were ranked in the top tier along with five and six other firms respectively, in the 2008 edition, McDermott was the only firm in the United States ranked in the top tier. Chambers USA for 2008 stated that their interviewees said “from top to bottom [McDermott] is the most talented firm”in the area of wealth management. We were identified as the leading law firm among privately-held clients, "enjoying an exceptional number of primary relationships, strong 'go-to' status and numerous client recommendations" from private company clients according to the 2005 BTI Power Rankings Scorecard, compiled by BTI Consulting Group, an independent consulting firm. We represent families and individuals, family offices, closely held businesses, foundations, estates, trusts and special purpose asset transfer and investment management entities in the United States and throughout the world, and we provide to them a spectrum of estate, succession, gift transfer and wealth planning services. Our experience covers all significant facets of wealth planning.
The Private Client Department is composed of approximately 40 lawyers and 10 non-lawyer professionals. While the majority of our private client lawyers practice out of the Firm’s Chicago office, we have a substantial practice group in our Los Angeles office. Additionally, the Firm’s private client lawyers travel extensively, providing advice to clients wherever they are located around the globe.
Our large size permits us to develop practice depth and technical sophistication to an extent not possible in the smaller departments which are typical of other law firms. Our department has assembled a critical mass of lawyers and legal assistants to handle any problem a client brings to us, no matter how complex. We meet regularly as a department to share cutting-edge techniques and to establish departmental standards ensuring uniform, high-quality advice and service for our clients.
Depth, Commitment and Continuity
The Private Client Department of McDermott Will and Emery is as old as the Firm itself. Since the Firm’s founding as a tax boutique in 1934, we have practiced as a separate, independent department and have attracted clients on the basis of our group’s extensive experience and reputation. As a result, we have represented many of our client families for generations. Despite the long-term nature of wealth planning, most large law firms in recent years have been closing or reducing the size of their private client departments. In contrast, our Private Client Department has grown steadily in size, stature and geographic scope, and our client relationships have increased in number and financial significance.
Leading Lawyers
Lawyers in our Private Client Department include some of the most respected practitioners in the United States. Most of our partners with more than 10 years' experience are members of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a U.S. selective association of distinguished estate planners and private client lawyers. Two of our lawyers have been president of the college. Ten of our lawyers are listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Naifeh and Smith).
Lawyers in our department are prolific speakers and have written or co-authored treatises on a broad range of topics, including generation-skipping tax, charitable giving, family business planning, estate and trust administration, federal estate and gift tax procedure, wills and trust drafting and contested estates procedures. Several of our lawyers over the years have chaired important American Bar Association Tax and Estate Planning Committees and have served as law school professors. At the request of Congress, we have testified on proposed tax law changes. Our lawyers also serve numerous U.S. and local cultural and charitable organizations as advisors and trustees.
Scope of Practice
Our Private Client Department represents hundreds of client families, including many of the wealthiest families in America, on estate planning and wealth management matters. We also represent owners of new and emerging companies. These clients as a group own a broad range of assets and have a seemingly infinite variety of needs. In a certain sense they require us to be “inventors.” The sophisticated wealth transfer techniques that we develop and craft for our wealthiest clients often can be used in a variety of other situations. We constantly work on new types of trusts and entities to maximize wealth with a minimum of risk and with careful attention to ethical standards. We are always aware of and are sensitive to the public persona and reputation of our clients.
A major focus of our practice is advising high net worth clients on tax oriented issues. However, we also advise our clients on any other issue that may arise concerning their wealth or family situations, including business succession, family office operations, foundation management, asset protection, trust management, investment risk reduction, diversification techniques and family dispute resolution, to name a few.
Additionally, our department encompasses a number of special practice groups, including charitable planning, generation-skipping, post-mortem administration, community and marital property, life insurance and leveraged asset transfer techniques (including the creation and implementation of limited partnerships, limited liability companies, qualified personal residence trusts and grantor retained annuity trusts).
The Firm has an extensive tax controversy practice, including tax negotiation and litigation. A group within our department manages a large and growing estate and trust controversy practice, including complex negotiations and litigation involving estates, trusts, guardianships, family businesses and charitable organizations.
Finally, our lawyers and our team of legal assistants are actively engaged in the administration of large and complex estates and trusts. We administer such estates and trusts efficiently and cost-effectively and are frequently able to devise creative post-mortem tax planning strategies to reduce transfer and income taxes. We also have extensive experience in representing estates in federal audits of estate tax returns.
Access to Related Services
While our Private Client lawyers often serve as the client’s primary consultant on wealth planning issues, our clients frequently require assistance in matters that involve corporate, tax, employee benefits, civil litigation and international expertise. Because we are a large partnership with lawyers whose practices are focused on those and other areas, we are able to secure that assistance quickly from within McDermott Will & Emery.
In addition, we have organized several cross-disciplinary practice groups to serve our private clients. These practice groups draw on the extensive experience of Firm lawyers in different disciplines, most frequently from the lawyers in the Employee Benefits and Tax Departments, both of which also date to the founding of McDermott Will & Emery. Each of these departments is believed to be the largest and best known of its type among U.S.-based law firms. One of our active tax partners has served as Chair of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association.
Our International Wealth Planning Group includes lawyers with significant international tax and planning experience in our various offices, including those located in London and Munich. These lawyers counsel U.S. citizens residing abroad as well as resident and nonresident aliens on all aspects of managing wealth across international borders.
Many of our clients have significant interests in family owned or controlled businesses. We currently represent four of the 20 largest family businesses in the United States, as well as scores of smaller but significant family companies. Our Family Business Consulting Group includes lawyers with extensive experience in dealing with these businesses and the unique problems and opportunities they confront, with particular emphasis in the succession of control and management and the preservation of family and business values. This group provides client access to the techniques and strategies which we have developed for other families in dealing with family business issues, including the settlement of tax and family disputes.
Our Executive Compensation Group, which includes lawyers advising on compensation and tax and estate planning for corporate executives, represents board members, CEOs and senior officers of Fortune 500 companies. This group advises executives on all aspects of compensation, including wealth accumulation, protection and transmission. More complete information on each of the other practice groups, including our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Practice Group and our Financial Products Practice Group, which also often work with our clients, is available in separate brochures.
How We Can Work for You
Our resources are available either in a principal or supplemental capacity. We are prepared to work closely with your current lawyers, accountants, financial planners and other advisers. If necessary to represent you properly, we can also draw on our contacts with accountants, investment bankers, money managers, valuation consultants and insurance consultants.
We believe that we can add value in any planning situation we undertake because we stress creativity, quality, speed, efficiency and cost effectiveness. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you.
Contacts
- Carol A. Harrington
+1 312 984 7794
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