Joseph D. Ament

Joseph D. Ament

Joseph D. Ament
Principal
Phone: 312.521.2401 vCard
Fax: 312.521.2301
jament@muchshelist.com

PRACTICE GROUPS

AT WORK

Joseph D. Ament is an accomplished tax and business lawyer, as well as a certified public accountant. He has extensive experience in financial, estate and income tax planning; business mergers and acquisitions; and entity structures, including corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies.

IN THE PROFESSION

Since 1966, Joe has taught taxation, estate planning, accounting for executives, and business ethics courses at Roosevelt University, where he has been the Samuel W. Specthrie Distinguished Professor of Accounting and Taxation. He chaired the Department of Accounting and Taxation for 19 years. Joe is also the recipient of the Arthur L. Crandall Award, given biannually to the outstanding faculty member in Roosevelt University's Walter E. Heller College of Business Administration. Before his engagement at Roosevelt, he taught accounting and taxation courses at Loyola University Chicago.

An active member of the American Bar Association, Joe has served on the ABA's Committees on General Income Taxation Problems, Teaching Taxation, and Federal Taxation of Real Estate Transactions. He has also served as editor for numerous publications of the ABA Tax Section.

Joe has been the Illinois Education Vice President and a Director of the American Association of Attorneys-CPAs. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Securities and Commercial Attorneys and has served on the U.S. Income Taxation Advisory Board of BNA/Tax Management in Washington, D.C.

Joe is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Illinois Association of Attorneys-CPAs, the American Accounting Association, the American Taxation Association and the Decalogue Society of Lawyers. Joe is a member of the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants and has been a member of its 150 Hour Implementation, Educator/CPA Issues and Ethics Committees, as well as the Insurance Conference Task Force. He also chaired its Continuing Education Ethics Subcommittee and has chaired its Grants/Research Committee.

Joe serves or has served on the boards of many privately held corporations, including service as a corporate officer. Some of these entities became public corporations. He also currently serves as an officer and/or fiduciary (trustee) for profit-sharing and pension plans and trusts for private and public charities.

He chaired a Special Appeal Hearing Panel of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and has served on several of the CME's committees, including the Finance, Budget and Planning Committee; the Leasing Committee; the Clearinghouse Finance Committee; and the Oversight Committee. He currently serves on the Probable Cause and Business Conduct Committees for the CME/CBOT and is a member of the CME's International Monetary, Index and Options, GEM and CBOT markets. Joe has also been an arbitrator for the National Futures Association and an NFA-approved Commodities Trading Adviser and Commodities Pool Operator.

Joe is a regular speaker on taxation and business ethics topics at seminars and conferences sponsored by universities, banks, professional groups, bar associations, and national, regional, and local CPA groups throughout the United States. Recent papers presented during speaking engagements include the following (copies available on request):

  • "The Challenge of Fair Value Reporting to the Financial Community," presented at the 17th Annual Conference of the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences (February 2010)
  • "Passion for Teaching—Just How Long Can This Gig Last?" presented at the 2010 MBAA International Conference (March 2010)
  • "Convergence of International Financial Reporting Standards and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP): Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) Accounting and Tax Implications," presented at the 18th Annual Conference of the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences (February 2011)

Joe is the co-author of an article on partnership income taxation published in BNA's Tax Management Portfolio 282-2d, and has written numerous articles on tax topics published in such professional journals as Illinois CPA and Taxation for Accountants. Joe is also the author of manuscripts developed for the insurance and reinsurance industries and served as editor of the Slovak Republic Taxation Manuscript.

Joe has been named an Illinois Super Lawyer (2005-2011), an honor given to the top 5% of attorneys in the state. Also, Leading Lawyers Network has recognized him as a top Illinois lawyer in the areas of business and individual tax law (2003-2012). For 25 consecutive years, Joe has received the highest possible peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell (AV Preeminent) in legal ability and ethical standards.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Joe is a longtime leader in civic and charitable causes. He is currently Chair of the Hillels of Illinois Endowment Foundation, has been a member of the National Hillel Lay Leadership Board and Chair of the Hillels of Illinois Governing Commission (1993-96). He served for three years as Vice Chair and for nine years as a Director of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and is a current member of that organization's Finance, Legacies and Endowments, and Audit Committees, as well as its Agency Endowment Program, Jewish Day School Guaranty Trust Fund and Arie Crown Hebrew Day School Endowment Foundation. He has also been a Director of the Lawson House YMCA Board.

Joe is a Life Trustee/Director and former President of the Ida Crown Jewish Academy and an active member of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El (where he serves as a ritual official and on the congregation's Ritual Committee) and Central Avenue Synagogue, both in Highland Park. Joe sits on John Marshall Law School's Braun Bequest Fund Annual Lecture Series Committee and is a member of the Braun Bequest Fund Committees of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and the Council for Jewish Elderly. He is also Secretary and General Counsel for the Bernie Mac Foundation.

BACKGROUND

The John Marshall Law School
J.D., 1962

Roosevelt University
M.B.A., 1959

University of Illinois
B.S., 1958

Joe became a certified public accountant in 1959. Before beginning his career in law, he spent eight years as a staff CPA and tax manager with David Himmelblau & Company.

Joe is admitted to practice in Illinois. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.