Barbara R Grayson

Practice Areas

Barbara Grayson is a partner and Midwest Chair of Willkie’s Private Clients Group. She represents high-net-worth individuals and families, family owned businesses, family offices and charitable organizations on a wide range of legal issues related to family owned businesses, private equity investments, proprietary funds, family offices, private trust companies, charitable organizations, multigenerational wealth, governance and succession issues, and fiduciary responsibilities. She has extensive estate planning experience, including structuring solutions for transferring wealth to younger generations and succession planning for complex family situations.

Barbara’s tax planning experience is focused on gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. She works with clients to design and implement estate plans, including wills, trusts and lifetime gifts. She also structures partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations, shareholder agreements and buy-sell agreements. She counsels clients regarding sophisticated planning for family businesses, including corporate recapitalizations, corporate governance, intrafamily sales and family partnerships.

A sizeable portion of Barbara’s practice focuses on philanthropic matters, including the representation and advising of tax-exempt organizations and the representation of individuals with respect to charitable giving.

Barbara received a J.D. from Harvard Law School and she received her B.A. from the University of Missouri.