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Overview
Richard A. Sugar organizes the legal affairs of his clients to minimize risks, maximize returns, and preserve wealth. With the benefit of more than 40 years of experience, Richard approaches every client engagement providing highly personal service while thoroughly searching for fresh, innovative ideas to solve his clients’ most pressing problems quickly.
Richard advises clients in many industries, including professional practices, health care, financial services, technology, manufacturing and wholesale businesses, real estate, professional sports, and non-profit organizations.
Richard’s forte is in counseling clients to preserve wealth and afford security to the current generation while planning to pass that wealth to future generations in ways that maximize benefits, minimize costs, and avoid corrupting future generations. Richard has been privileged to advise a number of client families over a span of three generations.
During his career Richard has provided leadership and mentoring to countless young lawyers, motivating them to higher degrees of proficiency and success.
Education
- J.D., University of Chicago
- B.S., Indiana University, with distinction, in Business Economics and Public Policy
Admissions
- State Bar of Illinois
- United States Supreme Court
- United States Tax Court
Significant Engagements & Transactions
- Represented a father and helped him to organize a family enterprise. Because of careful estate, tax, and business planning, the enterprise successfully transitioned to two sons, after the death of the father, with no disputes involving other family members, no business disruption, and little tax cost. The engagement continued as the enterprise grew to many times its original size, ultimately being sold to a public company in a heavily negotiated transaction for a great deal of money, and the sons retained key positions with the acquirer.
- Assisted a first generation family-owned industrial parts distribution company in passing the business successfully to second generation family members, with sound financial and tax consequences and no intra-family controversy.
- Represented a singularly renowned professional practice that grew from a single professional to a multi-member professional group, creating an equity and compensation structure that balanced interests of founders and newcomers, and furthered the progress of the practice after the founders began to retire.
- Assisted an entrepreneur in creating an IT company, assisted the entrepreneur in obtaining funding, and negotiated a long term license, support, and development relationship with a public company which is dominant in its industry.
- Helped an out of state food manufacturer to enter the local regional market, establishing and owning local production facilities.
- Represented developers and managers of real estate, including shopping centers. Doing so included obtaining financing for the projects, title clearance for the projects, and structuring of ownership for maximum tax advantage.
- Strategically managed the prosecution of enforcement of restrictive covenants against employees who terminated employment with their employer and then violated their employment agreements by diverting customers and business.
- Negotiated high level, key executive employment contracts for employees in connection with their employment by public institutions and major public companies, paying attention to such issues as incentive compensation, options, deferred compensation, fringe benefits, and restraints on post-employment behavior.
- Strategically managed Federal court action against the U.S. Government for breach of a supplier contract. The strategy not only was successful in favor of the supplier, but the supplier recovered attorneys’ fees from the Government, for the Government’s unreasonable defense of the supplier’s action.
- Prepared an estate tax return for a wealthy decedent client with a large array of assets, and then defended the tax return at IRS audit. The audit was unagreed and ended up in tax court, where a favorable result for the taxpayer and the taxpayer’s family, over the issues of valuations and tax deductions, was obtained through a negotiated settlement.
Publications, Recognitions and Speaking Engagements
- Richard Sugar publishes “PPP Loan Forgiveness Rulebook Outline – First Edition” to help business owners get a jump-start on planning for PPP loan forgiveness
- Richard Sugar authors “A STAY-AT-HOME MAP FOR TRACING THE CORONOVIRUS EMPLOYMENT COSTS AND TAX BENEFITS “FAMILIES FIRST CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE ACT””
- Richard Sugar authors article entitled “When Is a Person or Trust an Illinois Resident?”
- Richard Sugar authors article entitled “Fixing Financial Planning Oversights – Get Ready for 2020”
- Richard Sugar publishes article in Financial Poise entitled “Will an Unapologetic Tax Hike Affect Your 401(k) or IRA Beneficiaries?”
- Henry Krasnow, Richard Sugar and David Madden author article entitled “The New Reality of Federal Litigation” on the Financial Poise website.progress.
- SFGH Client Alert: The New Reality of Federal Litigation and Changes to Longstanding Discovery Rules
- SFGH Attorneys Named 2016 Illinois Super Lawyers
- Holiday Greetings and some helpful 2015 year end reminders
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “What’s the right verdict for Beanie Babies billionaire?”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled ” Who is the villain, who is the hero in the AIG case?”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “Are you ready for some taxes?”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “Young LFHS entrepreneurs are poised for success”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “Why are taxes so complicated, anyway?”
- Richard Sugar published in 2015 ISBA newsletter on Trusts and Estates
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “One last time Ernie Banks swung and missed”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “Watch out: Ponzi scheme on steroids”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “Know how companies protect us from cyberattacks”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “The two faces of bitcoin”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “A veteran takes on the IRS: Why tax cases are not boring”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “A dog, a human life and the law”
- Richard A. Sugar featured in Leading Lawyers Magazine
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “A Gem of a Name”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press entitled “The Rule of Law”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “One thing is certain: taxes matter”
- Richard Sugar publishes latest article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled, “Eavesdropping, Privacy and Face Recognition, Oh My!”
- Richard Sugar publishes article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “We Live in the Sensory Age”
- Richard Sugar publishes article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled, “Poor Planning by Celebs Can Lead to Lesser Inheritance”
- Richard Sugar publishes article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “The Trouble with Shopping In-Store Versus Online”
- Richard Sugar publishes third article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “Beating the Sales Tax Game – or Not”
- Richard Sugar publishes article as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press, entitled “Game-Changing Laws for 2014”
- Richard Sugar to serve as monthly columnist with Pioneer Press tackling issues on money, taxes and the law
- Richard Sugar published in Illinois State Bar Association Newsletter on the enforcement of non-compete agreements in Illinois
- The Windsor Supreme Court Decision Creates New Rules for Same-Sex Couples
Selected by peers as a Leading Lawyer in: Closely & Privately Held Business Law; Individual and Business Tax Law; Trust, Will & Estate Planning Law (2012-2020)
Selected for inclusion in Illinois Super Lawyers in Estate Planning & Probate; Business/Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions (2005-2013, 2015-2020)
Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rated, Chicago’s Top Rated Lawyers, Business and Commercial (2012); 5.0/5.0 Overall Client Rating – Martindale.com
Professional Affiliations
- Business Advisors Network, Lake Forest Business Accelerator
- Monthly Columnist, Chicago Tribune Media Group, A Spoonful of Sugar – Tastings of Money, Taxes, and the Law.
- American Technion Society – Planned Giving Committee
- Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Legacy Partners
- Midwest Young Artists, President Emeritus, Former President, and Board of Directors
- Formerly Chicago Society of Clubs, Governing Board, Chairman of Community Public School Improvement Committee
- Formerly Commerce magazine, Small Business Division Editorial Board
- Formerly Illinois Small Business Growth Corporation, board of directors (nominated by Governor Thompson)
- Formerly Independent Business Association of Illinois, Executive Vice President and Board of Directors
- Formerly U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Government Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, Delegate
- Formerly White House Conference on Small Business, Alternate Delegate
- Formerly Illinois Lieutenant Governors Conference on Small Business, Delegate and Legal Counsel