Andrea S. Kramer

Andrea S. Kramer is a partner in the international law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP. She is based in its Chicago office and is a member of its U.S. & International Tax Practice Group. Andie is head of McDermott’s Financial Products, Trading and Derivatives Group.

Andie focuses her legal practice in the multifaceted world of derivative financial products (their taxation, management, trading, regulation and documentation) and energy and commodity trading, contract negotiation and dispute resolution. She works with high net worth taxpayers and family offices in structuring and managing their derivatives transactions. Andie is working closely with clients to help them understand the implications of Dodd-Frank on their activities and compliance obligations.

Andie devotes a substantial part of her practice to representing taxpayers in contested matters with the IRS, working with clients to develop strategies at audit and in response to IRS information requests. Andie represents clients on appeal from IRS determinations and in subsequent litigation. She currently works with hedge fund managers and hedge funds (domestic and offshore), tax hedgers, and energy companies in ongoing tax audits and appeals and with respect to compliance with U.S. tax obligations and the availability of trading safe harbors to foreign entities.

Chambers USA ranked Andie as a Leading Individual in tax for her “expertise in the tax treatment of financial instruments and derivatives.” The Legal 500 ranked Andie as a Leading Lawyer in structured finance as “who expertise in financial derivatives is outstanding,” demonstrated the versatility of the practice when she worked closely with the leading hedge fund manager in connection wide with a wide range of complex derivatives tax planning projects and the IRS audit defense for the manager, its owners, affiliated companies, and domestic and foreign hedge fund under management. The Legal 500 also ranked Andie as a Leading Lawyer in Domestic Tax and Financial Products categories as ‘the best of class in a generation of lawyers’ and takes a deep and active interest in tax policy development.

In 2007, Andie was named one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal. She was selected because of her national impact in her field of practice and her “demonstrated power to change the legal landscape, shape public affairs, launch industries, and do big things.”

Andie is the author of Financial Products: Taxation, Regulation, and Design (CCH, 2006), a three-volume, 3,600-page treatise that is supplemented annually. As the leading treatise on financial products law, her book has been cited over 80 times by courts and tax commentators. Andie co-edited and contributed to the book Energy and Environmental Trading: US Law and Taxation (Cameron May, 2008) and co-edited and contributed to Energy and Environmental Project Finance Law and Taxation: New Investment Techniques (Oxford University Press, 2010). Andie has written over 140 articles on topics including derivatives taxation, operational and reputational risk in trading operations, insurance coverage versus use of derivatives, energy trading and corporate governance.