Lawyers / Professionals

 
William M. Long       
Partner
77 West Wacker Drive
Suite 4100
Chicago, Illinois 60601-1818
T: 312.750.8916
F: 312.920.6591
wlong@mcguirewoods.com
 

Mr. Long heads the Private Wealth Services team in Chicago. He focuses on estate and tax planning for high net worth individuals including business owners, key executives and physician groups. Mr. Long also has extensive experience advising closely held and family owned businesses on the orderly and tax efficient transfer of wealth to younger generations. He assists business clients with formation, entity selection, capitalization and governance structure; and counsels closely held business owners with buy/sell, succession, estate and personal taxation matters. He serves as outside general counsel for clients operating as corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies; and advises the board of directors for certain corporate clients.

In connection with wealth management and estate planning clients, Mr. Long prepares wills, grantor trusts, insurance trusts, generation skipping trusts, residence trusts, pre and post marital agreements, probate filings, estate tax returns, and family limited partnerships. He advises high net worth clients on the creation, funding and administration of private foundations and charitable trusts as well as other tax issues related to charitable giving. In estate and trust administration matters, Mr. Long represents individual and corporate trustees/executors with respect to their fiduciary obligations and responsibilities, and he has substantial experience with IRS audit and tax controversy work.


Practices & Industries
Honors
  • Named "Planner of the Month," Life Insurance Law Newsletter, May 2011

Publications
  • "Planning for the New 3.8 Percent Surtax on Trusts and Estates," McGuireWoods News, April 22, 2010
  • "FLPs & LLCs in Recent Cases," McGuireWoods News, September 29, 2009
  • "Divorce and the Family Business," Business Entities Magazine, March/April 2007

Speaking Engagements
  • Mr. Long is a frequent lecturer in business and federal taxation matters for the Chicago Bar Association and numerous financial institutions. He has also presented seminars for the Internal Revenue Service, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Association of Independent Accountants. He is an annual speaker for the McGuireWoods Fiduciary Advisory Services Seminar in Chicago.
  • "2010 Tax Act and Illinois Estate Tax," WJJG Radio, 1530 AM, April 7, 2011
  • "Children First Series," CANTV, Maryville Academy, Episode 9
  • "The Status of Family Limited Partnerships," McGuireWoods LLP Fiduciary Advisory Services Seminar: Issues Facing Corporate Fiduciaries: Going Boldly (Blindly) into a Brave New World, Chicago, Illinois, October 2010
  • "Recent Developments Including LP and LLC Valuation Cases, State Tax Decoupling, and Asset Protection," First Midwest Trust Continuing Legal Education Seminars, Moline, Illinois, Joliet, Illinois, and Highland, Indiana, November 2009

Professional Affiliations
  • American Bar Association, Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law and Taxation
  • Chicago Estate Planning Council
  • McGuireWoods Council, 2003-2004
  • Chicago Leading Lawyers Network
  • Chicago Bar Association
    • Chairman, Tax Law Committee, 1994
    • Trust Law Committee
  • Chicago Center for Disability and Elder Law (pro bono)
 

EDUCATION

DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, LL.M. Taxation, with High Distinction

The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois, J.D.

Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, B.S. Accounting

 
 

ADMITTED

Illinois

U.S. Tax Court

Illinois Supreme Court

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois