Karen Seyller, J.D.

Karen Seyller is that unusual tax professional whose background blends accounting and legal areas of expertise. In doing so, she delivers an approach to service that offers multiple forms of assurance. With close to 15 years of experience earning client trust, she specializes in tax compliance for individuals, corporations, partnerships, trusts and not-for-profit organizations.

Karen says her career developed due to unplanned opportunities that came her way. While studying accounting at university, a college professor provided her with the chance to handle tax work for wealthy individuals at his Chicago law firm, which opened the legal dimension for her profession. She studied law following her accounting degree, earning a J.D., which led to a deeper understanding of the tax code and the gray area associated with managing taxes for high net worth individuals.

This dimension has led to multiple client collaborations to identify the tax ramifications of corporate decision-making on liabilities for owners and executives including during business restructuring transactions and bankruptcies, as well as personal events such as divorce or estate planning. Working closely with clients and their fiduciaries, Karen relies on a philosophy of open communications and blending her accounting and legal expertise.

After law school, and an internship doing in-house accounting for a dialysis company, Karen joined a smaller law firm where she focused on tax work with emerging responsibilities in litigation. She began building expertise offering expert witness testimony in tax and bankruptcy cases, investigating corporate financials and working to both strengthen and provide key information for her client’s case.

Karen appreciates working closely with clients who value her contributions—a thank you means a lot—as well as for her commitment to put her clients in a strong position to attain their goals. A native and life-long resident of Chicago, she is close to her large, extended family including her three sisters (also Chicagoans). When she has time, Karen also enjoys writing and hopes to one day publish a book based on her law school experience.