Overview
NEW YORK AND CHICAGO (SEPTEMBER 24, 2014) – Responding to a growing trend of High Net Worth investors conducting their investing activities directly through their own investment vehicles, international law firm McDermott Will & Emery announced today a significant expansion of its global Direct Investing practice.
Matthew Sperry and Matthew McKim have joined McDermott as partners, operating from the Firm’s offices in New York and Chicago. Previously, the two practiced at international law firm DLA Piper.
At McDermott, Sperry and McKim will be part of the Firm’s Direct Investing practice, a distinctive offering that brings together practitioners from the Firm’s highly ranked Corporate, Tax and Private Client practices to provide High Net Worth clients with a broad spectrum of sophisticated legal services as they invest in and operate businesses globally. With their international focus, Sperry and McKim will help to expand the Firm’s work on behalf of wealthy families in Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as the financial institutions that cater to such families.
McDermott is one of the few law firms that has constructed a global platform of tax and wealth planning professionals—across the United States, Europe and Asia—that addresses the international tax and wealth planning challenges of an increasingly complicated, cross-border network of often uncoordinated rules and regulations. The McDermott Direct Investing practice broadens the Firm’s top-ranked global practices to integrate the investing activities of High Net Worth families across the globe with McDermott’s existing complex wealth planning and wealth transfer capabilities. McDermott recognizes that global wealth is becoming concentrated among individuals and families who are increasingly making their own investment decisions. Such wealth may be of the first or several generations, but its scale, and the scale of their investing, require a broad range of international tax, estate planning and family succession expertise.
Sperry and McKim have deep experience assisting clients in navigating the global landscape and the complex legal and business challenges in every corner of the world, spanning both established and emerging markets. They counsel trustees, financial institutions and High Net Worth clients on a wide range of domestic and international corporate and tax-planning matters, including advising clients on global tax and structuring needs and leading acquisitions and dispositions of businesses and real estate. In that connection, they assist wealthy and entrepreneurial families and individuals, directly and through trust companies, in the analysis, structuring and negotiation of tax-efficient business and personal wealth transactions, as well as planning for the creation, preservation and transmission of wealth among generations.
“Our sophisticated High Net Worth clients think multi-generationally and globally, and more and more they have concluded that an integrated direct investing model works best for them,” said McDermott Private Client partner Henry Christensen III. “Matthew and Matthew are two of the best Direct Investing lawyers in the world and we are delighted to bring them on board as we focus on the fast-changing needs of our clients.”
“Increasingly, wealthy families are turning away from more traditional investment strategies and hiring professional managers to oversee their investments on a direct basis,” added David Goldman, head of McDermott’s global Corporate Advisory Practice Group. “Our two new partners are joining our distinct Direct Investing practice; McDermott’s international approach to direct investing gives our clients premier tax and wealth planning experience that other firms do not provide.”
“There is quite simply no other law firm capable of serving the unique investing needs of High Net Worth individuals in this way,” said McDermott co-chair Peter J. Sacripanti. “We are strategically committed to having the best wealth management, corporate and tax lawyers in our U.S. and international offices. Adding Matthew Sperry and Matthew McKim to the Direct Investing team allows us to build upon our experience, and project our strength in new directions, as we seek to deliver the world’s finest client service.”
McDermott’s Direct Investing practice capitalizes on the Firm’s premier capabilities in three areas: private client/wealth management, tax, and corporate advisory. In the 2014 edition of Chambers USA, McDermott’s Private Client capabilities were honored with a national Tier 1 ranking in the Wealth Management category for the eighth consecutive year. McDermott was named “Law Firm of the Year” in Tax Law in the 2013 ”Best Law Firms” rankings published by U.S. News Media Group and Best Lawyers. McDermott is among the few, if any, law firms capable of offering the vital blend of in-depth, global wealth management, corporate and tax experience and highly-focused industry knowledge. The Firm was also named the 2014 “Team of the Year for M&A Mid-Market” in the inaugural Legal 500 US Awards.
McDermott’s Direct Investing practice is led by McDermott Corporate Advisory Practice Group Leader David Goldman. In addition to Mr. Sperry and Mr. McKim, other senior team members include Corporate Advisory partners Mark Selinger and Jake Townsend; Private Client partners Henry Christensen III, Carlyn McCaffrey, Richard Lang, William Butler, and Andrew Vergunst; and Tax partners Gary Karch and Daniel Zucker.
Assisting McDermott in this search process was Mark Jungers, principal of Lippman Jungers LLC.
About McDermott Will & Emery
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,100 lawyers, we have offices in Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Further extending our reach into Asia, we have a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.