Matthew Sperry

Matthew’s career has spanned corporate transactions, international tax and private wealth. Earlier in his career, he spent years leading M&A and other corporate transactions and practiced as an equity partner in the Corporate groups of two major global law firms. For more than a decade, he has brought that transactional background to his work with ultra-high-net-worth families and family offices, combining the analytical precision of his tax training, the commercial judgment developed through years leading transactions and deep experience with the ownership, governance and succession structures surrounding family capital.

Matthew regularly advises internationally connected families from the Middle East, India, China, Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. He is accustomed to working across different legal systems, business cultures, family structures and approaches to wealth, governance and succession, and understands that cultural expectations and family dynamics often shape what will work as much as the technical legal analysis.

That combination allows Matthew to understand both sides of a family office investment: the transaction through which capital is deployed and the structures through which the family owns, controls and ultimately transfers that capital. He draws on Pillsbury’s market-leading M&A, private equity, emerging companies and venture capital, private investment funds, finance, real estate, tax, regulatory and disputes practices to build and coordinate the right Pillsbury team for any important issue facing the family, whether it involves investments, governance challenges, family office operations, tax, disputes or broader strategic needs.

Matthew advises ultra-high-net-worth families and family offices on U.S. acquisitions, direct investments, co-investments, investments in private companies and funds, family investment companies, operating businesses and real estate holdings. His work includes structuring U.S. and international holding arrangements and investment vehicles to address U.S. income, estate and gift tax considerations while accommodating commercial objectives, governance arrangements and long-term succession planning.

His international private wealth practice includes the design of family office and ownership structures intended to address governance, succession, privacy and control across generations. Matthew advises on U.S. and non-U.S. trusts, private trust companies, family holding companies and other fiduciary and governance arrangements, as well as on the broader architecture through which internationally connected families hold, manage and transfer wealth.

Matthew also advises globally mobile families and entrepreneurs on global residency and citizenship planning, including pre-immigration planning for individuals and families considering a move to the United States. His work includes evaluating how changes in residence, domicile or citizenship may affect tax, estate planning, trust and investment structures, and coordinating those considerations across multiple jurisdictions while preserving flexibility for future changes in residence, investment activity and family circumstances.

A significant part of Matthew’s practice involves working alongside a family’s existing trusted advisers. He regularly collaborates with non-U.S. corporate and private client counsel, trustees and fiduciaries, family office executives, investment professionals and accountants, serving as a senior point of coordination for the U.S. legal work while preserving and supporting the relationships the family already values. Matthew’s role is typically to complement, not replace, the family’s existing advisers by bringing together the appropriate Pillsbury teams and coordinating with trusted local counsel and advisers where matters extend beyond Pillsbury’s footprint.

Matthew began his career in tax, holds a J.D., an LL.M. in Taxation and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Florida, and served as a law clerk to Judge Carolyn P. Chiechi of the United States Tax Court.

• Advises internationally connected families on the strategic use of U.S. and non-U.S. trusts, fiduciary structures, private trust companies, family office platforms and family holding company arrangements.
• Advises globally mobile families and entrepreneurs on pre-immigration planning and the tax-efficient establishment of personal, family office and investment structures in the United States.
• Works closely with existing legal counsel, fiduciaries, investment professionals and accountants around the world to develop integrated solutions for complex cross-border family and investment structures involving the United States.