Illinois Business and Estate Planning Attorneys

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The Gierach Law Firm is based in Naperville and provides services in Chicago and northern Illinois. It has helped hundreds of clients with their business and personal legal matters, from business formation and tax planning to commercial real estate to business succession planning and estate planning.

We are a boutique law firm with a highly specialized practice geared toward businesses and business people. We receive many referrals from past and present clients, as well as other lawyers because of our experience, knowledge, and personal service.

We have been assisting clients for over 30 years. Attorney Denice A. Gierach earned her J.D. at the IIT Chicago Kent College of Law and has practiced before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, as well as in Illinois state court. Many of you may know her from her monthly newspaper column in the Naperville Sun or Aurora Beacon discussing aspects of business, tax, and estate planning law.

An experienced negotiator and business litigator, Ms. Gierach is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has a Master’s Degree in Management from Illinois prestigious Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Our business clients appreciate the fact that Ms. Gierach understands accounting principles, financial statements, and tax implications, and she knows how to present these issues to a judge or jury in the event of a dispute. It was in this appreciation that the Business Ledger, a newspaper dedicated to the Chicago area, named Denice Gierach one of the "Influential Women in Business" for 2008.

In addition, many clients rely upon Ms. Gierach's experience and knowledge to counsel them in preventative law, i.e., how to avoid costly litigation. They also appreciate her ability to see the big picture and the clients’ bottom line when advising and representing them in business disputes.

We attribute much of our success to our understanding that we are in a service industry. We take the time to listen to you, understand your business or legal situation, and your concerns. Then we analyze the legal matters and issues and provide you with options, as well as an explanation of the benefits and detriments of each option at a personal and business level.

You also will appreciate our proactive communications regarding any business dispute or new laws that may affect you or your business. If you are involved in a business litigation matter, we will keep you informed of any changes to the status of your case or any settlement offers.

In addition, when you retain our firm, you will get the services of our founding partner, Denice Gierach—an attorney with over 30 years of experience, who also has a CPA and a Masters in Management—as opposed to an inexperienced associate. Because in business matters or business litigation, as in life, experience matters.

Year this Office was Established: 2009

Areas of Law

Additional Areas of Law: Probate and Trust Litigation; Ownership, Partnership, and Shareholder Disputes; Breach of Business Contract; Breach of a Commercial Lease Agreements; Breach of Fiduciary Duty; Vendor and Supplier Disputes; Commercial Real Estate Disputes; Property Sales; Commercial Leases; Planned Unit Developments; Plat of Subdivisions; Environment Studies; Environmental Clean Up; Tax Liability; Medicaid Planning.

Areas of Law Description

The Gierach Law Firm assists clients with the following legal matters:

- Business Law

Whether you are in the early stages of starting a business of your own, or you've invested your life in building a successful venture, you have a lot of hopes — and often money — at stake. A successful business is hard work, but getting good legal advice to help you make decisions, minimize risk and protect your finances need not be difficult.

*Business Formation
One of the biggest business decisions you will make when starting a business is the choice of entity. The formation of your business will affect your personal exposure to liability and your personal and business tax consequences. Tax planning is a major factor in entity selection. In most instances, a business formation attorney will work with your accountant to determine the choice of entity that will best meet your needs.

*Business Contracts
Business contracts can have both legal and financial repercussions should the parties involved in the contract have a different understanding of the nature of the contract. To ensure you receive the benefits you intend from your business agreements, retain a business lawyer to negotiate, draft, or review your business contract before you sign on the dotted line.

*Business Litigation
Business disputes are costly, both in terms of the money involved in the dispute and in terms of the time they take away from day-to-day business. An early resolution is always preferable to taking a case to court, but when a fair and reasonable solution cannot be found, then court may be inevitable. If your business is facing a business contract dispute or other legal dispute, the Gierach Law Firm can help. We keep our eyes on the big picture while advising our clients on the most effective strategy to obtain a successful result.

*Partnership or Shareholder Disputes
No one enters a business partnership expecting it to fail, but unfortunately a large percentage of businesses do run into problems, whether because of the business climate or from disputes among the owners. If you and your business partners or co-owners have run into a serious dispute that threatens the future of your business, legal help is essential. At The Gierach Law Firm, our business attorneys can work with you to identify the scope of the problem, the possible options for resolution, and methods to arrive at a solution — whether it be through arbitration, mediation or business litigation.

- Employment Law

A skilled employment attorney can help business clients develop and maintain proper business practices and minimize the risk of employment disputes and litigation. We draft personnel policies and hanoks, employment contracts and non-compete agreements, and advise employers on severance practices.

Deferred compensation plans and stock options are often used to lure high-performing employees into the fold. We help employers draft employment agreements and deferred compensation plans that clearly define the performance measures required of the incoming employee.

- Estate Planning

The estate planning lawyers at The Gierach Law Firm can help you reach your estate planning, tax planning and charitable giving goals. We offer a variety of estate planning packages that include wills, trusts, living wills and powers of attorney. We work with families who own family businesses to help them with family business succession planning. We also help families consider the financial consequences of long-term care begin planning for Medicaid eligibility.

*Business Succession Planning
You've worked hard to build your business. You've invested your life in developing products, relationships, and the financial rewards that a successful business brings. Now you are thinking ahead to new opportunities, whether that be retirement or a new business venture. Consider working with an experienced business attorney who can walk you through an orderly process of business succession planning. At the Gierach Law Firm, we work with Chicago area business-owning families as they consider their options for transferring ownership and assets of a business.

*Probate & Estate Administration
Have you been named the executor of an estate? Are you responsible for estate administration? Ms. Gierach can assist you in probating an estate through Illinois probate court.

*Tax Planning
Tax planning is a major concern for every business. Improper planning could result in several negative consequences, including an extremely high tax bill and an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit. In addition to the federal income tax, there are a number of other tax issues that a business must consider. There may be state tax, local tax, sales tax, payroll tax, employment tax, capital gains tax, estate tax and gift tax obligations for which the business must plan. A comprehensive tax plan can help ensure that your business complies with all the applicable tax regulations. A tax attorney can assist your business with creating a complete tax plan.

*Charitable Giving
Once an individual or family has accumulated a degree of wealth, it's not uncommon to begin thinking of how this wealth can be shared with children, with other family members, and even with the community at large. Planned giving is often part of a comprehensive estate planning process, but charitable giving and gifting strategies can also be addressed as part of an annual tax planning process.

*Eminent Domain
If your land is the subject of a government taking, you want to make certain you are receiving fair compensation for your property. At the Gierach Law Firm, we know how to ensure you receive top dollar for your property. You are entitled to the value of your land for its highest and best use. That means if you own a farm and it is zoned for commercial use, you are entitled to the higher value of the land as commercial land, rather than the lower value of the land as farm land. We have a network of appraisers and realtors to assist us in determining the highest and best use of your land and assessing a value range for your property. We then aggressively protect your interests and pursue the best possible price from the government entity. If we are unable to attain a fair price, we will pursue your claim in the courts.

*Trusts
There are as many different types of trusts are there are goals people are seeking to achieve through the use of a trust. The primary differences between these many types of trusts: the tax consequences for the donor and the degree of control the donor has over the assets held in trust.

More Information on The Gierach Law Firm

Business Law Firm in Oak Brook, Illinois
Oak Brook, IL Estate Planning Attorneys
Eminent Domain Lawyers, Oak Brook, IL
Oak Brook, Illinois Probate Law Firm
Estate Tax Planning Attorney, Oak Brook, IL
Oak Brook, Illinois Medicaid Planning Lawyers
Business Litigation Attorney in Oak Brook, IL
The Gierach Law Firm Blog
The Gierach Law Firm News and Publications

Office Locations

• USA - Illinois, Naperville - Main Office