2017 West Coast Private Client Forum

William (Bill) J. Butler focuses his practice on estate planning and probate administration matters. Bill counsels family groups and individuals on all aspects of wealth transfer planning, with an emphasis on formulating estate plans that maximize and protect wealth while minimizing transfer taxes. Bill formerly served as an elected member of the Firm's Management Committee and is the immediate past global head of McDermott's Private Client group.

Bill represents many large, multigenerational family groups, and also advises with their family office executives on family office administration and structure issues. Bill regularly counsels younger generation family members on learning to be responsible wealth managers. He also assists a number of families on all legal issues involving their privately owned business, including governance matters, succession planning and shareholder agreements.

Laurelle M. Gutierrez has a diverse practice representing high-net-worth individuals and their families with respect to all aspects of gift, estate and generation-skipping wealth-transfer tax planning, as well as trust and estate administration.

Laurelle has extensive experience in the design and implementation of sophisticated intergenerational wealth-transfer planning strategies. She advises domestic and multinational high-net-worth clients and families to develop and orchestrate innovative solutions around wealth transfer, philanthropic giving and multifaceted estate planning needs. She has advised trustees and executors with complex probate and trust administrations, including successfully representing clients in estate tax and gift tax audits.

While in law school, Laurelle served on the University of San Francisco Law Review. She frequently writes and speaks on sophisticated estate planning and fiduciary income tax issues for professional organizations, including the American Law Institute, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the State Bar of California and CalCPA.

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.

As a national authority on the federal generation-skipping tax, Carol has advised attorneys, tax professionals, executors, trustees and other nationwide on this issue. She is co-author of a tax treatise, Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax (Harrington, Kwon & Zaritsky), the author of the BNA Tax Management Portfolio, Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax, and has published many articles on the federal generation-skipping tax. Carol speaks frequently before professional and industry groups on tax, estate planning and succession issues.

Trusted advisor to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, multigenerational families, family offices, founders, and business owners on estate planning, philanthropy, governance, and succession

Represents individuals, families, and their charitable entities on the design, implementation, funding, operation, audit, succession, and sunset of tax-exempt entities

Counsels clients on sophisticated estate and wealth transfer planning; business, fiduciary, and family office succession; and the administration of large and complex trusts and estates

Guides families and family offices during critical times, including major family life and business events, transitions, and succession

Julie Miraglia Kwon advises wealthy individuals, families, closely held businesses, charities and corporate fiduciaries on all aspects of estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax planning, trust and estate administration, business succession, charitable planning and governance, and contested trust and tax matters.

Julie formerly was the Philanthropic Advisor for Stanford University, where she collaborated with the Office of General Counsel and Stanford Management Company regarding endowment and charitable trust investment, complex gifts and bequests, and contested matters. Previously, she also was a national director with Bernstein Global Wealth Management, where she developed quantitative research regarding the effect of investment volatility on wealth transfer, and was the fiduciary counsel and Legacy Planner for the Midwest Region for Bessemer Trust Company. Julie is a former member of the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest in the country.

Julie co-authors the tax treatise, Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax (by Harrington, Plaine, Zaritsky & Kwon, for Warren Gorham & Lamont), and the Tax Management Portfolio titled Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax (by Harrington & Kwon, for Bureau of National Affairs). Julie speaks frequently before and writes regularly for professional publications and organizations, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Dow Jones, Journal of Taxation, Trusts & Estates, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the Internal Revenue Service, the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute and numerous regional organizations.

While in law school, Julie was executive editor of the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities.

M. Read Moore provides legal counsel on all aspects of estate planning, estate and trust administration, tax controversy, and privately owned business governance and succession planning. He has considerable experience in the international aspects of the private client practice, including inbound investment and wealth transfers to the United States, the US tax and legal aspects of non-US private company and wealth management structures, and US tax compliance for clients with global investments and assets.

From his base in the San Francisco Bay area, Read works with clients across the United States and around the world on innovative planning and tax and non-tax controversies for private companies, domestic and foreign trusts, and wealthy family groups. Read speaks frequently at national and international conferences and is a recognized authority on domestic and international estate planning and tax issues.

Nicole M. Pearl advises clients on estate planning, wealth transfer planning, marital property agreements, business succession planning and post-death administration. Her clients include family offices, entrepreneurs and business owners, real property investors, private equity fund managers, and entertainment industry figures.

Nicole helps high-net-worth individuals pass wealth to the next generation, while minimizing their tax burden. To that end, she creates estate plans and charitable giving programs designed to meet her clients' family succession and wealth management objectives. She also advises families in the creation and ongoing administration of their family offices, and works with business owners to maintain control of their companies through buy-sell agreements or to relinquish control via responsibly conducted transition of ownership to family members or employees.

Nicole primarily works with clients throughout Southern California, but also maintains a statewide practice that includes a strong Northern California client base.