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.

Elise specializes in the formation and operation of private trust companies, and has advised clients on these structures in multiple jurisdictions. Elise has worked with state regulators to develop customized private trust company structures for clients, including for international families. Most recently, she co-drafted Wyoming’s 2019 trust company legislation including 2021 legislative updates. Elise has analyzed SEC and regulatory compliance issues facing private trust companies, and has helped clients develop policies and procedures for their private trust companies. She also advises clients on the litigation and regulatory risks facing private trust companies and their decision-makers.

Elise works with clients, including registered investment advisers and multi-family offices, to establish and transition trusteeship to retail trust companies. She also advises retail trust companies on cryptocurrency custody matters. She helps clients structure the multi-jurisdictional relationships between trust companies, family offices and closely held businesses.

Elise speaks frequently on the subject of estate planning, state income tax strategies, digital assets and trust companies. She has lectured at the University of Wyoming College of Law and serves on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Bar Association Trust Law Committee.

While in law school, Elise was an executive editor for The Michigan Journal of Race & Law. Prior to law school, she worked as a senior research analyst for Lexecon, where she performed research and statistical analyses focusing on the application of economics to litigation.

James H. Cundiff advises clients on family wealth and business planning, federal estate, gift and generation-skipping tax planning, and estate and trust administration. James represents entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and other business leaders and wealthy individuals on estate and tax planning matters.

Counseling closely held businesses and family members, James is actively engaged in the structuring of family businesses as well as business control and succession planning, multi-generational wealth transfer planning, and estate plan design and implementation. James works with several single-family offices on the creation and administration of private investment pools and private trust companies. As a certified public accountant, James bridges the gaps between financial, tax and legal issues. James frequently writes and speaks on a variety of tax and estate planning subjects.

Alexander D. Augst advises clients, particularly in the medical device and life sciences industries, on a variety of intellectual property issues, including worldwide patent portfolio development and strategy, patent prosecution, due diligence and freedom to operate analysis, and litigation support. Alexander helps clients identify strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities to minimize threats and maximize revenue using their patent portfolios.

Alexander prosecutes patent applications in various fields, including medical devices, biotechnology, diagnostics, image processing applications, computer systems and software, and mechanical devices. His patent experience spans every stage of a product’s life cycle, including post-grant proceedings, and patent portfolio strategies and development. Alexander performs patentability, validity, and freedom-to-operate assessments, provides pre-litigation assessment sand opinions regarding patentability, and conducts IP due diligence for strategic business transactions.

While earning his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Alexander’s thesis work included building and running computational models of blood flow in arteries, based on ultrasound input data. After completing his doctorate, Alexander was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Langer Lab) and later at the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His postdoctoral work included generating bone-cartilage constructs from silk scaffolds and human bone marrow stromal cells, as well as studying cell-biomaterial interactions using alginate hydrogels.