Best Lawyers in Illinois, United States for Trusts and Estates
Michael (Mike) J. Sorrow focuses his practice on tax, estate planning, family business and trust and estate administration matters. Mike regularly advises wealthy individuals and families on all aspects of wealth and tax planning matters. In addition, Mike works extensively with families that control significant public and private businesses, counseling them and their family offices on matters relating to effective tax planning, succession and governance planning and the intra-family issues t...
David Allen helps high-net-worth individuals and families with all their legal needs. With an approach that seamlessly integrates estate planning, tax minimization and concierge lawyering, David's advice allows his clients to spend less time managing advisors and more time focusing on their passions, their businesses and their families. From restructuring valuable art collections to coordinating legal services for multibillion-dollar family businesses and family offices, David is often the fi...
Andy Gelman is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Chicago office. He concentrates his practice in estate planning and estate and trust administration and controversies and is the immediate past chair of the firm's Illinois Private Wealth Services Practice Group. He counsels individuals, executives and business owners on the use of wills and insurance and inter vivos or living trusts and powers of attorney for property and health care in their estate planning. Often his advice is in the are...
Susan is a partner in the Private Wealth Services practice group. Susan focuses her practice on sophisticated estate planning for business owners, wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs. She helps her clients transfer wealth to younger generations to achieve tax efficiencies as well as protection for beneficiaries and counsels her clients in connection with complex intrafamily issues that wealthy families often face. In addition to helping clients structure their estate plans, Susan advises cl...
Tye Klooster counsels high-net-worth families on how best to preserve their legacies and transfer wealth to future generations. A fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel, Tye serves clients who rely on him to design and implement sophisticated and personalized estate plans. Tye designs estate plans which allow high-net-worth individuals to leverage use of their gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax (GST) exemptions and to pass wealth to the next generation in ...
Stephanie advises on complex tax issues, investment structures, acquisitions and sales of special assets, trust and probate administration and charitable giving. She serves as a fiduciary consultant on litigation matters for corporate fiduciaries and interfamily disputes. Stephanie also represents taxpayers on contested tax matters, including federal and state audits and administrative appeals. Stephanie’s clients include high net worth individuals, family offices and corporate fiduciar...
Jesse A. Footlik is a Partner with Peck Ritchey, LLC. In addition to representing individuals and families as heirs and beneficiaries, Jesse represents corporate and individual fiduciaries, including financial institutions and healthcare providers. Further, Jesse regularly advises clients involved in various Power of Attorney (POA) disputes, breach of fiduciary duty cases, contested heirships, wrongful death dependency hearings, and will and trust construction or interpretation matters. For o...
Larry is chair of the firm’s Private Wealth Services practice group. He facilitates successful legal strategies for entrepreneurs, tax-exempt organizations, fiduciaries and high-net worth families and individuals. This work involves estate, gift and charitable planning issues, including business succession, tax-efficient ownership structures, sophisticated tax-exempt structures, trust and estate administration, executive benefits, life insurance and international estate planning for wea...
Libby concentrates her practice in estate planning in the area of probate with a focus on the estate tax aspects, contested estates and trust reformation. Libby has practiced before the Tax Court and has represented several tax-exempt organizations, including both private foundations and public charities. She has administered numerous large estates and has successfully negotiated favorable settlements with the Internal Revenue Service both at the audit and appellate levels on issues such as v...
Nicole K. Mann focuses her practice on all aspects of tax and estate planning, estate and trust administration and family business planning. She also has considerable experience in estate, trust and tax litigation involving disputes between and among family members, fiduciaries and beneficiaries. Nicole is a co-chair of the Firm’s Trust & Estate Controversy group. Read full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/mann-nicole-k/
Carol A. Harrington advises clients on a variety of matters, including estate, gift and generation-skipping tax issues, closely held businesses and succession planning, family office structures and issues, private trust companies, private foundations, trust and estate administration, and contested trust and tax matters. Carol is the former global head of McDermott’s Private Client Practice. Read full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/harrington-carol-a/
Elise J. McGee advises high-net-worth individuals and business owners on all aspects of wealth-transfer planning, including estate and trust administration, leveraged wealth-transfer techniques, tax matters, cryptocurrency and QSBS planning, real estate transactions and closely held business matters. Elise has extensive experience working with owners of closely held businesses to develop governance and succession plans, and on corporate, tax and compliance matters relating to those businesses...
Jason S. Ornduff advises high net worth families, business owners, executives, professionals and celebrities on state and federal laws regarding wealth transfer to the next generation, including estate planning, estate and trust administration, and estate and gift tax issues. Jason also counsels closely-held companies on various legal issues, especially in the areas of succession planning. Jason is a past president of the Greater North Shore Estate and Financial Planning Council. He is also a...
Timothy J. Ritchey is a partner at Peck Ritchey, LLC who concentrates his practice in estate and trust litigation , elder law , and guardianship . Tim has been appointed Special Assistant Attorney General in numerous matters to represent the State’s interests in actions relating to Illinois healthcare and disability law. In 2014, Tim wrote legislation and testified as an expert before the Illinois Senate on an amendment to the Illinois Probate Act regarding elder abuse and financial exp...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.
