August 10, 2010
Sarah Kerr Severson has joined Schiff Hardin LLP as a Partner in the Private Clients, Trusts and Estates group from McDermott Will & Emery, where she was a partner in the Private Client practice.
Sarah Kerr Severson
Ms. Severson has significant experience in estate, trust and guardianship litigation and administration, business succession planning, special needs planning, wealth transfer planning, and charitable foundation and exempt organization litigation and administration. Her clients include family groups and individuals, business entities and corporate fiduciaries.
She works with clients to develop comprehensive estate plans, business succession plans and charitable planning techniques. Ms. Severson develops plans which maximize and protect wealth while minimizing transfer taxes, and which implement her clients' familial, philanthropic and other non-tax objectives.
Ms. Severson is a frequent lecturer on a wide range of estate planning topics. Her audiences include the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE), employer-sponsored seminars, corporate clients, professional advisory groups and Young Investors Networks.
She is president of the Mark Morton Memorial Fund, a charitable corporation that makes grants to local Illinois charities, and also a member of the advisory board for Strategic Philanthropy, Ltd.
Ms. Severson graduated from Northwestern University School of Law (J.D., 1998) and the University of Iowa (B.A., 1995), where she served as president of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha of Iowa chapter.