R. Hugh Magill was Vice Chairman of The Northern Trust Company until his retirement in 2021. He is President of Granite River Consulting, where he advises families, family offices and law firms on wealth transfer, family education and governance, philanthropy, and fiduciary responsibility and risk management.
Prior to joining Northern Trust in September, 1989, Hugh practiced law privately in Chicago, and worked in the Trust Department at The First National Bank of Chicago where he served as Assistant to the Chief Investment Officer.
Magill received a B.A. degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a J.D. degree from the University Of Minnesota Law School, where he was named a distinguished alumnus in 2005.
Hugh is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Minnesota and admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court.
Magill is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, an Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, and served as a faculty member of the ABA National Trust School for over 25 years.
He has lectured for the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the Heckerling Institute, the Notre Dame Institute, the Kasner Institute, the Northwestern University Center for Family Enterprise, regional bar associations and estate planning councils, and Northern Trust on estate and charitable planning, trust management, family education and governance, and fiduciary risk management.
He is a member of the Minnesota and American Bar Associations. He serves as a member of the University of Minnesota Law School Board of Advisors, Treasurer of the Cook County Community Fund, and board member of the George Young Recreational Center. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Trusts & Estates magazine, and has authored articles for Trusts & Estates, Trust & Investments, and Wealth magazines, and the ACTEC Law Journal. In 2017, he was inducted into the NAEPC Estate Planning Hall of Fame where he holds the designation of Accredited Estate Planner® (Distinguished). Hugh is an Eagle Scout and has served as a Scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America.
Hugh and his wife are the parents of three adult children and reside in Minneapolis and Grand Marais, Minnesota