The national law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP (DWT) announced today that it has expanded its tax-exempt organizations practice with a New York-based team of five attorneys including Dan Kurtz. Kurtz, former New York State Assistant Attorney General-in-Charge of the New York Charities Bureau, joins DWT as a partner. He will co-chair DWT’s national TEO practice with LaVerne Woods, a prominent tax-exempt organizations lawyer and past chair of the ABA Section of Taxation Exempt Organizations Committee, based in Seattle. Jean L. Tom, from the New York firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, will also join DWT as a partner (effective Feb.18, 2015). Joining Kurtz and Tom in DWT’s New York office will be former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP attorneys J.J. Harwayne Leitner, Coleen McGrath and Shveta Kakar, all joining as counsel.
“With Dan, Jean, J.J., Coleen and Shveta joining us, we are creating one of the most substantial practices in the country focused on the needs of tax-exempt organizations,” said Woods. “Dan brings to DWT a wealth of experience with some of New York’s largest charitable organizations, including The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hadassah, Lincoln Center, the New York Historical Society, The Jerome L. Greene Foundation, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, complementing our West Coast team’s work with foundations, charities and corporate philanthropy clients such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks. I’m thrilled that we are able to bring together such depth and breadth to create a truly national team.”
“DWT thinks very progressively about opportunities in the tax-exempt organizations space, and I’m looking forward to working closely with LaVerne and the full team to further expand this area for the firm,” said Kurtz.
DWT also announced today the establishment of an East Coast division of its employment and labor law practice in its New York office. “What a great way to start 2015, with both of these highly regarded teams coming to DWT New York,” said Lynn Loacker, partner-in-charge, New York office. “Our firm has long been a West Coast leader in TEO and employment law. The addition of these two teams presents tremendous opportunities for us to build out national practices in these areas, and to expand the array of services we provide our many media, communications, and entertainment clients here in New York.”
Jeff Gray, who became DWT’s managing partner on Jan. 1, said the addition of these groups directly support the firm’s recently updated strategic plan. “We are committed to adding great lawyers to build on what we do best, and these additions take us to a new level in two core areas of our firm.”
Dan Kurtz has developed a national reputation in serving the full range of needs of his nonprofit clients. He advises clients on corporate and governance issues; sponsorship and charitable fundraising opportunities; endowment administration and investment; indemnification; charitable solicitation laws, a full range of exempt organization tax issues and regularly handles business combinations and sophisticated reorganizations of all kinds. He has also conducted numerous internal investigations and litigation undertaken by civil enforcement and regulatory authorities, and he has played a key role in many groundbreaking cases in this area. Kurtz had been a partner and head of its exempt organizations practice at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP since 2008. Prior to that, he had been partner at Holland and Knight LLP from 2001-2008; Gilbert, Segall and Young LLP from 1998-2001, and at Lankenau Kovner Kurtz & Outten, LLP from 1985-1998. He co-authored the treatise New York Nonprofit Law and Practice.
Kurtz currently holds positions at a number of organizations, including serving as president of both The Spingold Foundation and the Manhattan Youth Recreation & Resources, and is a board member of other foundations and an affiliate of Bard College. He earned his A.B. from Brown University, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
Jean L. Tom represents a wide range of public charities and private foundations on corporate, tax and regulatory matters, including governance, organizational structuring, executive compensation, domestic and international grantmaking, political intervention and lobbying, and program- and mission-related investments. Tom previously practiced for over a decade with Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP in their tax-exempt organizations group. She has served on the Committee on Nonprofit Organizations of the New York City Bar Association and on the ABA Section of Taxation’s Committee on Exempt Organizations. Prior to law firm practice, Tom served as a law clerk for the Hon. Raymond J. Dearie, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn and currently serves as a member of the court’s Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Community Change. She received her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University and her J.D. from Yale Law School. Tom is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
J.J. Harwayne Leitner has been advising nonprofit organizations for 15 years and has a multi-disciplinary practice representing tax-exempt organizations of all types and sizes, and advises on tax, corporate governance and complex corporate transactions. Previously, she was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and also held that position at Holland & Knight LLP; Gilbert, Segall and Young LLP; and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP. She received her B.A. in mathematics from Brown University and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
Coleen McGrath focuses her practice on corporate, tax, and regulatory matters, including governance, use of restricted and endowed funds, charitable solicitation, and corporate transactions and reorganizations. She was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP from 2008-2014, and also at Holland & Knight LLP from 2002-2008. She has served on the Government Relations Committee of Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and the Committee on Nonprofit Organizations of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and also prepares annual supplements for the treatise, New York Nonprofit Law and Practice. McGrath received a B.A. cum laude in philosophy from Brooklyn College, an M.A. in forensic psychology from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and her J.D. magna cum laude from New York Law School.
Shveta Kakar is a litigator with over a decade of experience and represents clients in a wide range of commercial disputes, as well as not-for-profit entities in governance disputes and government investigations. She was previously an associate at Anderson Kill P.C., Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP. She has served on the Foreign and Comparative Law Committee as well as the Asian Affairs Committee of the New York City Bar and co-taught a course on U.S.-Indian Comparative Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School. She earned her B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, Delhi University, an LLB, summa cum laude from the London School of Economics and Political Science, U.K., and her LLM from Harvard Law School.
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About Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
DWT is a national law firm with nine offices in the U.S. and Shanghai, China with approximately 500 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.
