About

Bill’s prompt service and attention to detail have been the standards of his career in the federal tax and real property areas of practice.

Bill is a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and is a member in local, state, and national bar associations. Bill has extensive experience in a variety of commercial real estate-related transactions and federal taxation topics.

Bill’s firm is a single-member limited liability company. Bill is licensed to practice law in the state of Alabama and before the United States Tax Court. Prior to the formation of his firm, Bill worked with a multi-state law firm and with a more intimate 25+ person firm that operated only in Birmingham, Alabama. Bill served for a time as the managing partner of the local firm.

When at UVA law school, Bill studied under Mort Caplin, commissioner of Internal Revenue under president Kennedy, Sam Thompson, who authored Federal Income Taxation of Domestic and Foreign Business Transactions, and Bill McKee, who co-authored Federal Taxation of Partnerships and Partners. Bill was a student assistant to professor Thompson.

Throughout his legal career, Bill’s services have focused on commercial real estate and federal tax aspects. The practice areas represented have included the following:

  • Commercial real estate of all types, including purchase and sales agreements, Section 1031 exchanges, and  real estate financing of many types with particular emphasis to multi-family and single family communities
  • Federal taxation related to real estate, to limited liability companies, to partnerships, to subchapter S corporations
  • Planning, reporting, and defending charitable gifts
  • Formation of entities and similar business transactions 
  • Commercial lease negotiations
  • Federal tax controversies
  • Representation of lenders, landlords, property managers, and tenants in matters under the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This website includes recent representative matters, as well as a partial listing of professional honors and activities. The site also features periodic Newsletters. Topics covered include Spring 2024 – Charitable Gifts of Real Estate; Winter 2023 – Factual Issues in 1031 Exchanges; and Fall 2023 – Conservation Easements by Pass-Through Entities. 

Some of the assignments that Bill has undertaken include:

  • Representation of residential developers in turnover of neighborhood associations to the homeowners.
  • Advice concerning the purchase and disposition of unimproved or improved real estate.
  • Consideration of choice of entity for real estate.
  • Representation of senior lenders, junior lenders, and receiverships in loans collateralized by real estate or mezzanine equities.
  • Negotiation and drafting of deal-specific provisions of limited liability company agreements and agreements among tenants-in-common.
  • Representation of sponsors, participants, and appraisers involved with charitable transactions.

Particular recent representative matters:

  • Structured a conservation easement that was sustained by the Tax Court.
  • Acted as counsel to the owners of land without adequate access to a nearby interstate highway. The resulting improvement in access increased the highest and best use and value of the site.
  • Represented a minority LLC owner in the IRS audit of a conservation easement.

Professional honors & activities:

Speaking engagements:

  • Presenter: “Conservation Easements From A to Z,” April 27, 2022, a webinar sponsored by Lorman Education Services.
  • Co-presenter: “Current Challenges in the Conservation Easement Practice,” Charleston, South Carolina Tax Council (November 2018)
  • Co-presenter: “Conservation Easements and Pass-Through Entities,” ABA Real Property, Probate, and Trust Section, Orlando, Florida (May 2018)
  • Moderator: “Guns and Other Premises Liability Issues,” American College of Real Estate Lawyers Spring Meeting, Orlando, Florida (March 2018)
  • Co-presenter: “Conservation Easements from A to Z,” Birmingham Bar Center, Birmingham, Alabama (August 2017)
  • Panelist: “Thoughts on Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument for Statutory Recognition of Options to Purchase Conservation Easements,” Vanderbilt University Law School (March 2017)

Education:

  • University of Virginia School of Law, Juris Doctor
  • Georgia Institute of Technology, Master of Sciences in Operations Research
  • University of Alabama, Bachelor of Science, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions:

  • Alabama
  • United States Tax Court