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MacKenzie A. Hyde

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fax +1 312.985.5978

MacKenzie A. Hyde co-leads her firm’s Trusts & Estates Controversy practice where she litigates on behalf of individuals and financial institutions. She prosecutes and defends actions involving breach of fiduciary duty, petitions for guardianship for adults with disabilities, pre and post death will and trust contests.

She is frequently appointed by probate judges as guardian ad litem or counsel for disabled persons. She has negotiated multiple eight-figure estate and trust settlements, often addressing legal issues such as corporate valuations, equity portfolio valuation, real estate litigation, international jurisdiction, estate tax and breach of fiduciary duty.

MacKenzie represents corporations and individuals in their fiduciary capacities (i.e., trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, agent under powers of attorney) as well as estate and trust beneficiaries in matters involving claims of breach of fiduciary duty, undue influence, lack of capacity, fraud, duress, and negligence. MacKenzie also prosecutes and defends actions involving powers of attorneys, petitions for guardianship for adults with disabilities, and pre-death estate contests.

MacKenzie helps clients avoid litigation by advising them on estate planning techniques that will help their estate plans avoid being subject to such litigation during their lifetime or after their death.

MacKenzie advises fiduciaries (i.e., trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, agent under powers of attorney) on their duties during trust and estate administration.

Prior to becoming an attorney, MacKenzie taught elementary school on Chicago’s west-side through Teach for America.

Education

J.D., Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, Illinois, 2009
MAT, Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois, 2006
B.A., summa cum laude, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 2004

Recognitions

Named a Leading Lawyer in Chicago by Leading Lawyers℠ (2024)

2024 – Quoted in A Guide to Conservatorship: What It Is and How It Works (aarp.org)

Named among The Best Lawyers in America® for Trusts and Estates by Best Lawyers (2025)

2023 – Featured in Emerging Lawyers Magazine, a distinction earned by fewer than two percent of lawyers licensed to practice law in Illinois who are under 40 years of age or have been practicing for 10 years or less.

Recognized as a Notable Women in the Law by Crain’s Chicago Business (2022)

2018 – CBS News Interview, “Temptations Singer’s Widow and Lawyers Say State Failed Her Husband”

Super Lawyers’ Illinois Risings Stars, 2013-2022

Memberships

Chicago Bar Association

Past Chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Continuing Legal Education Committee

State Bar Licenses

Illinois

Appellate Cases

  • In re Estate of Joel Kaplan, 2018 IL App (1st) 170540-U (June 29, 2018) (affirming plenary adjudication of Respondent and appointment of clients as plenary Co-Guardians)
  • In re Estate of Nina L., A Minor, 2016 Ill.App. LEXIS 701 (September 16, 2015) (vacating the trial court’s order and making the necessary findings of fact to allow client, Nina L., an undocumented immigrant, to file for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a case of first impression)
  • In re Estate of Donald Howell, 2015 Ill.App. LEXIS 466 (June 19, 2015) (reversing to allow client, the Guardian of the Estate, to propose an estate plan that deviates from intestacy for a disabled person who never had testamentary capacity in case of first impression)
  • Pontarelli v. Pontarelli, 2015 Ill.App. LEXIS 191 (March 18, 2015) (affirming multiple interlocutory orders in favor of client)

AUTHORSHIP

  • Co-Author of two chapters on will contests and claims against estates in the 2023 Probate Manual to be published under the ISBA’s Practice Ready Series
  • Co-Author of the chapter entitled Claims Against the Estate in the 2022 Update to Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s Estate Administration Fundamentals
  • Co-Author of two chapters on breach of fiduciary duty and claims against estates in the 2021 Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s Causes of Action series on Probate Actions
  • Co-Author of the article “Tips for Alleging Lack of Capacity and Undue Influence,” Estate Planning, vol. 46/no. 7, July 2019
  • Co-Author of the article “Defending Your Principals: Suing Agents Under the Revised Illinois Power of Attorney Act,” published in the Illinois Bar Journal, 2012
  • Co-Author of the article “Couples Planning and the New Civil Liberties Act” published in the Windy City Times, 2010

PRESENTATIONS

  • “Trusts and Powers of Attorney in Guardianship Estates,” Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s 2021 Guardianship Institute, August 2021
  • “Guardianship in Cook County: Practical Insights and Observations from Experienced Practitioners,” Chicago Bar Association Mental Health Law Committee, October 2020
  • “How to Handle Mental Health Issues of Clients and Beneficiaries,” The Center for Conflict Resolution’s Elder Care and Probate Mediation Training, June 2019
  • “How to Handle Mental Health Issues of Clients and Beneficiaries,” DuPage County Estate Planning Council, April 2019
  • “Pleading in Probate Litigation,” The Chicago Bar Association’s program on Contested Matters in Probate Estates, November 2018
  • “Discovery Issues in Guardianships,” Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s 14th Annual Elder Law Short Course, October 2018
  • “Will and Trust Contests: Drafting Techniques in Pleadings,” American Law Institute course Representing Estate and Trust Beneficiaries and Fiduciaries, July 2018
  • “Dealing with Decision-Makers in a Health Care Setting: Identifying Red Flags and Avoiding Pitfalls,” Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, July 2018
  • “Clinical Boot Camp: Common Psychiatric Diagnoses Facing Our Clients,” Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s 13th Annual Elder Law Short Course, December 2017
  • “The Illinois Power of Attorney Act and Guardianship,” to students earning their Masters degrees at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work, November 2017
  • “Dealing with Decision-Makers in a Health Care Setting: Identifying Red Flags and Avoiding Pitfalls” to students earning their Masters degrees at Loyola University’s Summer Institute on Aging, May 2017

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