Barbara Grayson Email & Phone Number

Barbara Grayson is a partner of Willkie, Farr & Gallagher LLP and Chair of Willkie's Private Clients Group in Chicago. She represents high net worth individuals and families as well as the businesses, family offices, charitable organizations and trusts that they established or control. She has extensive experience in estate planning, including structuring solutions for transferring wealth to younger generations and succession planning for difficult family situations. Barbara has a diverse practice and often counsels clients through major life events, such as establishing a family foundation, developing a business succession plan, negotiating premarital agreements, administering the estate of a deceased family member and establishing gift trusts for children or grandchildren. Barbara’s tax planning experience is focused on gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. She works with clients to design and implement estate plans, including wills, trusts and lifetime gifts. Barbara also structures partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations, shareholder agreements and buy-sell agreements. She counsels clients regarding planning for family businesses, including corporate recapitalizations, corporate governance, intrafamily sales and family partnerships. A significant portion of Barbara’s practice focuses on philanthropic matters, including the representation and advising of tax-exempt organizations and the representation of individuals with respect to charitable giving. She has helped clients to establish private foundations, and she also counsels clients as to best practices in administering those foundations in light of the complicated tax rules surrounding their governance. Her practice also includes probate and trust administration. Barbara represents fiduciaries (executors and trustees) and individuals in probate and trust administration and, when necessary, in contested probate and trust matters.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Listed skills include Trusts, Estate Planning, Corporate Law, Wealth Management, and 4 others.