Jane is a Senior Vice President and Director of Tax Planning for The Northern Trust Institute. She is responsible for developing Northern Trust’s perspective and insights on tax issues, including individual and entity income taxation, employee benefits and executive compensation, estate, GST and gift taxation, and fiduciary income taxation. She publishes Northern Trust’s weekly newsletter, Tax News You Can Use.

Prior to her current role, Jane spent 15 years in the Legal Department at Northern Trust as Senior Legal Counsel and Assistant General Counsel, where she advised the National Trust and Advisory Practice on legal issues related to Northern Trust’s role as trustee, executor and guardian. This provided Jane with unique insights into estate and tax planning techniques favored by our clients.  

Prior to joining Northern Trust, Jane spent a combined 17 years in the private practice of law with Foley & Larder and then Sidley LLP in Chicago, where her practice was limited to trusts, estates, and related areas of taxation As part of her practice, she oversaw the preparation and filing of tax returns, provided covered tax advice, handled tax audits and filed numerous requests for private letter rulings with the IRS.

Jane received her Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University in 1988 and her J.D. degree magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1991, where she was elected to Order of the Coif and served as Executive Editor of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.  She was admitted to the bar in Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1991.

Jane is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. With ACTEC, Jane has participated in the preparation of comments to the U.S. Treasury Department on tax statutes and proposed regulations, as well as drafting influential briefs amicus curiae to the United States Supreme Court on tax issues.  She has served as an advisor to various committees of the Uniform Law Commission and participated in the drafting of model state statutes on trust and estate topics. She has also drafted legislation for the State of Illinois as part of the Trust Code Task Force of the Chicago Bar Association. She is a frequent author and lecturer on a wide range of trust, estate and tax topics for national audiences of trust and estate professionals.