We advise private equity and other investment funds of all sizes, including several of the largest private equity firms in the world. Our clients include real estate investment trusts (REITs), regulated investment companies (RICs), hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and other government-sponsored funds. We also regularly represent funds of funds and limited partners in connection with their investments in private equity funds.
As a leading firm in the energy and renewables space, we provide clients with a well-rounded perspective on evolving tax laws and their impact on businesses. We work with tax equity investors, lenders, and project developers and sponsors — including regulated utilities and their unregulated affiliates — on a wide range of tax issues. Our attorneys have extensive experience helping clients qualify for federal, state, and local tax incentives and advising them on the complexities and nuances presented by new tax legislation.
We cover all aspects of REIT formation, operation, and liquidation, as well as REIT mergers, acquisitions, and dispositions. We are particularly strong in real estate taxation, including the formation, operation, and taxation of partnerships, limited liability companies, and alternative structures holding real estate. We help real estate investors and developers structure workouts and refinancings to avoid phantom income and recognize taxable gain through tax-free like-kind exchanges.
We represent clients in a wide variety of attendant state and local tax issues, as well as in a wide variety of state and local tax controversy matters, including matters involving interstate and intrastate income tax issues, sales tax issues, property tax valuation and exemption matters and constitutional challenges to state tax provisions. Our state and local tax lawyers also have significant experience in all facets of state tax-driven economic development incentives across multiple industries. We regularly perform multistate compliance and tax minimization reviews and state and local transaction diligence, and evaluate and implement state tax voluntary disclosure opportunities.
Our tax lawyers have significant experience assisting clients with tax controversies involving taxing authorities, both at the audit and appeals levels. In contested tax matters, our goal is to quickly resolve matters in a manner that achieves our clients’ economic objectives while preserving their ongoing relationships with the taxing authority. However, if administrative resolution is not possible, we diligently pursue judicial relief in the U.S. Tax Court and in other federal and state courts.