Overview
Carol A. Harrington advises clients on a variety of matters, including estate, gift and generation-skipping tax issues, closely held businesses and succession planning, family office structures and issues, private trust companies, private foundations, trust and estate administration, and contested trust and tax matters. Carol is the former global head of McDermott’s Private Client Practice.
As a national authority on the federal generation-skipping tax, Carol has advised attorneys, tax professionals, executors, trustees and other nationwide on this issue. She is co-author of a tax treatise, Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax (Harrington, Kwon & Zaritsky), the author of the BNA Tax Management Portfolio, Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax, and has published many articles on the federal generation-skipping tax. Carol speaks frequently before professional and industry groups on tax, estate planning and succession issues.
Recognitions
- The National Law Journal, named one of the three most influential lawyers for Trusts & Estates 2011
- Best Lawyers in America, 1995–2025, Chicago Trusts & Estates Lawyer of the Year for 2010 and 2015
- Chambers High Net Worth, Band 1 in Illinois: Private Wealth Law and USA Nationwide: Private Wealth Law, Central Region, 2016–2024
- Chambers USA, 2006–2015, Band 1 in Wealth Management
- Expert Guides, Women in Business Law, 2020
- Chicago Estate Planning Council 2001 Distinguished Service Award
- Illinois Super Lawyer, Estate Planning & Probate
Community
- American Bar Association, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Generation-Skipping Tax: Regulations and Legislation Committee (past chair and former member of governing body)
- Illinois State Bar Association
- Chicago Bar Association, former chair of Division I of the Trust Law Committee
- Chicago Estate Planning Council
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, fellow and member of Estate and Gift Tax Committee, and member of Board of Regents (1999 to 2005); former Foundation trustee
- Heckerling (Miami) Institute of Estate Planning, Advisory Committee
Credentials
Education
University of Illinois College of Law, JD, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1977
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, BS, summa cum laude with University Honors (Bronze Table), 1974
Admissions
Illinois
