Les is a principal and asset management tax leader with Baker Tilly. A dynamic U.S. tax and accounting professional with more than 20 years of experience who has served as an external legal advisor to global financial institutions and other international clients, an internal legal advisor to a leading U.S. investment bank and its business units and a business unit tax director and senior finance executive to a leading U.S. insurance company.
- Managed in excess of $300 billion in the following asset classes: corporate bonds, securitized bonds, private placements, commercial and residential mortgages, municipal bonds, emerging markets, private equity and hedge funds, real estate, REMIC interests, derivatives and other hedging products
- Tax advisor on many dispositions and restructurings following the U.S. government bailout
- Advised on the execution and reporting of numerous tax planning strategies to monetize deferred tax assets
- Responsible for several deferred tax asset and liability validation projects
- Implemented a transfer pricing program for the asset management service fees and head office charges
- Tax counsel to the following business units and support areas: commodities, global structured products, private equity, infrastructure and real estate funds, firm principal investments and transactions, executive compensation, global wealth management and retail
- Advised on structuring, refinancing and unwinding international joint ventures focusing on U.S. shareholder issues, repatriation strategies, foreign tax credits, economic substance and other similar doctrines
- Advised on partnerships, carried interest plans and deferred compensation arrangements for the firm’s private equity professionals
- Advised on acquisitions, restructurings, and dispositions of U.S. private equity investments with an international focus
- Advised on numerous international capital market transactions, including debt offerings (sovereign and private), initial and secondary stock offerings, stock rights offerings, debt exchange and tender offers, liability management transactions, bank regulatory capital offerings, and equity linked notes and other derivatives
- Advised on private equity fund formation issues and leveraged lease issues
- Advised on multiple CBO and REMIC securitization programs
- Responsible for a self-insured worker’s compensation plan (covering approximately 10,000 employees across eight counties)
- Licensed attorney in New York and Ohio
- Family-owned and operated retail establishment DBA “Old Blue’s Lakehouse”, member
