Ms. Tam develops strategies for high net worth individuals and families with interests in closely held or publicly traded businesses to minimize gift and estate taxes, including creating, restructuring, dissolving, acquiring and selling corporate entities. She tailors complex estate planning instruments, including wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, generation-skipping trusts and other estate planning vehicles to fit the specific needs of each client. She works with her clients to achieve their charitable objectives through the creation of private foundations, charitable remainder trusts and other charitable giving mechanisms.

Prior to joining Carr McClellan, Ms. Tam was a member of the Private Clients, Trusts and Estates practice at the Chicago, Illinois office of Sidley Austin LLP. Ms. Tam has also worked as a pro bono attorney for the National Immigrant Justice Center representing non-citizens in removal proceedings by writing briefs advocating for grant of asylum, designing litigation strategy, preparing clients for questioning and representing them in immigration court.

Recent Experience Includes

• Advise fiduciaries in estate and trust administration issues.
• Draft trust to control assets worth over $1.5 billion.
• Implement transfer of business interests in excess of $250 million to tax-favored structures.
• Draft settlement agreements to resolve complex trust construction issues and settle the rights of various parties.
• Prepare release and indemnification agreements to protect fiduciaries from future litigation.
• Draft operating, transfer and joinder agreements relating to limited liability corporations.

Academic Credentials

• J.D., Yale Law School
• A.B., magna cum laude, Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs)

Professional Affiliations

• State Bar of California
• State Bar of Illinois

Honors and Awards

• Haarlow Prize in Humanistic Studies
• Society of Fellows in the Humanities
• Woodrow Wilson Fellow