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About Patrick

Tax-savvy preservation of self-created and intergenerational wealth

Patrick Bitterman concentrates in the areas of estate planning, taxation and tax-exempt organizations. Helping individuals, families, public charities and private foundations, Patrick advises on:

  • Estate planning and administration, including wills, trusts and powers of attorney for property and health care
  • Trust creation and administration, including revocable and irrevocable trusts, GRATs, SLATs, IDGTs, irrevocable life insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts and charitable trusts
  • Taxation and tax planning, including advice on estate, gift, generation-skipping-transfer, income and not-for-profit taxation
  • Planned giving, advising public charities, foundations and individuals on gift agreements, modification of endowed gifts through non-judicial settlement agreements and court-ordered reformations
  • Business succession planning, preparing for the tax-advantageous transition of family-owned businesses from generation to generation through family limited liability companies, installment sales and other vehicles
  • Litigation, representing charities and fiduciaries in resolving trust and estate disputes

Patrick works to understand what matters most to a client and to devise plans and strategies accordingly. His approach aligns wealth preservation and charitable giving goals to maximize results for individuals, families and their businesses, as well as the tax-exempt organizations benefitting from planned giving.

Experience in Action

  • Advising affluent families on inter-generational transfers of wealth, transferring corporate interests and other forms of wealth from one generation to another.
  • Creating investment and savings vehicles to maximize an individual’s wealth preservation under the federal gift and estate tax laws.
  • Handling resolution of trust and estate disputes, representing public charities and fiduciaries in disputes concerning beneficial interests in estates and trusts.
  • Advising public charities and private foundations on internal and external policies related to planned giving.

Professional Recognitions

  • Law Bulletin Media "Illinois Leading Lawyer" (2017-present: Trust, Will & Estate Planning Law)
  • Illinois Super Lawyers® (2005: Estate Planning / Trusts)
  • Martindale-Hubbell AV® Peer Review Rated
  • Leading Lawyers Network member

Professional & Civic Activities

  • American Bar Association, member, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law section
  • Illinois State Bar Association, member, Trusts and Estates section
  • Chicago Bar Association, member, Tax committee
  • Lyric Opera of Chicago Guild Board of Directors, sustaining member, former president
  • WTTW/WFMT Planned Giving, advisory committee
  • Lyric Opera of Chicago Planned Giving, advisory committee
  • The John Crerar Foundation, board of directors

Selected Presentations/Publications

  • Speaker, "The Ins and Outs of In-Kind Gifts," ALI-CLE Conference on Legal Issues in Museum Administration, April 11, 2013
  • Author, "Identify Priorities When Planning for Business Succession," Retail Register of Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Number 214, April 2002
  • Speaker, "Effects of the New Tax Law on Insurance Trusts, Generation-Skipping Planning and Charitable Giving," Illinois State Bar Association Trusts & Estates Section Law Ed. series, Fall 2001
  • Author, "Right to Die and the Use of Agents to Make Health Care Decisions in Illinois," 91 ISBA Trusts and Estates 12, September 1994; reprinted in 21 ISBA Constitutional Law & Liberty, February 1995
  • Co-author, "Using Trusts as Part of Multiparty Transactions," 21 Estate Planning Magazine, 104, March/April 1994

News & Insights

Education

Bar Admissions

Court Admissions

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