Careers

Diversity

With 18 offices, from New York to Los Angeles and Seattle to Orlando, we live and work in communities all over the U.S., collaborating across locations, disciplines and even borders. Our experienced, highly ranked lawyers serve businesses wherever they are and wherever they want to go.

Offices

About Us

Pages

Professionals

Thought leadership: blogs, podcasts, videos, publications, events and news

Insights

Practices & Industries

Pro Bono

Am Law 100 firm with practices in Business, Digital Assets and Data Management, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment, Litigation and Tax.

Home | BakerHostetler

BakerHostetler Attorneys Featured in <em>Law360</em> for Guiding Tubos Reunidos Group Through Chapter 15

Brian McEvoy Co-Chairs, Moderates Panel at ABA 12th Annual Southeastern White Collar Crime Institute

The Bargaining Table

I’ve Got a Proposal for You: NLRB Says Bargaining Proposals Don’t Independently Violate Employee Rights

John Lehrer, Brian Davis Present at TEI 2026 US International Tax Course

Chad Makuch is an estate planning and tax lawyer who focuses on counseling wealthy families, family offices, institutional trustees, other fiduciaries&nbsp;and private foundations.

Driven to efficiently achieve his clients' goals, he helps families transfer assets and business interests to children, grandchildren and charities while minimizing or eliminating transfer taxes; counsels fiduciaries in connection with their responsibilities under complex trusts and applicable laws; and guides private foundations through the tax laws and regulations that govern them.

core/freeform

J.D., The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law, 2009, 

A.B., Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 2006

<ul>
<li>Chambers HNW: Private Wealth Law in Ohio
<ul>
<li>Band 1 (2026), Band 2 (2024 to 2025), Band 3 (2023), Up and Coming (2022)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Legal 500 United States
<ul>
<li>Recommended in Tax: Not-for-profit (Fortune 1000 private foundations, national trade associations and charities) (2026)</li>
<li>Recommended in Tax: Not-For-Profit (nonprofit and tax exempt organizations) (2022 to 2024)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><em>The Best Lawyers in America®</em>
<ul>
<li>Ohio: Trusts and Estates (2021 to 2026)</li>
<li>Ohio: Litigation &#8211; Trusts and Estates (2023 to 2026)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>


Cleveland

BakerHostetler Continues Upward Momentum in Chambers 2026 High Net Worth Rankings

BakerHostetler attorneys and practice areas spotlighted in the 2026 Legal 500 annual guide

BakerHostetler Attorneys Named 2026 Best Lawyers, Ones to Watch and Lawyers of the Year

BakerHostetler Earns Accolades in Chambers 2025 High Net Worth Rankings

BakerHostetler Continues to Rise in High Net Worth Rankings

BakerHostetler attorneys, practice areas stand out in The Legal 500 annual guide

High Net Worth Guide Shows Increases in Rankings and Multiple Band 1 Positions

BakerHostetler Attorneys and Practice Areas Recognized in The Legal 500 2023 Guide

Hundreds of BakerHostetler Attorneys Honored as 2023 Best Lawyers, Ones to Watch and Lawyers of the Year

BakerHostetler talks with <i>USA Today</i> about the SIPA Trustee’s fourth pro rata interim distribution; states Madoff Recovery Initiative nears $6 billion in distributions to allowed claimants

BakerHostetler appears on NPR’s <i>All Things Considered</i> to discuss Madoff Recovery Initiative; host Robert Siegel interviews SIPA Trustee Irving Picard and his Chief Counsel David Sheehan

Madoff Recovery Initiative surpasses $5 billion in distributions to allowed claimants; CNBC’s Scott Cohn discusses latest recovery with BakerHostetler’s SIPA Trustee Irving Picard and his Chief Counsel David Sheehan

Madoff Recovery Initiative Marks Fourth Anniversary … Moves into Fifth Year Still Building Recovery Momentum

Services

Family Office and Private Trust Companies

Tax Controversy and Litigation

Counseling Fiduciaries and Beneficiaries

Private Wealth

Private Wealth Planning

Tax-Exempt Organizations and Charitable Giving

<h5>Individuals and High-Net-Worth Families</h5>
<ul>
<li>Represents high-net-worth individuals and families in estate planning matters and advises them with their testamentary planning (wills and revocable trusts), lifetime planning and gifting, business succession planning, and charitable giving.</li>
<li>Meets clients’ objectives by employing vehicles such as installment sales, dynasty trusts, insurance trusts, grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, incomplete non-grantor trusts, decanting, private settlement agreements, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies.</li>
<li>Transfers assets while minimizing or eliminating costly gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. In several such matters, designed estate plans that preserved millions of dollars for the benefit of his clients&#8217; families and charities (which otherwise would have been paid in transfer taxes).</li>
<li>Designs estate plans to protect his clients&#8217; assets from future creditors&#8217; claims and to maintain his clients&#8217; privacy where the law might otherwise make his clients&#8217; concerns a matter of public record.</li>
</ul>
<h5><strong>Family Offices and Private Trust Companies</strong></h5>
<ul>
<li>Assists clients in the formation of family offices and private trust companies and their ongoing legal matters. These engagements involve ownership and control structures unique to each family.</li>
<li>Collaborates with family office personnel to assist in the design, creation and implementation of estate plans and philanthropies for their clients.</li>
<li>Primary estate planning counsel for one of the wealthiest families in the United States with an estimated net worth in excess of $24 billion. Collaborates with the family’s sophisticated financial, tax, accounting and business advisors in six states.</li>
<li>Primary estate planning counsel for a multigenerational family that owns and operates a series of companies with an approximate net worth in excess of $3 billion. Works with the family members and their advisors on business succession and estate planning matters.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Trusts and Estates</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Represents trustees and executors, whether individuals or institutions, in the administration of large trusts and estates.</li>
<li>Guides clients through the formal and often complex process of preparing estate tax returns, inventories, accountings, fiduciary tax reports and more.</li>
<li>Regularly fields questions regarding fiduciary duties and responsibilities under multimillion- and multibillion-dollar trusts and the proper investment of those assets.</li>
<li>Provides litigation and pre-litigation support to BakerHostetler’s probate and fiduciary litigation practice. By gaining and formalizing consensus under private settlement agreements or declaratory judgment actions, helps clients avoid litigation or, where litigation becomes unavoidable, provides support to litigators.</li>
</ul>
<h5>Private Foundations</h5>
<ul>
<li>Provides guidance in such areas as governance, fiduciary best practices, obtaining and maintaining tax exempt status, grant making and grant administration, unrelated business income taxes and compliance with intermediate sanction rules to avoid excise taxes for self-dealing, jeopardy investments, excess business holdings or taxable expenditures.</li>
</ul>


Chad W. Makuch

Chad W. Makuch

Experience

Recognitions and Memberships

Insights and News

Credentials

Community and Pro Bono

Areas of Focus

Services

Featured Insights