Washington, D.C. – January 5, 2005 – LAWFUEL – Best for law news – Pepper Hamilton LLP announced the expansion of its corporate tax practice with the addition of two lawyers and a business development professional. Annette M. Ahlers, a corporate tax
lawyer, has joined the firm as a partner, Todd B. Reinstein, a tax lawyer
and CPA, has joined the firm as an associate, and Homeira Ghorbani has
joined the firm as a business development director focusing primarily on the
tax practice. All are resident in the Washington office.
“Annette and her group are terrific additions to the firm and our tax
practice,” said Joan C. Arnold, chairwoman of Pepper’s Tax Practice Group.
“They provide sophisticated transactional tax advice to large public
companies, and their practice is a natural fit with Pepper’s.”
Ms. Ahlers, Mr. Reinstein and Ms. Ghorbani join Pepper from Gardner, Carton
& Douglas LLP in Washington, D.C., and before that, had worked together at
Ernst & Young, LLP.
Ms. Ahlers concentrates her practice on the tax aspects of large corporate
transactions. She counsels clients on corporate structuring, availability
of net operating losses and reporting obligations under the tax shelter
rules. She has extensive experience in determining tax consequences of
companies undergoing a bankruptcy or workout plan, identifying
capitalization and deduction opportunities for costs incurred in corporate
transactions, and working with clients in a post-merger context to build
tax-efficient structures for their domestic and international operations.
Before joining Pepper, Ms. Ahlers was the lead corporate tax partner at
Gardner, Carton & Douglas. Before that, she worked for nine years at Ernst
& Young, where she was a national tax partner and director of M&A tax
services for the mid-Atlantic area. There, she successfully applied for and
received numerous private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service.
Ms. Ahlers started her career in tax in 1990, when she joined the Office of
Chief Counsel for the IRS as an attorney-advisor. At the IRS, she drafted
treasury regulations, private letter rulings, technical advice memoranda and
other forms of guidance. She also was the drafting attorney assigned to
regulations under IRC Section 108 (nominal or token) and Section 382
(opinion attribution).
Ms. Ahlers is a frequent commentator on corporate tax issues, including the
impact of new tax rules on corporate tax positions and reporting
obligations. She is the author of numerous publications, including “Tax
Shelter Reporting Rules Now Carry a Heavy Price Tag for Noncompliance” and
“Buying Assets Out of Bankruptcy – What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You,” both
of which were published by BNA Tax Management (www.bnatax.com).
Ms. Ahlers received a B.A. in economics and history from the University of
Washington, a J.D. from California Western University and an LL.M in
taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.
Mr. Reinstein’s practice encompasses overall corporate structuring (domestic
and international) of taxable and tax-free transactions, shareholder
redemptions, entity selection, deemed and actual asset purchases, tax due
diligence, corporate loss limitation studies and tax aspects of bankruptcy
and workouts. He has represented taxpayers in federal and international
(Competent Authority Assistance) tax controversies.
Before joining Pepper, Mr. Reinstein was a senior associate in the Corporate
Tax Group of Gardner Carton & Douglas. Before that, he worked for six years
as a tax manager at two “Big 4” accounting firms. He also spent three years
as an internal auditor with the Internal Revenue Service.
At the IRS, Mr. Reinstein performed independent reviews and appraisals of
various IRS operations, including appeals, examination and collection. In
the private sector, he advised domestic and foreign clients on tax planning,
with a primary focus on acquisitions and divestures, and tax compliance. He
also has represented clients before the IRS at the examination and appeals
levels.
Mr. Reinstein is a regular contributor to national and regional tax and
accounting journals, including BNA Tax Management’s “Insights and
Commentary” section, the Tax Advisor, CPA Update and the Potomac Tech
Journal. He also has been a panelist at national meetings of the American
Bar Association’s Tax Section, discussing current M&A tax issues.
Mr. Reinstein holds a B.S.M. from Tulane University, an M.Acc. from Nova
Southeastern University, a J.D. from the University of Florida College of
Law and an LL.M. in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. He also
is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the District of Columbia and
Maryland.
Homeira Ghorbani is a business development director who will work initially
with Pepper’s Tax Practice Group. Ms. Ghorbani is a nine-year veteran in
the area of business development, with a focus on Fortune 1000 corporations,
emerging market companies and private equity firms. She has worked closely
with Ms. Ahlers for eight years — at Gardner Carton & Douglas as the firm’s
director of corporate tax business development, and at Ernst & Young as a
business development manager.
At Ernst & Young, Ms. Ghorbani was instrumental in planning, developing and
implementing the firm’s tax consulting practice in the mid-Atlantic area by
devising sales and marketing strategies to target middle to top-market
corporations. She also served as an economist with Ernst & Young’s
Economics Group, providing consulting services to clients in the area of
international transfer pricing. Earlier in her career, Ms. Ghorbani was a
financial analyst at the International Finance Corporation (the private
sector arm of the World Bank).
Ms. Ghorbani holds a B.S. in international economics and a B.A. in French
literature from Meredith College. She currently is working towards an
executive MBA at the University of Maryland. She is fluent in French.
Pepper’s Tax Practice Group assists clients with proactive tax planning,
including mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, public offerings,
reorganizations, restructurings, liquidations and structured finance
vehicles. The firm’s tax lawyers are integrally involved in the structure
and formation of partnerships, and have significant experience in private
equity funds, hedge funds, mezzanine funds and their investments. The tax
practice also encompasses significant international matters, such as inbound
and outbound acquisitions and dispositions, foreign tax credit planning and
cross-border finance work.
Lawyers in Pepper’s Washington office have been representing clients’
interests in the nation’s capitol for 35 years. In addition to tax, the
principal practice areas in the office include antitrust/trade regulation,
corporate and securities transactions, securities enforcement and
regulation, environmental law, energy, health care, housing and community
development, labor and employment law, government contracts, intellectual
property transactions and IP litigation, international trade, mergers,
acquisitions and joint ventures, project finance, commercial litigation,
securities and shareholder litigation, real estate finance and regulation,
venture capital and SBIC work, and transportation. The office also is
experienced in assisting businesses in the life sciences and technology
sectors.
Pepper Hamilton LLP (www.pepperlaw.com) is a multi-practice law firm with
400 lawyers in six states and the District of Columbia. The firm provides
corporate, litigation and regulatory legal services to leading businesses,
governmental entities, nonprofit organizations and individuals throughout
the nation and the world. The firm was founded in 1890.
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