Joseph has successfully argued before trial and appellate courts in multiple jurisdictions. Due to his unique background in tax, planning and litigation, clients turn to Joseph to advise them in complex disputes involving family members, spouses, employees and business partners. A significant part of his practice involves counseling family offices and private trust company executives on strategies and best practices for avoiding personal liability. Joseph is frequently able to favorably resolve disputes without litigation. If necessary, however, he vigorously defends his clients’ interests in the courtroom.

Joseph is a frequent contributor to the bar. In addition to publishing numerous articles and book chapters, he is the principal draftsman of the forthcoming Michigan Trust Company Act. He also assisted with drafting the Michigan Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act and the Model Civil Jury Instructions Regarding Undue Influence, among other legislative matters.

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• Greater Lansing Estate Planning Council, President
• Arts Council of Greater Lansing, Treasurer

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Jake also focuses his practice on representing family offices and family-owned businesses. Jake has a broad range of experience assisting owners of closely held businesses and their family offices with the full range of corporate and transactional needs. He regularly advises family and family office clients on corporate transactions, recapitalizations and other liquidity events, direct investing, corporate governance, general commercial counseling, succession planning, wealth transfer planning and family office structuring. In addition, he frequently counsels family investors in connection with their investments in private equity, venture capital and hedge funds. Jake regularly teams with McDermott colleagues in the Private Client and Tax Practice Groups to create cross-disciplinary solutions for families and family offices.

Jake frequently represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies in their acquisitions, recapitalizations and exit transactions. In addition, he counsels investors in connection with their investments in private equity, venture capital and hedge funds.

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• Represented a family office in connection with the wind down and liquidation of a family-owned operating business. The transaction included a pre-closing corporate reorganization, transfer of real estate and mineral and mining interests, termination and distribution of the corporate liquidating trust, and the sale of disposition of residual business assets
• Structured a new family office for a client following the multibillion-dollar sale of the family business, including innovative structures that provided tax efficiency and administrative ease for the family office’s investment partnerships

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Brian regularly advises clients on prohibited transaction issues and has successfully obtained prohibited transaction exemptions from the US Department of Labor on behalf of multiple clients. His experience includes advising on compliance with statutory and class prohibited transaction exemptions, as well as on captive reinsurance arrangements.

He represents clients in negotiations before the Internal Revenue Service and the US Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, including in connection with plan audits. He has assisted clients with internal compliance reviews, voluntary correction filings under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) and applications for determination letters on tax qualification.

Brian is a frequent author and speaker on employee benefits issues related to the investment of tax-qualified plan assets and issues resulting from domestic partnerships and same-sex marriages. Brian has presented at the Association for Financial Professionals’ annual conferences, the New York University Institute on Federal Taxation and the Out & Equal Workplace Summit.

Brian serves on the Firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and the Recruiting Committee, and co-heads the Firm’s summer associate programs for the Chicago office.

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• Advised multiple clients on the termination of their pension and 401(k) plans, including obtaining determination letters from the IRS on the tax-qualified status of the plans upon termination
• Counseled multiple clients on withdrawal from multi-employer plans, including negotiation of withdrawal liability and the design and implementation of replacement 401(k) plan benefits for union employees
• Obtained determination letters from the IRS on the tax-qualified status of pension and 401(k) plans
• Obtained compliance statements from the IRS through the voluntary correction program under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS)

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John has extensive experience in the healthcare software and IT, technology, general industrial and agricultural and food sectors, as well as a variety of service-based businesses. A responsive, solution-focused transactional lawyer, John seeks to solve problems rather than merely identify them. His experience in structuring, negotiating and documenting merger and acquisition transactions and understanding the client’s business strategy and goals enables him to more effectively serve his clients.

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• Represented Young Innovations Inc., a leading global manufacturer and distributor of consumable dental supplies and equipment, in its sale to Linden Capital Partners, for $314 million.

• Represented Chicago Public Media/WBEZ, one of the largest and most respected public media organizations in the country, in its acquisition of the Chicago Sun-Times, the second largest newspaper circulation in Chicago.

• Represented Tony’s Fresh Market, a leading Chicago-based grocery retailer, in its sale to Apollo Funds, a collection of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, a high-growth, global alternative asset manager.

• Represented United States Sugar Corporation in its acquisition from Louis Dreyfus Company of the business and assets of Imperial Sugar Company, a port refiner with operations in Georgia and Kentucky.

• Represented Motorola Solutions, a global leader in mission-critical communications and analytics, in its acquisition of Openpath Security Inc., a cloud-based mobile access control provider.

• Represented Motorola Solutions, a global leader in public safety and enterprise security, in its acquisition of Futurecom Systems Group ULC. Futurecom designs and manufactures in-vehicle, fixed and portable radio frequency (RF) repeaters and extenders exclusively for Motorola Solutions.

• Represented Best Buy Co., Inc. in its acquisition of Current Health, a leading care-at-home technology platform that brings together patient monitoring , telehealth, and patient engagement into a single solution for healthcare organizations.

• Represented Munich Re, a leading global provider of reinsurance, primary insurance and insurance-related risk solutions, in its acquisition of MedVirginia, Inc., d/b/a Clareto, one of the leading medical record retrieval companies for the life insurance industry.

• Represented Dixon Midland, a Chicago-based private equity firm, in its sale of GoodVets, a next generation animal health platform, to SkyKnight Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm.

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• Represented a leading private equity firm in investments involving its platform company, a physician-lead administrative services organization
• Assisted Pouschine Cook Capital Management with its investment in Curexa Pharmacy, a specialty compounding pharmacy
• Assisted Calera Capital with its investment in Bay State Physical Therapy, a leading physical therapy services provider in the Northeast
• Assisted Rock Island Capital with the sale of its portfolio company, Environmental Recovery Corporation, a waste management services organization, to VLS Environmental Solutions (formerly known as VLS Recovery Services), a portfolio company of Aurora Capital Partners, and the sale of Baker Manufacturing Company to Blue Sage Capital
• Assisted H.I.G. Growth Partners with its sale of Telescope, a provider of real-time audience engagement solutions for live events, to Bally’s Corporation
• Represented H.I.G. Capital in various add-on transactions and the eventual sale of ACG Materials, a manufacturer of infrastructure-related products, to Arcosa
• Represented Connor Manufacturing, a producer of electronic and fiberoptic connectors, in its sale to Amphenol Corporation
• Represented American Medical Technologists, a provider of critical care supplies, in its sale to One Equity Partners and The Silverfern Group

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Scott also represents borrowers and lenders in restructurings and workouts involving complex loan structures, as well as purchasers and sellers of distressed debt.

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• Represented a foreign bank on a $300 million construction loan to a public REIT for medical office and laboratory space in Cambridge, Massachusetts*
• Represented a foreign bank on a $280 million construction loan for the renovation of a former hospital property in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan into luxury condominiums*
• Represented a specialty finance company on a $150 million mortgage loan and $35 million mezzanine loan on a retail shopping center in Lombard, Illinois*
• Represented a public mortgage REIT on with a $230 million loan to a private owner for an investment grade office building in Manhattan; subsequently represented the REIT in the sale of the loan to a pension fund*
• Represented a specialty finance company in originating several related mortgage loans aggregating $205 million on GSA leased properties in 10 states*
• Represented a foreign bank on a $275 million floating rate mortgage financing secured by a major retail center in Queens, New York*
• Represented a hedge fund on a junior mezzanine loan of $90 million (total debt stack of $390 million) on a historic hotel in Chicago, Illinois*
• Represented a mortgage REIT in several billion dollars of mortgage loan repurchase and warehouse facilities*

*Matter handled prior to joining the firm.

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Bob’s clients include financial institutions, private equity firms, investment banks, investment opportunity funds, mortgage REITs, equipment leasing companies, debt and equity investors in real estate ventures and equipment and project finance transactions, and operating companies in fields as wide-ranging as real estate management, systems logistics and media.

Bob has extensive experience in joint ventures and their financing to acquire, manage and trade performing and non-performing loan portfolios and other real estate assets. He regularly counsels clients on an array of matters, including portfolio management, asset acquisitions and dispositions, real estate M&A transactions, capital equipment acquisitions and finance, and all aspects of asset-based finance.

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• Represented a mortgage REIT in its participation in the approximately $1 billion financing for the completion of the mixed retail/condo development known as Central Park Tower on West 57th Street and a related $450 million repurchase facility for that asset and others*
• Represents major international financial institutions and private equity firms in joint ventures and purchase money financing for the sale or acquisition of European and other non- and sub-performing mortgage loan portfolios in transactions of more than $1 billion each*
• Represented a private equity firm in a private placement to raise $100 million of mezzanine financing for a related venture to acquire a multi-state portfolio of net-leased retail properties*

*Matter handled prior to joining the firm.

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As a recognized industry leader, David has structured some of the largest and most innovative municipal derivative transactions in the market. His work spans the full range of products and extends into public finance, where he advises issuers, underwriters, purchasers, borrowers, and lenders on the issuance of tax-exempt debt.

He represents financial institutions on distressed municipal offerings and represented creditors in the Jefferson County and Puerto Rico matters and served as counsel to the lender on the City of Detroit’s “DIP” loan and exit financings. A former municipal financial products outside counsel to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), David also guides clients through derivatives regulation and strategy under Dodd-Frank.

David was an early mover in financial technology. He now advises blockchain and crypto developers, investors, exchanges, broker-dealers, banks, and consulting firms on the legal and regulatory implications of their products. Much of his work focuses on applying blockchain technology to financial products, and on negotiating the agreements that underpin these constantly evolving structures. David is an adjunct professor at Cornell Tech, where he regularly teaches a graduate level course on blockchain and crypto law and policy.

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A frequent teacher on both law and leadership, Jeff has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School, as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, and at the US Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University teaching leadership. In 2022, Jeff co-taught at Stanford Law School on developments in the law that are emerging after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Prior to joining the firm, Jeffrey served in the US Attorney’s Office in Chicago as an Assistant US Attorney, concluding his tenure as deputy chief of the Criminal Receiving and Appellate Division. As an Assistant US Attorney, he tried numerous federal jury trials in the area of white-collar crime, focusing on complex financial crime, fraud, public corruption and tax prosecutions. He also argued and supervised numerous cases before the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From 1983 to 1984, he served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Robert F. Peckham of the US District Court in San Francisco.

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• Represented a senior partner of one of the world’s largest private equity funds in connection with allegations of mail/wire fraud
• Represented a senior partner of one of the world’s largest private equity funds in connection with an investigation into allegations of securities fraud and insider-trading
• Represented numerous senior partners of various private equity funds in connection with their departures from their existing firms
• Represented the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board in a prosecution of the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court which led to his resignation as Chief Justice
• Represented the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board in a prosecution and trial of an Illinois Circuit Court judge in what was one of the first-ever prosecutions of a sitting judge for sexual harassment, leading to removal from the bench
• Represented one of the world’s largest media companies in a dispute over a multi-year leasehold interest
• Represented a leading global dialysis provider in nationwide litigation and regulatory compliance, including high-level criminal matters, False Claims Act cases, internal investigations, complex commercial and multi-district class actions, property and liability insurance matters, and other health care litigation
• Represented a consortium of the largest tobacco manufacturers in the world in a series of over 30 nationwide arbitrations in issues arising out of the Master Settlement Agreement of nationwide class action litigation brought by 46 states
• Represented the Audit Committee of a Fortune 500 national travel services company in a prolonged SEC investigation
• Defended a Fortune 500 sportswear and equipment supplier against a whistleblower action alleging failure to collect/remit sales/use tax on shipping and handling charges
• Represented a chemical manufacturer in connection with a federal criminal investigation related to alleged criminal wrongdoing and falsifications under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act
• Represented an international health care company in a multi-year federal criminal and civil investigation
• Represented a senior executive of a Fortune 100 auto manufacturer in criminal and civil matters arising out of a worldwide automobile recall
• Represented a senior executive of a Fortune 100 international oil company in connection with criminal and civil environmental investigations
• Represented the Audit Committee of a global health care company in a prolonged SEC investigation
• Represented a senior executive of an international construction company in a federal criminal investigation
• Represented a senior business executive in a prolonged federal criminal tax investigation which, after a two-week jury trial, resulted in a verdict of not guilty on all counts

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• Best Lawyers in America, Bet-the-Company Litigation (2010-2027), Commercial Litigation (2006-2027), Criminal Defense: White-Collar, 2018-2027
• Legal 500 US, 2019, 2022, and 2025
• Crain’s Chicago Business, Notable Litigator and Trial Attorney, 2023
• Chambers Global, 2019
• Lawdragon, Top 500 Litigators in America
• Who’s Who Legal: Illinois
• Stanford University, recipient of the Gold Spike Award, Stanford’s highest award for lifetime volunteer service to the University (2016); inaugural recipient of The Stanford Medal for distinguished and sustained alumni service (2006)
• American Jewish Committee, Human Rights Medallion for service in defense of civil liberties and human rights, 2010

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• Center on Wrongful Convictions, Advisory Board member
• Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, served as a national trustee
• Legal Action Chicago, Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder
• Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, served as outside counsel (1996 to 2000)
• Jewish Family and Community Services agency, past president
• Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, served as board member
• National Institute of Trial Advocacy, faculty member
• Northwestern University, adjunct professor, Kellogg School of Management (leadership); adjunct professor, Pritzker School of Law (trial advocacy)
• Stanford University
  • Board of Trustees, member
  • Committee on External Relations, chair
  • Stanford Fund, national chairman (responsible for all annual giving to Stanford University)
  • Stanford LEAD Council, founder and co-chair (identifying and nurturing future leaders)
  • Stanford’s $1 billion Campaign for Undergraduate Education, former vice chair
  • Stanford on Purpose Campaign Steering Committee, member
  • Overseas Studies Board of Advisors member
  • Advisory Council the Task Force on Undergraduate Education
• US Supreme Court Historical Society, member of Board of Directors

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