International law firm McDermott Will & Emery today announced that Laurelle M. Gutierrez has joined the Firm as a partner in the Private Client Group, resident in the Silicon Valley office. Prior to joining the Firm, she was a director at a California-based law firm.

Ms. Gutierrez’s work involves the design and implementation of sophisticated tax planning and wealth transfer strategies to foster family harmony while minimizing the impact of estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. She advises clients on the full array of domestic and multinational estate planning issues, ranging from the preparation of wills and revocable trusts, to the creation and implementation of complex irrevocable trusts for lifetime gifts, life insurance and intergenerational wealth transfers, as well as grantor retained annuity trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, complex charitable trusts, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies. She also prepares federal gift tax returns and federal estate tax returns, and advises trustees and executors with complex probate and trust administrations.

“Laurelle is a talented and seasoned lawyer with considerable experience advising high net worth individuals and multi-generational families,” said Carol Harrington, head of McDermott’s Private Client Practice Group. “We see tremendous opportunities for our Private Client team in Silicon Valley and believe that Laurelle will contribute greatly to our success in this area. Laurelle will add great energy and valuable technical knowledge as we work to expand our private client work in this important market.”

Daniel Alberti, partner-in-charge of McDermott’s Silicon Valley office, added, “We are delighted to welcome Laurelle to the Firm. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and their families are increasingly in need of highly respected and sophisticated advisors like Laurelle to help with issues related to wealth accumulation, preservation and transfer. With her strong background in these areas, Laurelle will be a key addition to our office as we strive to meet the varied needs of our many successful clients.”

“I am absolutely thrilled to join McDermott,” said Ms. Gutierrez. “The Firm’s Private Client group is one of the nation’s most highly regarded practices advising high net worth clients. McDermott offers me an outstanding platform to continue growing my client base while working with the brightest minds in the business.”

Ms. Gutierrez is rated as one of the Best Lawyers in America, Trusts & Estates, 2013, 2014 and has been recognized on the Northern California Super Lawyers® list from 2008 to 2013. She frequently writes and speaks on sophisticated planning issues, and will be a speaker at the upcoming Heckerling Institute in January, the premier estate planning conference in the country.

Laurelle received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco and her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley. While in law school, she served on the University of San Francisco Law Review and earned the American Jurisprudence Award for Legal Research and Writing.

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