Charles Harris

Charles Harris is co-head of Chicago's Trusts and Estates Practice. Mr. Harris concentrates his practice in tax and estate planning matters, primarily representing wealthy individuals and owners of closely held businesses. Mr. Harris  assists private equity investors in structuring their investments in a tax efficient manner and planning for the transfer of their interests to family members. This planning includes restructuring stock ownership in closely held businesses, establishing family limited partnerships, creating various trusts and limited liability companies, and analyzing the income, gift and estate tax implications of various techniques. Mr. Harris also assists clients in developing business succession plans. In addition, Mr. Harris counsels executives of publicly traded companies, advising them on effectively planning for the exercise of stock options and structuring distributions from retirement plans.

Mr. Harris has dealt extensively with planning for US citizens with a foreign connection, whether it be residing in a foreign country, marrying a non-citizen spouse or otherwise having a connection with a foreign government. Mr. Harris has counseled clients who are non-resident aliens on the most tax efficient manner for investing in US entities. Mr. Harris represents several companies in the US Virgin Islands that are part of the Economic Development Commission program. He is involved in all aspects of the design, implementation and qualification of appropriate vehicles that can qualify for the benefits under the EDC program, coordinating the overall income tax and estate planning needs of the owners of these companies.

For clients who are philanthropically minded, Mr. Harris has assisted in creating private foundations and other charitable arrangements such as charitable lead trusts and charitable remainder trusts to enable a client to effectuate both charitable and tax planning.

Mr. Harris is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the most highly recognized estate planning organization in the country. Mr. Harris teaches an Estate and Gift Tax Class for the Graduate Tax Program at John Marshall Law School. He is also an active member of the Trust Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association and has repeatedly been listed in Illinois Super Lawyers (2005–2013) and the Leading Lawyers Network (2008–2009). Mr. Harris has authored articles on such topics as Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Planning, Life Insurance Planning, Tax Payment Clauses, and Illinois Probate and Trust Administration, and has spoken on these topics to the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Chicago Bar Association and National Business Institute.

Mr. Harris received his JD, with high honors, from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, where he was appointed to the Order of the Coif and served as an editor of the Law Review. He has an undergraduate degree from DePaul University in accounting and is a certified public accountant.