Foley & Lardner LLP announced today that Joe Maier has joined the firm’s Estates & Trust practice as of counsel in the Madison office.
With more than 20 years of experience, Maier’s practice focuses on estate planning, succession planning, deferred compensation design, executive compensation planning, income tax planning and mergers and acquisitions (M&As). He also has experience handling wealth transfers, including multigenerational dynasty planning and grantor-trust sales, as well as structuring new businesses and designing exit strategies. Maier represents clients ranging from business owners, investors and developers to families with multimillion-dollar business valuations and real estate portfolios.
“Joe’s extensive experience as both internal and external counsel make him a valuable resource for our practice,” said Dan Hess, chair of Foley’s Estate & Trusts practice. “His skill set adds significant depth to our bench of estate planning attorneys. Joe will be instrumental as we continuously strive to provide top counsel for our clients.”
In addition to his estate planning experience, Maier’s income tax experience includes the creation, operation and liquidation of numerous business entities. He also handles tax structuring for M&As, tax-free business reorganizations, post-death administration and complex probate matters. Maier also oversees internal sales such as intra-family wealth transfers and sales to insiders (including employee stock ownership plans).
“As we continue to build our Estate Planning practice in Madison, across Wisconsin and nationally, Joe’s experience is a natural complement to our team,” said Paul Wrycha, managing partner of Foley’s Madison office. “His ties to the Madison community and Wisconsin as a whole are exactly what we’re looking for in a Foley attorney. We’re looking forward to building our presence in the marketplace with Joe on our team.”
Maier is an in-demand speaker who presents monthly on a variety of topics related to the estate planning field. He is a member of the Taxation and Property and Probate sections of the Wisconsin State Bar and co-president of the Society of Financial Services Professionals. He also serves on the board of directors for Centro Legal, and is on Make A Difference Wisconsin’s membership committee. Maier received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison.
Prior to joining Foley, Meier was a shareholder at O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing. He has also previously served as director of advanced planning and assistant general counsel at Northwestern Mutual.