Sally R. Wagenmaker provides legal counsel in corporate, tax, employment, and real estate matters for the firm's many nonprofit, tax-exempt clients, including public charities, private foundations, and trade associations operating on local, national, and international levels. Her clients include churches and other religious organizations, supportive housing facilities, social service providers, and schools.
Sally's corporate and tax work with clients includes development of new tax-exempt entities, resolving IRS disputes, counseling clients on board responsibilities, providing guidance for effective nonprofit governance within the current legal climate, and other operational legal issues. In addition, she represents clients owning specialized properties such as houses of worship, schools, and social service centers in real estate matters including property tax exemptions for charitable, religious, and educational purposes, shared occupancy arrangements, and property transfers. Sally also regularly advises and counsels the firm's nonprofit clients on employment matters including contracts, termination, employment policies, tax, unemployment insurance, discrimination issues, and compliance with other employment laws, particularly as they relate to nonprofit issues such as volunteers and clergy.
Sally regularly teaches on nonprofit law topics at seminars, conferences, and university classes. Her prior presentations have addressed the following areas: legal aspects of nonprofit organizations; directors and officers' responsibilities and liabilities; employment law for nonprofit organizations; legal audits for tax-exempt organizations; and automatic excess benefits under the Internal Revenue Code. Sally is the author of the "State Property and Sales Tax Exemptions" chapter of the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education's 2010 Not-For-Profit Corporations publication.
Both professionally and personally, Sally has worked and volunteered with numerous community organizations in the Chicago area, including the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, the Cabrini-Green Legal Aid Clinic, and the Lawndale Christian Health Center. She presently serves as the President of the Northern Illinois Chapter of Christian Legal Society. She also serves as a volunteer mediator with the Center for Conflict Resolution, a state-funded Chicago organization that provides court-referred and other mediation services.
Prior to practicing law with Mosher & Wagenmaker, LLC (formerly Mosher & Associates), Sally worked for the Chicago law firms of Hoogendoorn & Talbot and Matkov, Salzman, Madoff & Gunn. In addition, she worked as a solo practitioner, providing legal assistance to indigent and low-income clients primarily in Chicago's west side neighborhood of North Lawndale. Before moving to Chicago, Sally practiced law with the Atlanta law firm of Dow, Lohnes & Albertson. Upon finishing law school, she clerked for United States District Judge William C. O'Kelley of the Northern District of Georgia. Sally is a 1990 graduate of Emory University School of Law, where she graduated with high honors, was a member of the Order of the Coif, and was a Managing Editor of the Emory Law Journal. She earned a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from the University of Mississippi. Sally lives in Chicago with her husband Dan and two childrenn.
