Private Client Services

Experience

• Cooperate with a client’s primary estate planning counsel to negotiate and draft a private derivative between a series of GST-exempt trusts and an owner of a new hotel property being constructed. We developed a private derivative transaction, allowing the client to move some of the upside potential benefits to the irrevocable trusts while maintaining actual ownership of the project.
• Represent successor trustee for the multibillion-dollar estate of an iconic artist in interdisciplinary worldwide issues.
• Advise global family that founded one of the world's largest businesses in all of their US interests and issues.
• Provide worldwide planning advice for the multibillion-dollar family office of an owner of interests in European and US real estate and private equity investment.
• Represent real estate family in a global multibillion-dollar planning initiative.
• Corporate trustee for a late, renowned international film producer. Advise regarding the restructuring of all of his domestic and overseas intellectual property interests.
• Advise founding partner of a new private equity fund regarding all aspects of fund formation. We serve as lead counsel on all acquisition and sale transactions for the fund and structured the fund and ownership interests to take maximum advantage of the client's exemptions from estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. We also sitused the transferee trust in a jurisdiction with more favorable trust law.
• Represent member of one of the wealthiest families in the United States in all national and international estate planning matters for the multibillion-dollar holdings of his branch of the family.
• Counseled high-net-worth individual in structuring a sale of a rare piece of fine art from the family’s private collection. We helped structure the multimillion-dollar sale to minimize tax implications. We continue to provide ongoing estate and tax planning for the family.
• Expert witness regarding largest individual deficiency assessed by IRS in US history stemming from family's use of offshore trusts/subsidiary entities in case closely watched by entire international estate planning bar.
• Represent one of the wealthiest families in Colombia in connection with their privately held commodities businesses, among the largest in South America. Our work involves restructuring and United States-Latin America-Italy cross-border planning for the businesses and family members.
• Court-appointed guardian ad litem in Switzerland and Bermuda representing the interests of minors/unborns in restructuring extensive overseas offshore trust holdings of one of America's wealthiest families involving highly complex tax/nontax issues and bitter litigation. Courts in both countries approved the settlement we reached.
• Defend will of an environmentalist who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to create national parks in South America in contests being waged in New York, California, Argentina and Chile.
• Represented large, private Chicagoland manufacturing company on all aspects of corporate law, including the potential acquisition of a competitor and the acquisition and development of a new manufacturing facility. We also advised on a recapitalization/trust structure to minimize estate tax.
• Establishment of a number of private investing entities throughout the world on behalf of a family office. Katten handles all legal due diligence aspects of the client’s investment portfolio, including private equity fund review, private equity fund formation, hedge fund investment review, global direct investments and short-term cash investment vehicles. We determine which investing vehicles are most appropriate for each particular investment depending on cash flow needs of various beneficiaries, charitable and philanthropic funding desires, and location of the investment.