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| Other Resource / Link pages: |
| Exempt Organization Law Firms |
| ADLER & COLVIN San Francisco |
| www.adlercolvin.com Adler & Colvin, in San Francisco, is one of the premier law firms in the country serving nonprofits on matters of tax and corporate law. I worked for the firm for eight years and learned much of what I know about tax and corporate law (I was already steeped in nonprofit finance). The firm offers decades of experience, phenomenal depth of bench, and a commitment to doing the highest quality work possible. They have virtually invented certain areas of law, and are nationally prominent in political tax law, fiscal sponsorship, foreign grantmaking, estate planning where charitable giving is a substantial part of the objective, certain quasi-commercial "social -venture" combinations, and other fields no doubt. Following in the footprints of Tom Silk's approach, the firm is also known for its scholarship and teaching. Last I knew, the improving but still under-developed website contains a few particularly valuable PDF downloads, including Greg Colvin's article on Fiscal Sponsorship, and some examples (search on "exemplars") of model fiscal sponsorship agreements. |
| EVANS & ROSEN San Francisco & Seattle |
| www.evansrosen.com Evans & Rosen, LLP is a firm of two principals who are former colleagues of mine from when I worked at Silk, Adler & Colvin and have come to be good friends and tremendously supportive to me i moments of self-doubt. Visit their website "from ideas to action" to see how they describe themselves; for many nonprofits, Evans & Rosen would be an excellent choice. They bring unique, deep qualifications, a flexible work style and many years of combined experience. Cherie Evans has a law degree as well as a Masters in Tax, and Barbara Rosen is a CPA and was a senior tax a manager in a prominent regional CPA firm before going in to the practice of law. Besides the academic degrees, Cherie brings an international outlook and experience, deeply embedded political values, and a scholar's approach, with broad interest across the sector. Barbara, who also serves as an adjunct professor at U.C. Hastings College of Law, brings deep, broad experience with corporate and family private foundations. Her dual experience helps her cut through the fog when a client's CPA and tax counsel have different positions on some issue. Every time I talk to them they're off to some conference or Bar Committee meeting and so my sense is that they're carrying on that same scholarship torch. In addition, Greg Siegler, of Seattle, is "of counsel" which to lawyers means not a principal but not a junior. Greg brings depth in nonprofit formations, fiscal sponsorship and public policy advocacy as well as religious organizations. |
| ANDERSON NONPROFIT STRATEGIES San Francisco & Sonoma |
| www.anpslaw.com Alice Anderson, a specialized solo-practitioner, is another former colleague of mine from Silk, Adler & Colvin. Alice has a background including high-stakes litigation and health law. Most of these specialists aren't litigation minded; Alice isn't set up to handle litigation per se, but is feisty and could be helpful in cases that are already at conflict. She tells me she's intent on turning her firm into the JetBlue of law firms, trying to keep her rates and overhead down. Alice shares with me the experience of having spent part of her youth in Alaska, and has environmentalism in her blood as a passion. She's keenly interested in fundraising law and in Internet-related issues on which she is published in journals. As of this writing she is still working on her website, so she can be reached at alice@anpslaw.com. |
| GENE TAKAGI San Francisco |
| www.attorneyfornonprofits.com, also www.nonprofitlawblog.com Gene Takagi is a solo-practitioner also specialized on the needs of our sector. He and Cherie Evans and Barbara Rosen and I did a seminar in San Jose June 2006. In a more advanced fashion than I have managed here, he also writes and web-publishes www.nonprofitlawblog.com to comment on and provide tools for nonprofits to better manage their affairs, showing his depth of commitment and care for the sector. It's a great resource! Gene brings a kind of precision and curiosity to his work that, since I remember him from before he was a lawyer drive me nuts when he'll teach me some obscurity in an area I thought I'd mastered and, well, let's just say I no longer think "he can't be right" and look it up - he's always right. :) |
| CYNTHIA CUMFER Portland |
| 503-234-4282 Cynthia Cumfer is co-author of the Oregon Nonprofit Corporation Handbook listed on the Information Resources page under publications, and a legal scholar and practitioner who brings years of experience working with, forming, and advising nonprofit corporations of all stripes, particularly in Oregon. |
| BORENSTEIN AND McVEIGH LAW OFFICE Minneapolis / St. Paul |
| www.BAMlawoffice.com With a name like BAM Law Office, what's not to like? Seriously, Eve Borenstein of Borenstein and McVeigh Law Office, LLP, is an admired friend and colleague of 20 years' duration (and a fireball!) who brings an accounting background to her legal work, so unlike some advice that can seem a bit "ivory tower" to those of us struggling with the chart of accounts, you can count on Eve's advice to relate to real world issues. Eve's expertise is wide-ranging, but particularly focused on issues special to public policy advocacy (lobbying and political law). She practices nationally, and she devotes so much time to playing a leadership role in both the Bar Association, and the AICPA, and moving and shaking with IRS staff that it's hard to know how she earns a living. Or maybe she's earning two! I know that Eve maintains a practice speaking and training which is separate from the law practice. She might be the most wired-into-IRS developments professional I know. Her partner Ellen McVeigh brings a nonprofit orientation and complementary areas of expertise including the second most-needed set of expertise for the groups I work with: employment and contract law. These two prove that not all the experts (or lefties) are on one of the coasts! |
| HARMON, CURRAN, SPIELBERG & EISENBERG Washington D.C. |
| www.harmoncurran.com Gail Harmon leads this firm of EO Attorneys in D.C. dedicated to the sector and its work, with a deep bench in public policy advocacy. Gail was the first EO lawyer I met who felt like a comrade rather than a hired gun, and now John Pomeranz, who comes out of Alliance for Justice, is now a partner at this firm. I've seen John sing all of 501(h) in five minutes to a Gilbert and Sullivan score! An interesting aspect of this firm is that besides - dare I say - continuing to be the only 'comrades' in D.C. that I've met, they bravely practice both election and tax law. In my experience, public policy advocacy organizations can spend oodles of money trying to reconcile and balance the advice of both types of lawyers if they need both types. For anyone using this website who needs both tax help and federal election law help, I'd recommend this firm without hesitation. |
| LICHTMAN TRISTER & ROSS Washington D.C. |
| www.ltsrlaw.com Lichtman Trister, like the firms above, has a strong reputation and a commitment to the progressive public policy advocacy part of the sector. I add them here particularly because Holly Schadler is part of the firm. |
| Resource Links: Exempt Organization Law Firms |
| SILK NONPROFIT LAW Thomas Silk San Francisco |
| www.silknonprofitlaw.net (under construction) In many ways the field of exempt organization law was invented by Thomas "Tom" Silk, who 30+ years ago realized the sector was growing and that it would be possible to make a good career (good works and good money) serving it. Until then nonprofit work was handled by small boutique units at large firms or on the side as not-too-serious "pro bono" work by large general purpose law (this is about the same time as the practice of law began to really specialize in other ways too). In early 2007, Tom began to practice solo, and his old firm, below, changed its name accordingly). In addition to having darn near founded the field, Tom also did fascinating work on international law - see Philanthropy and Law in Asia Thomas Silk, Editor Jossey-Bass, Publishers, 1999 ISBN 0-7879-4510-2. Tom also did work in Eastern Europe as the countries became independent and tried to figure out what to do about building a civil sector of their own. These international projects came about because of his broad mind and scholarship. He continues to engage in California - were it not for Tom's work, the California Nonprofit Integrity Act might have called for audits down to $1M or $500K rather than $2M; I believe he has also been serving on the board of CompassPoint for some time now. As an attorney, while Tom is senior and therefore expensive, he thinks creatively, challenges himself to start with original source documents to look for new insight (perhaps reflective of having been a builder in the field), so he occasionally hatches startling new strategies. He is also ideal for situations where a senior attorney with gravitas can be useful in pulling a board together in keeping with modern governance demands. He also struggles as much as any 'EO attorney' I know with how professional rates are out of reach for many community-based nonprofits thereby also separating practitioners from the meaningful work that got them excited in the first place. I checked Tom's domain (above) and it is not yet live, and I can't believe the cheekiness of Network Solutions (who I fired years ago) in running ads for other sorts of nonprofit formation services on his "under construction" page. Tom can be reached by email directly here. (I dare not spell it out or the spamcrawler spiders will get it). |
| OK, so now, having sentimentally carried on about Tom, it may seem like I'm giving short shrift to the firms below - which is not true. I admire and could wax on embarrassingly about everyone on this page! Not every attorney is best for every case even within a specialized field, and/but I won't list any attorney or other resource on my site in the first place who I cannot heartily recommend. (On one occasion I listed a CPA firm and later de-listed them when I saw some unforgivably sloppy work.) We all owe Tom some respect for paving the way - not just those of us who've worked with him directly. So he's on top and has a long description! But I vouch for 'em all. |