Sheldon M. Bonovitz
Chairman Emeritus
Duane Morris LLP
30 South 17th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103-4196
USA
Phone: +1 215 979 1972
Fax: +1 215 689 3546
Email:
SMBonovitz@duanemorris.com
New York Address
Duane Morris LLP
1540 Broadway
New York, NY 10036-4086
Phone: 212.692.1059
Fax: 212.692.1020
Sheldon M. Bonovitz is Chairman Emeritus of Duane Morris, having stepped down as Chairman in 2008 after serving ten years in that position. He practices in the areas of federal income taxation and corporate law, with particular emphasis on mergers and acquisitions. He also devotes his practice to business counseling, in particular acquisitions and dispositions of businesses, succession, governance and the structuring of multi-party transactions.
Mr. Bonovitz serves on the public company Boards of Directors of Comcast Corporation. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of several privately-held companies and a leveraged buy-out fund. In addition, he is a Trustee of the Dolfinger-McMahon Charitable Trust and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation, and he serves on the Boards of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation and the Curtis Institute of Music.
A former Chairman of the Tax Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association, Mr. Bonovitz is also a former Chairman of the Corporate Tax Committee and the Committee on Affiliated and Related Corporations of the Taxation Section of the American Bar Association. A member of the Tax Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, he is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and a member of the Tax Advisory Group of the American Law Institute. He has written numerous articles on corporate tax, has lectured at various tax institutes throughout the country and has taught advanced courses in taxation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and at the Graduate Tax Program of Temple University School of Law. Mr. Bonovitz most recently is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, teaching a course on "The Large Law Firm – Organization, Operation, Strategies and Issues," covering the subject in a current, realistic, large law firm setting. He previously taught this course at Harvard Law School.
A former Attorney-Advisor to the Honorable Arnold Raum of the United States Tax Court, Mr. Bonovitz is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce.
Areas of Practice
- Federal Income Taxation
- Corporate Law
- Mergers and Acquisitions
Representative Matters
- Negotiating and resolving a complex corporate dispute resulting in $400 million of debt forgiveness; tax planning to eliminate tax on debt forgiveness.
- Advising on succession planning of a large multi-billion dollar publicly-held corporation.
- Advising the Board of $600 million market cap company on a strategy for achieving a liquidity event; managing process between Company and its investment bankers.
- Advising a real estate fund with $1 billion of equity on various tax, real estate and structuring strategies.
- Advising a real estate syndication client on structuring strategies, involving transactions totaling $100 million plus.
- Advising on the strategy of the sale of a business to a Fortune 100 Company netting proceeds to the seller's shareholders of $125 million; responsibility for advising on management consultants, investment bankers and sale negotiations.
- Structured a substantial investment in a technology company that was taxed as a pass-through entity using equity participation rights for strategic participants and venture investors.
- Structured innovative deferred compensation plans for senior executives in Fortune 500 companies.
Professional Activities
- Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School teaching a course on "The Large Law Firm – Organization, Operation, Strategies and Issues."
Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Pennsylvania
- Supreme Court of the United States
- U.S. Tax Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- U.S. Court of Claims
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D., cum laude
- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, B.S. Econ.
Civic and Charitable Activities
- Board of Trustees, Barnes Foundation
- Board of Trustees, Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Board of Trustees, Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation
- Board of Trustees, Curtis Institute of Music
- Trustee, Dolfinger-McMahon Charitable Trust
- Trustee, Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
- Chairman, Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists
- Chairman, Board of Directors, Philadelphia's Children First Fund
Honors and Awards
- Listed in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, 2005-2010
- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
