Sandra K. Newman
Sandra develops strategic wealth transfer techniques, including grantor retained annuity trusts, sales to defective grantor trusts, family limited partnerships, dynasty trusts, and directed trusts. She structures and administers family offices, with a focus on privacy, risk management, investment structures, multi-generational planning and succession, trust and entity planning, and tax optimization strategies. She also drafts specialized trust structures, including private trust companies, privacy trusts, and blind trusts. She has helped clients form private foundations, charitable trusts, pledge and gift agreements, and naming gifts, and she has created specialized charitable vehicles and hybrid nonprofits in partnership with for-profit enterprises.
Sandra frequently represents art collectors with lending agreements, auction and private sales, philanthropic planning, and family gifts. She also advises individuals with entertainment and intellectual property portfolios, including estate and tax planning for royalty interests, license agreements, copyright, trademark, and rights of publicity.
Sandra is experienced in counseling trustees in the administration of complex trusts and estates. She has handled trust modifications through court-approved reformations, nonjudicial settlement agreements, and trust decantings. She has also advised clients on planning for special-purpose assets, such as vacation homes, aircraft, yachts, and fine art collections.
Related Practices
Experience
Representative Clients
- Managed the sale of an iconic Seattle collection at auction
- Oversaw the charitable tax planning and sale of a historic San Francisco collection at auction
Insights
Credentials
Education
- J.D. cum laude Syracuse University College of Law
- B.A. cum laude Truman State University
Bar Admissions
- Illinois
Professional Memberships and Activities
- Chicago Estate Planning Council
- Participant, Northwestern University’s Kellogg Strategic Leadership Program
Recognition
- Chambers High Net Worth, Private Wealth Law, Illinois, 2019–2024
- The Best Lawyers in America, Trusts and Estates, 2018–2024
- Worth, Top 100 Estate Planning Attorneys in the United States
- Leading Lawyers Network, Illinois