McGuireWoods Launches Global Private Client Practice led by Matthew McKim and Matthew Sperry

McGuireWoods has created a multidisciplinary team of accomplished U.S. lawyers specializing in serving high-net-worth, non-U.S. clients and their financial advisers, adding a new dimension to the firm’s formidable private wealth services, corporate and transactional tax capabilities. The Global Private Client Practice advises families, family offices and trust companies on tax, business and other legal issues as they interact with the United States.

The new practice brings together a team of elite lawyers in the United States and U.K. with rare skills to advise international entrepreneurs, families managing billions of dollars of wealth, and some of the world’s most well-known and respected trust companies and private banks. 

The Global Private Client Practice provides a range of integrated services to clients, including facilitating cross-border real estate acquisitions, developing tax-efficient global structures, executing direct investment strategies, helping families manage obligations under tax reporting and information exchange regimes worldwide (such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the Common Reporting Standard), and planning for transfers of family wealth to future generations. The practice closely monitors significant tax and trade policy changes relevant to its clients and their global ownership structures, including those that President Donald Trump’s administration may pursue. The group’s close ties to McGuireWoods Consulting’s federal government relations practice keeps clients ahead of tax policy developments in Washington.

McGuireWoods’ Global Private Client Practice features some of the world’s best direct investing lawyers, who work closely with the firm’s private wealth services and transactional tax teams. Their experience spans the globe and includes family acquisitions and dispositions in all industries, including real estate, hospitality, oil and gas, life sciences, technology, food and beverage and manufacturing.

The team is led by co-chairs Matthew McKim (left) and Matthew Sperry (right), who have built a global practice providing a broad range of legal services to high-net-worth individuals, private investment funds, and financial institutions. McKim advises global families, foreign and domestic trusts, corporations and partnerships in navigating U.S. laws and structuring tax-efficient business and personal wealth transactions, as well as planning for the transfer of wealth among multi-jurisdictional and multi-generational families. Sperry handles global tax, corporate and securities matters for wealthy clients and the financial services firms that serve them. He has extensive experience developing U.S.-based family offices and advising clients on the legal and business challenges associated with cross-border transactions and direct investing strategies.

“Our team has experience with most client structures and focuses on providing cost-effective and results-oriented solutions,” McKim said. “We pride ourselves on understanding our clients’ needs and providing legal answers that help them achieve their business goals.”

“This unique practice demonstrates to the market what our clients already know — that members of the McGuireWoods Global Private Client Practice have deep experience serving private clients and work collaboratively with trustees, accountants and other trusted family advisers to deliver integrated, exceptional service,” Sperry added.