Chicago Office
300 N. LaSalle Street Suite 4000
Chicago,
Illinois
60654
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Professional Experience
Janice Rodgers concentrates her practice on representing and advising not-for-profit organizations, including private and public foundations, charitable and educational institutions, and other tax-exempt entities. She also has experience in advising both individuals and institutions on charitable giving, including charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, direct gifts and tax planning for long-term charitable gift programs. She is a frequent speaker on topics such as permissible lobbying and political activity of tax-exempt organizations; private foundation rules; not-for-profit organization investment standards and procedures; ethical, legal and governance principles and best practices for not-for-profits; and director and officer responsibilities, liabilities and insurance. Ms. Rodgers’ recent experience includes:
- Advising private foundations (corporate, family and independent) concerning grants, including to international organizations, coalitions, non-501(c)(3) organizations and for-profit entities and for scholarships, and appropriate due diligence, documentation and record-keeping.
- Advising private foundations concerning program-related investments, including loans and guarantees for environmental conservation and other purposes and direct investments in for-profit entities for environmental and economic development purposes.
- Advising organizations concerning compliance with tax laws, including private foundation rules on self-dealing, minimum distribution requirements, excess business holdings, jeopardizing investments, lobbying, political activity, grants to individuals and expenditure responsibility; intermediate sanctions for excess benefit transactions; and unrelated business taxable income, and maintaining tax-exempt, public charity or private operating foundation status.
- Advising organizations regarding the attributes of different organizational structures, including trust or corporation, and tax status, including private foundation, public charity, private operating foundation, church or school, and analysis of the appropriateness for a particular organization.
- Advising donors on alternative structures and vehicles for their charitable giving, including private foundations, donor-advised funds, supporting organizations and charitable lead or charitable remainder trusts.
- Advising institutions regarding receipt and negotiation of, and agreements regarding, various forms of charitable donations, including real estate, stock, artwork and gifts through estates, trusts, charitable gift annuities, retirement plans and life insurance.
- Creating new organizations and securing federal income and state and local sales and property tax exemptions for them.
- Restructuring not-for-profit organizations, ranging from amendments to articles of incorporation and bylaws, to mergers, liquidations or conversion from trust to corporate form, to changing tax status.
- Advising hospitals, colleges and other institutions regarding governance issues, including compensation and audit committee structures and functions, satisfaction of board member fiduciary duties, conflict of interest issues and policies, and endowment policies and procedures.
- Advising organizations concerning investment policies and procedures and reviewing management contracts and investment partnerships and other structures.
- Preparing and reviewing tax returns (including Forms 990, 990-PF and 990-T) and other governmental filings.
- Representing organizations in seeking rulings from, negotiating tax liability with, and audits by, the IRS.
- Coordinating the services of other attorneys (both inside and outside Quarles & Brady) to not-for-profit clients.
Education and Honors
- Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1976)
- University of Illinois (B.S., with highest honors, 1973)
Bar Admissions
Florida (inactive),
1978
Illinois,
1976
Court Admissions
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 1976
Professional Recognition
- Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® (2007-present: Non-Profit/Charities Law).
- Named one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Illinois by Super Lawyers® (2007-2009 & 2012).
- Selected for inclusion in the 2006-2012 Illinois Super Lawyers® lists (Non-Profit).
- Martindale-Hubbell AV® Peer Review Rated.
- Chicago Foundation for Women '2010 Impact Award'.
- Donors Forum of Chicago Mel Tracht Outstanding Volunteer Award (2003).
Professional and Civic Activities
- American Bar Association (Member, Taxation Section, Exempt Organizations Committee).
- Chicago Bar Association (Member, Federal Tax Committee; Former Chair, Exempt Organizations Division).
- The Florida Bar (Member).
- Leading Lawyers Network (Member).
- Council on Foundations Philanthropic Advisors Network (Member).
- Chicago Women in Philanthropy (Member).
- Women & Philanthropy (Member).
- Chicago Finance Exchange (Member).
- Loyola University of Chicago School of Law (Lecturer, 1981-1983).
- Quarles & Brady Tax-Exempt Organizations Group (Chair).
- Certified Public Accountant, 1973.
- Chicago Community Trust (Professional Advisory Committee).
- Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law (Board of Directors).
- Donors Forum of Chicago (Public Policy Committee).
- Chicago Foundation for Women (Financial Oversight Committee).
- Illinois Attorney General’s Charitable Advisory Council (Executive Committee).
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Planned Giving Advisory Council).
- WTTW 11/98.7 WFMT (Planned Giving Advisory Council).
- Alumnae Council of the Chicago Foundation for Women (Member & Former Chair).
- The John Crerar Foundation (Board of Directors).
- Donors Forum of Chicago (Former Director and Officer).
- Chicago Foundation for Women (Former Director and Officer).
- Chicago Women in Philanthropy (Former Director and Officer).
- Women’s Issues Network and Women’s Issues Network Foundation (Former Director and Officer).
- Chicago Contributions Discussion Group (Former Co-chair).
Selected Presentations/Publications
Publications:
- Profiled, “Top Women Lawyers in Illinois,” Leading Lawyers Magazine, November 2010.
- Contributing author and editor, Quarles & Brady Tax-Exempt Organizations Updates, 1999-present, Wilson & McIlvaine Focus on Foundations, 1992-1998.
- Co-author, “The Bar Association/Bar Foundation Relationship: Mars, Venus, and the IRS,” Bar Leader, July-August and September-October 2005.
- Co-author, “Advocacy Activities of Charitable Organizations,” The National Conference of Bar Foundations, Foundation Forum, Fall 1992.
Presentations:
- Faculty/Advisory Committee Member (current Co-chair), Chicago-Kent College of Law Annual Conferences on Not-for-Profit Organizations, 1984-Present.
- Workshop Leader, Council on Foundations Family Foundation Conference, February 1999; Topic: Legal Responsibilities of Directors and Trustees.
- Workshop Leader, Grantmakers in the Arts Pre-Conference, November 1998. Topic: What a Foundation Needs to Know if Awarding Funds to Individuals.
- Speaker, American Law Institute - American Bar Association program, “Legal Problems of Museum Administration,” March 1998. Topic: Intermediate Sanctions, Transactions with Trustees, and Excess Benefits.
- Speaker, Environmental Law and Policy Center and Alliance for Justice programs, January 1998; Topic: Being a Player: Learning the Lobbying Rules for Nonprofits.
- Speaker, League of Women Voters of Illinois. “1997 Illinois Government 201: A Community Leadership and Action Seminar,” September 1997; Topic: Legitimate Lobbying: What a 501(c)(3) Needs to Know.
- Speaker, Donors Forum of Chicago Corporate Committee, July 1997; Topic: Self-Dealing Issues.
- Speaker, American National Bank program, Corporate Governance Issues for Not-for-Profit Organizations, April 1997.
- Faculty Member, Donors Forum of Chicago Summer School for Professional Development and Institute for New Staff and Trustees, 1989-1993, 1996.
- Panelist, Chicago Chapter National Society of Fund Raising Executives and Donors Forum of Chicago program, “Beyond Business as Usual: Corporations, Foundations and the Non-Profit Community,” December 1991.
- Panelist, CPAs for the Public Interest Charitable Organization Tax and Reporting Training for Accountants, June 1989.
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