Jennifer Klein Strauss

Jen is a Partner in the Houston office of Ytterberg Deery Knull LLP. Jen concentrates her practice on estate and tax planning for wealthy families, fiduciaries, and closely-held businesses.

Jen has extensive experience in income, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer matters, charitable planning, and succession planning for family businesses and investment partnerships. She assists her clients in implementing and administering sophisticated estate planning techniques, including the use of grantor trusts, insurance planning, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, and charitable trusts.  Jen has particular experience planning with non-traditional assets such as fine art and other collections.  Jen has represented both beneficiaries and fiduciaries with respect to the administration of complex estates and trusts, advising her clients on their rights and obligations.  

Jen also has wide-ranging experience advising charitable donors as well as recipient charitable organizations on tax, reporting, and governance matters.  Jen is able to apply her past experience working in the legal office of a major nonprofit when planning, negotiating, and reporting major gifts on behalf of public and private charities, and this experience also gives her a unique perspective when advising donors regarding their own philanthropic goals. 

Jen also has substantial experience representing multinational clients with cross-border tax and trust planning, including setting up appropriate investment structures, collaborating with local counsel on multi-jurisdictional tax questions, and advising on compliance obligations.  

EDUCATION

• Columbia Law School, J.D., James Kent Scholar, 2007
• Harvard College, A.B., magna cum laude, 2004

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

• Ytterberg Deery Knull LLP, 2015-Present
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Office of the General Counsel, 2014-2015
• Loeb, Block & Partners, LLP, 2010-2014
• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, 2007-2010

ADMISSIONS

• Admitted to practice:  New York, 2008; Texas, 2015

OF NOTE

• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), STEP Texas Board
• Member of Board of Directors of Collaborative for Children
• Member of Board of Directors of ROCO
• Columbia Law Review, Notes Editor