|
Andrea S. Kramer is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, based in its Chicago office. She is a member of the Firm's Tax Department; head of its Financial Products, Trading and Derivatives Group; and co?chairs its Energy Services Group. Andie is active in Firm management, serving as chair of the Firm's Gender Diversity Committee, and as a member of its Management Committee. She served on the Firm's Compensation Committee from 2004 to 2007.
Andie was named as one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal (2007). Readers were asked to nominate women attorneys who have had a national impact in their fields and elsewhere during the last five years. Candidates needed to have "the demonstrated power to change the legal landscape, shape public affairs, launch industries and do big things." Andie was recognized in the 2008 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Andie was featured in the June 2007 issue of Lawdragon magazine in the "Top 500 Leading Dealmakers" ranking and the September 2007 issue of Lawdragon magazine in the "500 Leading Lawyers in America" ranking. Lawdragon relies on a combination of online balloting and independent research. She has received the highest rating of "AV" for legal ability and ethics from the independent Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating system (2006, 2007). Andie was rated, due to a high degree of peer recognition, as one of the Top 50 Female Lawyers (2005) and a Super Lawyer in tax in the Illinois Super Lawyers by Law & Politics listing (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008). She was also selected as a Leading Corporate Lawyer in the Leading Lawyers Network Corporate Lawyers listing in Crain's Chicago Business (2005, 2006) and as one of the Top 100 Leading Women Lawyers in Illinois in the Leading Lawyers Network Magazine (2007). Andie is also listed in Who's Who in American Law (2005, 2006, 2007), Cambridge Who's Who (2008), and is a life member of the National Registry of Who's Who (2000 edition).
Andie focuses her practice on the design, taxation, regulation and documentation of derivative financial products. Her client responsibilities include tax and regulatory counseling and defense, legislative matters, documentation of customized over-the-counter products, trading policies and procedures, and bankruptcy and creditor's rights issues. She advises financial service firms and a wide range of multinational businesses on the design, trading and risk management applications of financial products. Andie also represents insurance companies, energy companies, public utilities, and hedge funds in the full range of their derivatives trading, legal, and tax matters. She devotes a substantial amount of time representing taxpayers in contested tax matters with the IRS.
Andie advises high net worth taxpayers, family offices, and others on equity derivatives transactions, including, short against the box transactions, collars, variable forward contracts, synthetic equity transactions, and swap strategies. Andie is the author of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange White Paper, High Net Worth Individuals: Tax Reference Guide for Futures, Options, and Other Derivatives. She worked with the Chicago Board Options Exchange on the tax sections of its White Paper, High Net Worth Investors & Listed Options: Portfolio Management Strategies for Affluent Investors, Family Offices, and Trust Companies. And, most recently she worked with the Charles Schwab Corporation on its White Paper, Tax Considerations for Equity Investors Using Derivatives.
Andie works with clients active in the credit derivatives market, addressing credit swaps, credit index transactions, credit linked structures, special purpose entities, securitization vehicles, synthetic credit derivatives, and structured credit products.
Since the early 1980s, Andie has worked in the legislative and regulatory areas on the taxation and regulation of derivative products and market participants. She represented The Options Policy Association as it sought to shape legislation to deal with the taxation of exchange-traded options. Most recently, she worked with a coalition of energy trading companies to address the scope of the tax hedging rules as applied to commodity trading and hedging operations. Prior to that, she worked with the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America to conceive and draft legislative language to protect dealers in commodity derivatives from adverse tax consequences. Andie has also worked with the Weather Risk Management Association to prepare various CFTC and Treasury Department comment letters, supporting regulatory changes to advance weather derivatives activities.
Andie has been quoted in The National Law Journal, Global Finance, Fidelity, Chicago Lawyer, Tax Notes Today, and Inc. Magazine. She is a frequent contributor to trade and professional journals, writing on the taxation, regulation, and documentation of financial products. Andie is the author of Financial Products: Taxation, Regulation, and Design (CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, 2006), a three volume, 3,600-page treatise that is kept current with annual supplements. As the leading treatise on financial products law, her book has been cited over 60 times by the courts and tax commentators. She has written close to 120 articles and publications on topics ranging from operational and reputational risk in trading derivatives to insurance coverage versus use of derivatives to energy trading to corporate governance. She was co?editor?in?chief of CCH's quarterly Journal of Taxation of Financial Products for the first six years of its publication (2000 to 2006).
A frequent speaker at conferences and workshops, Andie has presented over 220 speeches and full-day workshops on trading activities, hedging, and derivatives. She has developed and conducts multiple day training courses on the documentation and negotiation of derivative transactions, managing legal and operational risks of trading operations, financial product tax issues, and foreign currency tax issues.
For almost 30 years, Andie has been invited to address the Treasury Department and the IRS on a wide range of financial product issues, including a workshop on asset-backed securities, an interactive five hour teleconference on the taxation of financial products (with 2500 IRS agents and IRS personnel attending throughout the United States), and, most recently, a series of half-day training courses as part of the IRS's internal training program for its Financial Product Specialists, Industry Specialists, and senior employees.
Andie is an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law. Initially, teaching derivatives law (in courses open to both law students and graduate students in the J. L. Kellogg School of Management), she currently teaches "Taxation of Financial Derivatives" in Northwestern's Graduate Tax Program and the documentation of derivatives as part of "Derivatives: Design, Regulation, and Documentation."
Andie has taken a leadership role in many professional organizations. As a member of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA), she has served on the Tax Executive Committee and chaired its Division on Tax Shelters, Real Estate, and Partnerships. She is a member of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), the Energy Bar Association (EBA), the Women's Council on Energy and the Environment (WCEE), the International Bar Association (IBA) Section on Business Law (Committee on Issues and Trading in Securities), and has served as an arbitrator and chair of arbitration panels for the National Futures Association (NFA). She is currently a member of the International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE) and a member of ISDA's Committee on North American Tax. Andie has served on the University of Georgia board of advisors for the Terry College of Business' International Finance Advisory Board; the board of advisors for Illinois Institute of Technology's Stuart School of Business, Financial Markets & Trading Program; and was a founding member of the Financial Innovation Study Committee/Weird Instrument Study Committee (a group of attorneys, accountants, regulators, and economists that studied, on an interdisciplinary basis, financial products and derivatives).
As a thought leader on improving gender diversity in law firms and professional service firms, Andie speaks at national diversity conferences, trade association meetings, and professional service firms on assuring women equal access to advancement and career opportunities and ways for women to take on leadership roles in professional service firms. She played a leading role in the CBA's "Call to Action," designed to increase opportunities for women lawyers, serving on the CBA working group that developed the metrics to evaluate compliance with the Call to Action's goals. Andie is a Lifetime Friend, Chicago Friend, and Chicago Advisory Council member of Boardroom Bound, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering good governance, independence, and diversity in corporate boardrooms. She is a graduate of the Boardology 400© Pipeline Seminar, which prepares independent and diverse candidates for board service. She recently co-founded the Women's Leadership and Mentoring Alliance (WLMA) to bring Chicago women professionals together to network, mentor, and support leadership opportunities in the Chicago business community. In October 2006, Andie received McDermott's Star Mentor Award for her work with women throughout the Firm, initiation of the Firm's Women's Leadership Series, and efforts to enhance the working environment for women.
Andie is extremely active in community and charitable activities. She is a founding board member (1989) and board chair of The Women's Treatment Center (TWTC), a Chicago-based residential and outpatient alcohol and substance abuse treatment facility. In February 1998, Andie received an award from TWTC for her contribution to the lives of TWTC's women and children. In May 2007, TWTC presented Andie with its first "Founders Award" for her involvement in founding TWTC, the acquisition of its facilities, and her more than 16 years of support of TWTC's mission. During her tenure, TWTC has continued to expand its programs and services to erase the treatment barriers faced by pregnant women and women with small children.
Andie is a member of the board of directors of DanceArt, an organization providing dance and communication training to at-risk children in Chicago. She serves on the Executive Planning Committee for the Eamon Shannon Special Education Program, which is affiliated with the Pro Bono Center for Disability and Elder Law and provides pro bono legal services to children with special needs to receive appropriate educational services. In recognition of her outstanding community service, the Cook County Board of Commissioners awarded her the Unsung Heroine Award (March 2004).
As an undergraduate at University of Illinois, Andie was Phi Beta Kappa, a James Scholar, received the Bronze Tablet Award, and graduated summa cum laude and with high distinction in history. While in law school at Northwestern University School of Law, she was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. She is admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of Federal Claims, the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Education:
Northwestern University School of Law, J.D. (cum laude), 1978
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1975 |
