Denice Gierach

Print Profile

Business and Estate Planning Attorney

Denice Gierach is a business and estate planning attorney with offices in Naperville, IL and Hoffman Estates, IL. Her clients are located throughout the entire Chicago metropolitan area and beyond. She has more than 30 years of experience representing family-owned businesses and privately held companies, serving as general counsel, helping them with both their legal and business tax needs. She combines her education as a lawyer, a certified public accountant, and a master’s degree in management from the Executive Master’s Program at Northwestern University with her experience, both as a lawyer and a business owner herself, creating a unique approach to client service.

Working as a business lawyer, Denice assists her clients to develop strategies to grow their businesses, preserve their business culture through multiple family generations, and resolve disputes among family members. She counsels the business owners to create business plans that cause the business to grow exponentially and also contain an exit strategy for them to eventually leave their business in good hands, for whatever reason the owner leaves the business. This exit strategy is essential to transfer the hard-earned financial stability that the business has provided the successful business owner over the years to allow the business owner or their family to maintain their existing lifestyle after the exit from the business.

Acknowledging that large businesses have an in-house general counsel, but small to mid-sized businesses have hired attorneys for specific projects only, Denice developed the Outsourced General Counsel (OGC) program, where she acts as a fractional general counsel for her clients. This allows for the buildout of the legal function within her clients’ businesses, which helps eliminate impediments to growth. It brings consistency in the legal function of the business, allowing the OGC attorney to go deeper in their knowledge of the business, which results in better advice to the client.

As the business is many times the largest asset owned by the business owner, the exit strategy must also be documented on the estate planning side. Denice assists the business owners in planning their estates, creating wills and trusts, making sure that the estate or trust will have liquid assets to provide for the business owner and their family.

Denice has unique experience as a business owner herself, having formerly owned and operated several businesses in addition to her own law firm, including a $30 million real estate development firm and a corrugated box manufacturing company. She sees things through a different lens, discerning the business issues first, before looking at it from a legal standpoint, Because of her business experience and understanding, Denice is able to create solutions for her clients’ problems or find new sources of income to enhance client growth.

Denice is a strong supporter of leaving a legacy by working with various charities. She has served on numerous boards and acted as their chairs. Her latest work has been as the Past Chair of the board of DuPage Foundation, a local and very active community foundation, with assets in excess of $100 million.