Since the late 1970s, a significant part of John’s practice has focused upon the representation of many of the country’s financially successful individuals and families. Much of his time and attention has been devoted to assisting these individuals and families to develop strategies to achieve their estate and business succession planning goals in a tax-efficient and family-friendly manner, and to the preparation of legal instruments, such as wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, restrictive stock ownership agreements, partnership agreements and limited liability company operating agreements that implement such strategies. John has also worked with a number of individuals and families to establish discreet and effective lifetime and post-mortem vehicles for charitable giving including charitable trusts, private foundations, supporting organisations and public charities. In addition, John has represented a number of his clients in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service involving income tax, gift tax, generation-skipping transfer tax and estate tax issues including, in many instances, asset valuation controversies. John also currently assists a number of his clients in administering estates, trusts and private foundations.
Between 1983 and 2021, John also represented labor unions and their associated benefit funds with respect to a wide variety of tax and ERISA issues. He has advised union-sponsored pension and health and welfare funds concerning tax qualification issues as well as ongoing administrative and operational issues. He has also worked with labor unions to establish and develop a number of innovative member benefit programs and has represented both the unions themselves and union-sponsored benefit funds in connection with a number of Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor audits.