Partner

David Shechtman is chair of the Business Tax Team in the Corporate & Securities Practice Group.  His practice includes a wide range of federal, state and local tax matters, including tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions and recapitalizations; S corporations and partnerships; and administrative appeals of federal, state and local tax controversies.  He has developed a national practice in the area of like-kind exchanges of real estate and other assets.  In his capacity as counsel to taxpayers and various exchange intermediaries, David has structured and documented hundreds of like-kind exchange transactions for major oil and gas, telecommunications and railroad companies, as well as REITs and smaller real estate owners.

Representative Matters:

• Obtaining a private letter ruling for one of the first "repetitive exchange programs" used by an auto leasing company for every disposition of its off-lease vehicles.
• Assisting a home builder client in establishing a structure for equity-based employee compensation combined with tax efficient inter-company transfers of land.
• For a major oil and gas company, structuring as a series of safe-harbor "reverse" exchanges, an ongoing "raze and rebuild" program for existing gas station properties.
• Obtaining a private letter ruling on the tax consequences of a “structured settlement” of an employment discrimination claim.

David frequently writes on tax topics and also lectures at American Bar Association meetings and various conferences on tax law.  He is an active member of the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association, and is the immediate past chair of the Committee on Sales, Exchanges and Basis.  David is a former officer of the Philadelphia Bar Association's Tax Section and has chaired several committees which comment on proposed federal and state regulations.  He also is the author of the chapters on federal and Pennsylvania taxes in the West publication Pennsylvania Forms and Commentary - Business Organizations.  David is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

David is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania.

Presentations and Publications.  David frequently speaks on the subject of like-kind exchanges and other tax topics and has been quoted frequently on tax issues in the Wall Street Journal and other business publications.  He has spoken at all 14 National Conferences on Like-Kind Exchanges sponsored by the Center for Professional Seminars, the last nine national like-kind exchange seminars sponsored by Wells Fargo Exchange Services, as well as various programs sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the NYU Federal Tax Institute.  He recently presented at an ABA webcast on “Tax Issues for Ponzi Scheme Victims.” David’s publications include: Someone Made Off With My Money, Now What? Taxations of Investments, Summer 2009; Like-Kind Exchanges and Bankrupt Intermediaries, Tax Notes July 6, 2009; IRS Provides Exchange Deadline Relief for Disaster Victims and (Perhaps) a Remedy for Others, Real Estate Taxation, Volume 32/Issue 4, Third Quarter 2005, Thompson Legal & Regulatory Group and Reverse and Build-to-Suit Like Kind Exchanges, Proceedings of the New York University 59th Institute on Federal Taxation, Fall 2001.

In General. A 1974 graduate of Swarthmore College, David received his bachelor's degree, with high honors, in economics. An active participant in undergraduate activities, he served as an editor of the campus newspaper and played on the varsity basketball team. David earned his J.D. from Cornell University Law School in 1977. While in law school, he was a moot court finalist and won the Evidence Prize for the best evidence exam.