Drinker Biddle business tax lawyers provide a full range of advice on federal, state, local and international tax matters to corporations, partnerships, nonprofit organizations and individuals.
The firm has nationally-recognized experience in structuring major corporate and partnership transactions (including tax-free and taxable acquisitions and dispositions); in handling significant tax litigation at the administrative and appellate levels; in counseling regulated investment companies (mutual funds) and insurance companies; in providing tax advice in connection with public and private offerings of stock, debt, partnership, LLC and REIT interests and in connection with restructuring and other work-outs; and in structuring and implementing tax deferred like-kind exchanges of real estate, aircraft and other assets. The firm also provides ongoing tax advice to business entities of all sizes and to tax-exempt organizations, with a particular focus on health care providers and institutions of higher education.
We advise organizations on tax requirements, structuring deductible charitable gifts by donors, investment opportunities, real estate negotiations and other fiduciary obligations. We handle complex representations, including federal self-dealing regulations, foreign grant-making regulations, charitable registration under state law, tax issues, litigation matters, regulations on internationally hosted board meetings and conferences, and 60-month conversion to public charity status.
Our operational services include reviewing major gifts or grants, mergers and other fundamental changes, property issues and employment and compensation arrangements. We represent hospitals, universities and other operating charities, as well as large charitable foundations, and our lawyers regularly work with foundations engaged in a variety of activities, including human services, academic scholarships, conservation and publishing.
Drinker Biddle employee benefits and executive compensation lawyers help clients throughout the United States achieve their business and human resources objectives in this extensively regulated area. Our clients include national and international corporations, banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and other investment entities, utilities, transportation companies, hospitals, governmental units, schools, universities, churches and other non-profit organizations. We represent publicly traded companies, domestic subsidiaries of foreign companies and privately held entities. The diversity of our client base and their human resource needs have given the team a broad range of experience in all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation matters.
Our estate planning lawyers provide a broad range of sophisticated services related to trusts and estates. We have extensive experience in tax and other complex legal ramifications for high-net-worth clients, and focus on preserving, managing and transferring the wealth of our individual and fiduciary clients. Yet, we often serve as general practitioners and family counselors who endeavor to resolve personal issues that impact individuals and families. Our lawyers bring to bear a multi-disciplinary approach that encompasses aspects of corporate, tax, real estate, family and trust law – an integration that enables a broad perspective to achieve balanced and long-lasting trust and estate solutions.
We also assist our clients with complex legal problems that often occur during administration of trusts and estates. We counsel our clients on the funding of trusts, the selection of assets to fund trusts and the timing and process of the distribution of assets to beneficiaries, as well as the estate tax benefits of disclaiming assets. Our post-mortem counsel can often correct oversights in estate plans, save considerable estate and income taxes, and better effectuate our client’s goals.
We bring our knowledge of income and estate taxes together to solve administration issues with a goal towards minimizing taxes and maximizing the transfer of wealth while being sensitive to the emotional aspects of the administration of estates. Our extensive knowledge and experience in handling audits of estates may be beneficial in negotiating with the Internal Revenue Service and other taxing authorities and may result in substantial estate and gift tax savings.
Lawyers on Drinker Biddle’s public finance and tax teams keep abreast daily of developments in federal tax laws governing public bonds. Our tax lawyers also have significant experience in other tax matters of relevance to financing structures, including partnership tax issues, unrelated business taxable income issues and New Markets Tax Credits.
Meanwhile, the constant development of new products in the municipal market has increased the level of sophistication required to serve as bond counsel. The firm has experience with many of the products currently being used in the tax-exempt market, including interest rate swaps, caps, floors and collars, inverse floating rate securities and other derivative products.