Final Regulations and the Current Landscape Under Section 1031: A Panel Discussion with a Practical Approach

Stephen M. Breitstone leads the firm’s Private Wealth, Business & Real Estate Taxation practice groups. His practice focuses upon high net worth clients and their businesses, with a special emphasis on real estate. His clients include private domestic and international real estate owners and developers, closely-held businesses, public companies, private equity funds, trusts, estates and charitable organizations.

Stephen has the rare combination of skills as a transactional income tax attorney and as an estate planner. This combination enables him to effectively advise his private clients on their individual needs and those of their businesses. Stephen also serves as general counsel and financial and business advisor to a number of clients. Stephen currently teaches as an adjunct professor a course in Tax and Business Planning for Real Estate Transactions at Cardozo Law School. Stephen has lectured at the NYU Institute on Federal Taxation, Practicing Law Institute, Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Conference, Bloomberg BNA Tax Management, National Multi-Housing Conference, Jeremiah Long Section 1031 Conference, Federation of (1031) Exchange Accommodators and for many more organizations. Stephen’s style of practice is personal, not institutional; and his clients’ goals and objectives are his priority. Stephen has been interviewed on tax and financial topics by a number of media outlets including CBS, ABC, Fox, Fox Business News and News 12 Long Island.

Stephen is also the Chair of the firm’s Private Wealth & Taxation Institute and Chair of American Bar Association’s Sales, Exchanges and Basis Committee and the SEB Committee has primary jurisdiction over 1031 exchanges and Opportunity Zones.

Richard Lipton is a senior counsel in Baker McKenzie. He advises on tax planning for corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies, and has handled numerous engagements in structuring partnership and real estate transactions.

Richard served on the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches partnership taxation. Richard is past Chair of the ABA section of Taxation.

Richard advises US and multinational clients on federal tax issues. He also has extensive experience in a number of other areas relating to tax law, including tax-exempt organizations and the rules involving unrelated business income tax, the tax consequences of bankruptcies and workouts, and various tax accounting issues. He also provides tax advice to several professional sports franchises.

Richard has represented large corporations in complex partnership transactions, and has served as an expert witness on matters concerning partnerships and partnership taxation. He also has considerable experience in the areas of real estate investment trusts, real estate funds and investment in real estate by tax-exempt organizations and foreign investors.

Matthew chairs FRB’s Taxation and Private Client Groups. He concentrates his practice in Taxation as it relates to Real Estate, Closely Held Businesses, Private Equity Funds, and Trusts & Estates. He advises clients regarding tax planning, structuring, and compliance for commercial real estate projects, all stages of the business life cycle, generational wealth transfer, family business succession, and executive compensation. He also collaborates with other attorneys, accountants, financial advisors, bankers, and insurance professionals when they encounter matters requiring a threshold level of tax law expertise.

Matthew is known for his work on complex deals involving advanced tax considerations, such as Section 1031 Exchanges, the Qualified Opportunity Zone Program, Freeze Partnerships, Private Equity Mergers & Acquisitions, and Qualified Small Business Stock. He has served as a trusted advisor for prominent real estate funds, executives of multinational corporations, venture capitalists, successful startup businesses, ultra-high net worth families, and clients seeking creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems requiring tax-focused analysis.

Lou Weller leads firm’s real estate, transactions and tax practice. He previously served as National Director of Real Estate Transaction Planning and National Director, Like Kind Exchange Services at Deloitte Tax LLP and was Of Counsel to the national law firm, Bryan Cave LLP.

Lou has practiced tax and business law for more than 40 years. He has extensive experience designing and implementing strategies for real estate and business asset acquisitions, transfers, exchanges, leases, financing, work-outs, business start-ups, limited liability companies, partnership and joint venture formations, transactions involving REITs, capital raising through placement of partnership interests and stock, as well as counseling clients on achieving business and personal tax planning objectives. He also owned and for more than 20 years operated a like kind exchange qualified intermediary business.

Lou is the Real Estate Department editor of the Journal of Taxation, has published extensively in professional publications and is the past Chair of the Real Estate Committee, American Bar Association Tax Section and of that committee’s Subcommittee on Like-Kind Realty Exchanges. He is also past Chair of the Taxation Section, Bar Association of San Francisco, the San Francisco Tax Club and of the Federal Taxation of Real Estate Transactions Committee, American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Trust Section. Lou serves as Co-Chair of the annual Jeremiah Long Advanced Seminar on Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 and has also served as a member of the State Bar of California Taxation Section Executive Committee and on the Board of Directors of the Tenant in Common Association (now the Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association). He is an elected Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Lou graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University and earned concurrent J.D. and Masters in Public Policy degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. While in law school, he served as an editor of the California Law Review and a member of the Moot Court Board.

In addition to his law practice, Lou has served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Cancer Prevention Institute of California and as chair of the Town of Tiburon Planning Commission. He lives in Tiburon, California and has one daughter. In his spare time he travels, plays mediocre golf and is trying to regain the wicked tennis backhand of his youth.

Danny Reach is a senior associate in the Federal & International Tax Group. His practice involves tax planning and structuring for a variety of domestic and international business entities and individuals. He regularly assists clients in restructuring their global operations and provides tax and corporate advice on mergers and acquisitions, structured finance transactions, cross-border financings, and securitizations. Danny was identified by The Best Lawyers in America? as “One to Watch” in Tax Law.

Danny received an LL.M. in taxation from New York University, where he served as a graduate editor on the Tax Law Review and received the Nina N. Werblow Tax Fellowship. He received a J.D., with honors, from Emory University and earned the 2012 Georgia Federal Tax Conference Award. At Emory, Danny served as the editor-in-chief of the Emory Law Journal and treasurer of the Latin American Law Students Association. He also received a B.S. and an M.Acc. from the University of Florida and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

As President of 1031 Services, Inc., Mary has been involved in thousands of exchanges as attorney and intermediary. She frequently lectures before CPAs, attorneys, and other professional groups on the topic of tax-deferred exchanges. She is co-author of Tax Free Exchanges Under ?1031, a comprehensive treatise on Section 1031 exchanges, published by Thomson Reuters/West Publishing. Mary enjoys working on day to day exchange matters as well as structuring creative and complex exchange transactions.

She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan with honors in economics (1981) and her J.D. from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, where she was a member of Order of the Coif (1984).

Prior to joining the company in 1996, she was a partner with the Seattle law firm of Tousley Brain Stephens.