Media Mentions
2009
Andrea Kramer was quoted in a WomenLegal Magazine (June – August 2009) story that presented comments by participants in the publication’s 2009 forum discussion among gender diversity thought leaders. Ms. Kramer, chair of McDermott’s Gender Diversity Committee, urged women lawyers to be more forceful in communicating what they have achieved with their firms. She noted that as a Compensation Committee member, “I read several thousand self-evaluations. But it didn’t take me long to notice a pattern. After reading a handful of self-evaluations, I saw that too many women were reticent to claim credit for their accomplishments. Most men weren’t.”
2008
Andie Kramer was quoted in the November 24 issue of Business Week about how fund-of-funds managers are being forced to dump assets, putting further pressure on the hedge funds and the markets generally, since so many depended on borrowed money. The funds of funds were layering leverage upon leverage. They owned hedge funds already loaded up with debt, roughly $6 for each $1 of capital. When credit seized up, the process began to reverse. "Once things start to deliever, everything contracts," Ms. Kramer said.
Andrea S. Kramer, Hedge Funds, Markets Restructuring, Tax
Andrea Kramer was quoted September 26 on guardian.co.uk about how U.S. regulators are looking into credit derivatives as they investigate market manipulation, and some lawyers believe the government is looking at whether traders have used the products to help push banks closer to insolvency. "You can affect investors' perception of the company, and affect the company's credit-worthiness," Ms. Kramer said.
Andrea S. Kramer, Financial Products, Trading & Derivatives, Tax
2007
Andrea S. Kramer was featured in the June 2007 issue of Lawdragon magazine in the "Top 500 Leading Dealmakers" ranking. Lawdragon creates its guides to the best lawyers in the United States through a unique combination of online balloting and independent research.
Andrea Kramer was mentioned in the June issue of the Chicago Lawyer for receiving the first Founders Award from The Women's Treatment Center.
Andrea Kramer was named among in The National Law Journal 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America published on May 28.
Andrea S. Kramer, Derivatives, Structured Finance and Financial Products, Tax
Andrea Kramer was quoted in the February issue of the Chicago Lawyer in an article concerning the challenges law firms face retaining women and minorities. "I've been practicing law for nearly 30 years, my law school class was the first class in which 30 percent were women. I always assumed I would see the same progression, and what we have found out 30 years later is that 20 percent of partners are women. If you divide out the firms like ours that have two-tier partners, the number of women capital partners is even less," Ms. Kramer said.
2006
Andrea Kramer was quoted in the July 3 issue of The National Law Journal about law firms' efforts to increase the number of female partners in accordance with the Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women committee. For instance, McDermott is making a stronger effort to give plum projects to a variety of its lawyers, including women and minorities, according to Ms. Kramer. "That's forcing our colleagues to understand that they can't just go to the guy that looks like them," Ms. Kramer said.
Andrea Kramer was quoted in the June 2006 issue of Global Finance about how the corporate use of derivatives is becoming increasingly commonplace, but while they are easier than ever to use, the risks still remain. Credit derivatives are currently favored because they provide a hedge in case one of your close business partners falls on bad times. "If your biggest client is IBM, and you're afraid IBM is going to slip on a banana peel, you might get coverage based on IBM's creditworthiness," Ms. Kramer said.
Andrea S. Kramer, Financial Products, Trading & Derivatives, Structured Finance and Derivatives, Tax
2004
Andrea Kramer was quoted in the May 2004 issue of Fidelity magazine in an article regarding who can benefit from the federal income tax rate of 15 percent for qualified dividends. She explained that "the logic behind all this is that there can only be one recipient of a qualified dividend." She further noted that "in the case of a short sale lending transaction, the recipient of the qualified dividend is the party that actually purchases the stock from the short seller. The purchaser is the only taxpayer who can qualify for the 15 percent tax rate."
2001
Helen Friedli and Andrea Kramer were mentioned in the annual diversity survey published in the July 2001 issue of Chicago Lawyer. Ms. Friedli, at the time a member of the Firm’s management committee and Ms. Kramer, member of the management committee and head of the Firm’s financial products practice group, were listed as women who serve in top leadership positions in the Firm as of January 1, 2001. McDermott was also noted for the most women partners (49).
Helen R. Friedli PC, Andrea S. Kramer
Andrea Kramer’s comments from an IRS Public Hearing on Proposed Regulations was published in Tax Notes Today on May 23. Ms. Kramer said that the proposed hedging regulations, which were the focus of the hearing, fail to follow the direction of Congress to broaden the standard for qualifying hedging transactions, and recommended to the IRS & Treasury Panel to replace the concept of risk reduction with the standard of risk management. She also proposed a "rule of application" to address risk management transactions entered into by dealers in commodities.
Andrea S. Kramer, Financial Products, Trading & Derivatives, Tax
Andrea Kramer was quoted in the lead paragraph of the March 2001 issue of Inc. Magazine in an article entitled, "Follow the Big Guys: The Sagging Euro Got You Down? Or Are You Profiting From It? It May be Time to Try Your Hand at Currency Hedging."
Andrea S. Kramer, Financial Products, Trading & Derivatives, Tax
