Option Basics and Strategies

Andrea S. Kramer

McDermott Will & Emery LLP

• Partner in the international law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in its Chicago office and is head of its Financial Products, Trading and Derivatives Group
• Has a sophisticated and unique legal practice that covers all aspects of financial transactions and derivatives, focusing on taxation, regulation, contract design, trading operations, and documentation
• Addresses issues related to derivative products, hedging, energy trading, and insurance company investment operations; in all these areas, she works with clients to assure compliance with or resolve disputes concerning tax laws, governmental regulation, contract negotiation, trading policies, and risk management objectives
• With the phased-in implementation of Dodd-Frank, she works closely with clients to assure they comply with the rules that apply to them as swap dealers, major swap participants, commercial end users, or financial end users
• Works closely with clients to evaluate financial products and transactions subject to Dodd-Frank and European legislative efforts, keeping their boards of directors current as to the effect these changes will have on their operations, existing contractual relationships, and regulatory compliance
• Actively involved in the design, structure, and tax defense of hedging and risk management programs as well as financial product transactions
• Named one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal for her “demonstrated power to change the legal landscape, shape public affairs, launch industries, and do big things”
• Chambers USA has ranked her as a Leading Individual in Tax for her “expert opinions on the taxation of financial products” and her “expertise in the tax treatment of financial instruments”. The Legal 500 has ranked her as a Leading Lawyer in Tax as “widely recognized as one of our nation’s most important voices in financial market tax policy” and as “the best of class in a generation of lawyers”
• The Legal 500 also ranked her as a Leading Lawyer in Domestic Tax and in Structured Finance and Derivative Products as “a brilliant tactician and a first-rate legal scholar” who is “detailed and thorough in her legal analysis and advice” and whose “expertise in financial derivatives is outstanding”
• Wrote 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 more than 160 times by courts and tax commentators; co-edited and contributed to Energy and Environmental Trading: US Law and Taxation (Cameron, May, 2008), and she co-edited and contributed to Energy and Environmental Project Finance Law and Taxation: New Investment Techniques (Oxford University Press, 2010); has written more than 160 articles on topics including derivatives taxation, operational and reputational risk in trading operations, insurance coverage versus derivatives regulation, energy trading, and corporate governance