ATTORNEY profiles

John P.C. Duncan
Principal

John Duncan founded the Chicago law firm Duncan Associates Attorneys and Counselors, P.C. in 2000 to concentrate on the representation of private, boutique, and traditional trust firms, family offices, and other wealth management organizations. His expertise includes designing and implementing trans-generational governance and succession structures and family office risk-management programs. Over the past 12 years, he has advised more than 100 ultra-wealthy families, collaborating with clients’ tax and trust counsel to help form more than half of the regulated Private Trust Companies chartered in the United States during that period.

John has assisted in forming more than 40 trust companies in 15 states.  He is the primary author of numerous statutes and regulations, including the CSBS Model State Trust Company and Trust Modernization Acts, the model for trust company acts adopted in whole or in part in nearly half of the states, including Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.  Most recently, John was the principal author of the New Hampshire Trust Modernization and Competitiveness Act of 2006, revolutionizing New Hampshire’s trust and trust company laws. 

John is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. cum laude 1971) and The University of Chicago Law School (J.D. 1974).  Prior to forming Duncan Associates, John headed the banking and investment practice of the international law firm Jones Day.  He is a member of the Banking Law Committee of the American Bar Association (Co‑chairman, ABA Financial Privacy Task Force, 1998–2001; Chairman, Securities Activities of Banks Subcommittee, 1995–98) and past chairman of the Financial Institutions Committee of the Chicago Bar Association (1985–86).  John is a member of the faculty (Fiduciary Activities) of the ABA National Institute on Banking Law Basics and listed as one of the world’s best banking lawyers by both Euromoney and Mondaq.

A list of Mr. Duncan's recent presentations and articles on wealth management may be found on the Publications & Presentations page.

Michael R. Conway, Jr.
Counsel

Mike Conway joined Duncan Associates in May 2005 as Counsel. Immediately prior to joining the firm, Mike served as general counsel for a family office. From 1999 to 2004, Mike was a partner in the Private Client Department of McDermott, Will & Emery.  There he advised and assisted private clients and fiduciaries in all aspects of domestic and international estate planning, tax and administration. Mike also has an extensive background advising and representing fiduciaries and families in contested matters relating to estate and trust administration.

Mike now concentrates his practice on representing fiduciaries and family offices and assisting wealthy families in developing their strategic capital.  Mike is a co-author of the New Hampshire Trust Modernization and Competitiveness Act of 2006 and has lectured and written on a number of areas relating to private trust companies, tax and estate planning, and estate and trust administration.

Mike graduated from Benedictine University (B.A. cum laude 1990) and the University of Illinois (J.D. magna cum laude 1993). He is admitted to practice in the State of Illinois.

Theresa Amato
Associate

Theresa Amato joined Duncan Associates in July of 2007.  Immediately prior to joining the firm, Theresa was the executive director of the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, where she was responsible for overseeing asset growth, fund management, grants, scholarships, and philanthropic strategic impact.  She worked to meld the unique interests and requirements of donors with prudent stewardship of charitable funds. 

Theresa is licensed to practice law in Illinois, New York, and Washington, D.C., and has litigation and advocacy experience at all levels of state and federal courts and with various regulatory agencies.  She has worked with several nonprofit organizations, including Public Citizen Litigation Group (staff attorney, director, Freedom of Information Clearinghouse (1991–1993)); The Citizen Advocacy Center (founder, executive director (1993–2000), board member (1993–to date)); Citizen Works (executive director (2001–2003), board member (2001 to date)); and The Center for Competitive Democracy (board member (2005 to date)).  She also was the national campaign manager and in-house counsel for the presidential campaigns of Ralph Nader in 2000 and 2004. 

Theresa has won numerous awards for outstanding public interest advocacy, including recognition by The American Lawyer as one of the future leaders of the legal profession as one of the country’s 45 young lawyers (under 45) outside the private sector whose vision and commitment are changing lives.  In 1998, Harvard Law School named Theresa a Wasserstein Public Interest Law Fellow, and in 1999 and 2000, respectively, Theresa was awarded the NYU and Loyola Public Service Awards.  She was also a fellow for the fall semester of 2002 at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Theresa is a graduate of Harvard/Radcliffe Colleges (A.B. cum laude in both Government and Economics, 1986) and of the New York University School of Law (1989), where she was a Root-Tilden Scholarship recipient from the 7th Circuit, a senior editor of the New York University Law Review, and the recipient of the Orison S. Marden Medal for first place in moot court.  In 1990, she clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Sweet in the Southern District of New York. 

Theresa has appeared in most major national and international media outlets.  Her scholarly work has been published in the New York University Law Review, The National Civic Review, The Stanford Law & Policy Review and The Yale Journal of International Law, among other publications. She is the author of a forthcoming book on barriers to political competition and appears in the 2006 Sundance-selected documentary, An Unreasonable Man. 

Heather A. Wallack
Associate

Heather Wallack is a graduate of Indiana University (B.A. Political Science 1994), where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and DePaul University College of Law (J.D. 2005).  While attending DePaul, she also obtained a Certificate in Intellectual Property:  Arts and Museum Law, served as the Lead Articles Solicitor of the DePaul-LCA Journal of Art & Entertainment Law, and was a CALI Award Recipient for Senior Research Seminar:  Cultural Property. 

Prior to joining Duncan Associates, Heather clerked at Horwood Marcus & Berk Chartered, where she assisted with various taxation, estate planning, corporate, and litigation matters.  Heather was admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois in 2005.