Tom represents and advises private businesses and their owners on matters relating to acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, recapitalizations, restructurings, private equity transactions, and reorganizations, federal and state income tax controversies, and general tax and business planning and consulting.
He devotes a substantial portion of his practice to complicated corporate and partnership tax matters relating to mergers, acquisitions, investments, real estate and strategic alliances, as well as federal and state tax issues and practical solutions related to transactions and restructurings involving corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies.
Tom is co-author of a national treatise on the federal taxation of S corporations published by Thomson West, and he is nationally recognized for his extensive experience with S corporations. He is a retired adjunct professor at the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond, where for thirty years he taught courses on the taxation of partnerships, limited liability companies, and joint ventures as well as the taxation of corporations. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of each of The University of Virginia Conference on Federal Taxation and The College of William and Mary Tax Conference.
Tom is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. He is AV Preeminent rated on Martindale-Hubbell, and has been named among The Best Lawyers in America in Tax Law, Virginia Super Lawyers (Tax), and Virginia Business Magazine’s “Legal Elite.”
Tom joined the firm in 1983 and served for many years on the firm’s Board of Partners, recruiting committee, and finance committee. He also served as chair of the firm’s Tax and Employee Benefits Department. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Feed More, Inc. (Central Virginia Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, and the Community Kitchen). He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Commonwealth University Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the Memorial Foundation for Children. Tom also serves as a director of Atlantic Union Bank, a public bank holding company, as well as three other national private companies.
Experience
- Represented owners of several leading paper converting facilities in connection with sales to both private equity investors and strategic purchasers.
- Represented owners of several Mid-Atlantic retail convenience store chains in a part-sales, part-joint ventures with both private equity investors and strategic purchasers.
- Represented owner of a prominent, regional retail grocery chain in its asset sale to a publicly-held international retail grocery company.
- Represented owners of a federal savings bank in a merger with a publicly-held bank holding company.
- Represented owner of a hardwood logs, lumber, and flooring supply company in its asset sale to a private equity investor.
- Represented owner of a Virginia trucking company in connection with the sale of its entire trucking operation to a publicly-held trucking company.
- Represented owners of a specialty anatomic pathology laboratory in connection with sale to a private equity investor.
- Represented owners of a company in connection with the sale of its comprehensive HVAC installation, service, maintenance, repair, and system replacement business to a publicly held company.
- New York University School of LawLLMTaxation1983
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Michigan State University College of LawJD
summa cum laude
1983 - University of Notre DameBBAAccounting1977
Advisory Board, Memorial Foundation for Children
Board Chairman, Feed More, Inc.
Member, Committees on S Corporations, Corporate Tax and Partnerships, American Bar Association
- Co-speaker, "Best Practices for Board and Staff Orientation", 12th Annual Nonprofit Seminar, September 30, 2014
- Speaker, "Taxation of LLCs and Partnerships", 59th Annual Tax Conference, William & Mary Law School, William & Mary Law School, November 6-8, 2013
- Co-speaker, "The Role of the Board of Directors – General Governance and Major Events", 11th Annual Nonprofit Seminar: Best Practices in Nonprofit Management, October 15 & 29, 2013
- Speaker, "Tax Strategies and Techniques for S Corporations and Partnerships", National Accounting Firm Conference, 2012
- Speaker, "Business and Tax Considerations in the Purchase and Sale of a Privately Held Business", University of Virginia Annual Conference on Federal Taxation, June 7, 2012
- Speaker, "Partnership Taxation", William and Mary Tax Conference, 2009-2011
- Speaker, "Strategies and Techniques in Selling and Buying S Corporations and Partnerships", 62nd Annual University of Virginia Tax Conference, June 2010
- Speaker, "Converting C to S to LLC", Virginia Society of CPA Third Annual Tax Conference, 2009
- Speaker, "Capturing Capital Gains While Staying in the Deal", William and Mary Tax Conference, November 2008
- Speaker, "Tax Strategies and Techniques for Business Acquisitions and Dispositions", Virginia Society of CPA Second Annual Tax Conference, August 2008
- Virginia
- U.S. Tax Court
Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Tax Law, 2018-2024; Litigation and Controversy – Tax, 2023, 2024, Woodward/White, Inc.
Named the “Lawyer of the Year,” Richmond, Tax Law, 2020; Litigation and Controversy – Tax, 2022, The Best Lawyers in America
Named to “Virginia Super Lawyers,” Tax, Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2017-2019
- Author, Qualified Disaster Relief Payments by Employers Not Taxable Income to Employees, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, September 12, 2017
- Co-author, "S Corporations", Probate & Property Magazine, July/August 2012
- Co-author, S Corporations: Federal Taxation, Thomson West Publishing Company, June 8, 2012