Sarah Johnson concentrates on estate planning and administration, business succession planning and charitable giving while minimizing estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. She is experienced in planning for the distribution of estates ranging in value from modest to those exceeding $100 million, and also drafts and negotiates premarital agreements.

Ms. Johnson was a senior financial analyst in the Valuation Services Group of Arthur Andersen LLP in Atlanta prior to attaining her law degree, and in that capacity gained considerable knowledge in valuing assets and using discounts in estate planning. Ms. Johnson also clerked for American Cancer Society's Office of Corporation Counsel, where she became familiar with the tax laws applicable to charitable organizations.

Significant Matters

Ms. Johnson's recent experience includes:

• overseeing the execution of complex estate plans involving family limited liability companies, gifts and sales of discounted membership interests to grantor trusts;
• the formation of private foundations, charitable trusts and life insurance trusts;
• sales of remainder interests of grantor retained annuity trusts and qualified personal resident trusts;
• obtaining favorable IRS rulings on (i) conversion of a foreign grantor trust to a U.S. non-grantor trust, (ii) penalty abatement and (iii) late allocations of generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions to trusts; and
• transferring control of family-owned businesses to successive generations.

Activities

Ms. Johnson was recently appointed to the American Bar Association Task Force on Tax Reform and has been recognized as a Nolan Fellow of the American Bar Association Taxation Section for leadership in the Tax bar as a young lawyer. She is past Chair (2008-2009) and Vice Chair (2005-2008) of the Estate Planning Committee of the D.C. Bar Taxation Section and a frequent speaker at Tax Section events at both the national and local level.