Conference Speakers

Mary Foster (Conference Co-Chair) is currently President of 1031 Services, Inc., in Seattle, Washington. She has been involved in numerous exchanges as attorney and intermediary and she frequently lectures before professional groups and investors on the topic of tax-deferred exchanges. Ms. Foster is co-author of Tax-Free Exchanges under § 1031, published by Thomson Reuters/West. She is past President and Board Member of the Federation of Exchange Accommodators, a member of the ABA Tax Section Tax Council and former Chair of the Committee on Sales, Exchanges and Basis, a member of the Washington State Bar Tax Section, and a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. Ms. Foster is a contributing author to Real Estate Taxation, Matthew Bender’s Federal Tax Service, Real Estate Tax Digest, Journal of Passthrough Entities, Business Law Today, NYU Tax Institute, and Journal of Accountancy. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from University of California, Berkeley Law.

Lou Weller (Conference Co-Chair) is Managing Partner of Weller Partners, LLP in Sausalito, California. Lou is a retired Principal of Deloitte Tax, LLP, where he served as National Director, Real Estate Transaction Planning and led the firm’s Like-Kind Exchange practice group. He is co-author of Real Property Exchanges, 3rd edition, published by California Continuing Education of the Bar, is the Real Estate department Editor of the Journal of Taxation and serves on the Advisory Board for the Journal of Passthrough Entities. Lou is a past Chair of the ABA Tax Section’s Real Estate Committee, aa past Chair of the Taxation Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco, past member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar of California Taxation Section and is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. He received his B.A. cum laude from Yale University and J. D. and Masters in Public Policy degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. In his spare time Lou continues to struggle to become a barely adequate golfer.

Michael Alfano is a vice president and business development officer with
Computershare Trust Company, N.A., representing 1031 Like Kind Exchange
Services and Conventional Debt/Specialized Services products in the United
States and Bermuda. Michael has a broad background in corporate trust sales,
business development, and document review and negotiation.
Before joining the sales team, Michael negotiated governing documents for
bonds issued by state and local housing finance agencies for the purpose of
financing both single-family and multifamily mortgage loan programs. Prior to
joining Computershare Corporate Trust, he performed various roles in business
development and relationship management across various products in BNY
Mellon’s U.S. Corporate Trust division. At BNY Mellon, Michael was among the
top 1% of relationship managers in revenue generation.
Michael graduated from the University of Florida and received a B.A. and M.B.A. in Business
Administration. He also holds a J.D. from Samford University. Michael is in Jacksonville, FL.

Brad Borden is a Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and the principal at Bradley T. Borden PLLC. He teaches Federal Income Taxation,

Partnership Taxation, Taxation of Real Estate Transactions, Tax Planning for Real Estate Taxation, and LLCs and Partnerships. Brad began practicing law, focusing on section 1031 and entity taxation, at Oppenheimer, Blend, Harrison & Tate, Inc., in San Antonio, Texas. As the principal of Bradley T. Borden PLLC, he represents businesses and property owners in complex section 1031 exchanges and other transactions and frequently works as an expert witness or consultant in cases and transactions related to section 1031, partnership and real estate taxation, classification of property, and other aspects of partnerships and LLCs. Brad is the author of several books and numerous articles in leading tax and legal journals.  He has published more than 135 articles in academic and professional journals. He has given more than 380 presentations on topics related to his scholarship. Brad is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the American College of Tax Counsel. He is an active member of the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association and a past chair of the Sales, Exchanges & Basis Committee of that Section and is a member of the Tax Section and Business Law Section of the New York State Bar Association. He earned a B.B.A. and M.B.A. from Idaho State University and a J.D. and LL.M. in taxation from University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law, he is licensed to practice law in New York and Texas, and he is a certified public accountant.

Stephen Breitstone is the Chairman of the Private Wealth & Taxation Group at Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP. His practice focuses upon high net worth clients and their businesses, with a special emphasis on tax aspects of real estate. His clients include private domestic and international real estate owners and developers, closely held businesses, public companies, private equity funds, trusts, estates and charitable organizations. Stephen has the rare combination of skills as a transactional income tax attorney and as an estate planner. This combination enables him to effectively advise his private clients on their individual needs and those of their businesses. Stephen also serves as general counsel and financial and business advisor to a number of clients. Stephen has also served as an expert witness in litigation over 1031 exchange transactions. Stephen currently teaches as an adjunct professor a course in Tax and Business Planning for Real Estate Transactions at Cardozo Law School. Stephen has lectured at the NYU Institute on Federal Taxation, Practicing Law Institute, Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Conference, Bloomberg BNA Tax Management, National Multi-Housing Conference, Jeremiah Long Section 1031 Conference, Federation of (1031) Exchange Accommodators and for many more organizations. Stephen’s style of practice is personal, not institutional; and his clients’ goals and objectives are his priority. Stephen has been interviewed on tax and financial topics by a number of media outlets including CBS, ABC, Fox, Fox Business News and News 12 Long Island.

Terry Cuff is of counsel at the Los Angeles office of Loeb & Loeb, LLP. Terry is also the author of Drafting and Understanding Partnership and LLC Allocation and Distribution Provisions (Thomson Reuters, 2024-5 ed. and all previous editions). Terry undertook his undergraduate work at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a long time ago. This work emphasized American history, economics, computer science, mathematics, grooving with the redwoods, and walking softly in the forest to avoid stepping on banana slugs. Terry spent three years on active duty as a Marine Corps ground officer, but it did not seem to have an appreciable effect on the United States’ effort in the Vietnam War. Terry served as a combat engineer officer with the First Engineer Battalion and the Seventh Engineer Battalion, First Marine Division. There, Terry learned to tread lightly, because of hidden dangers even more disagreeable than banana slugs. Terry helped to keep Southern California safe from foreign invasion during the Vietnam Era from the confined of Camp Pendleton. Terry also served as an antiaircraft missile defense officer (HAWK) with the 4th Light Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion. In that role, he did not actually shoot down any aircraft – friend or foe. Terry’s military service was entirely within the Continental United States. Terry makes no claim, and has made no claim, to having received any military decorations Terry did not receive, serving in any combat zones in which Terry did not serve, winning any battles or wars that Terry did not win, or suffering any combat injuries Terry did not suffer. In the Marine Corps, Terry learned to break things, to shoot things, to blow things up, and to shoot things down. Those skills have proved to be invaluable for a tax attorney. Lacking better purpose in life and not being independently wealthy, Terry attended and graduated from the University of Southern California School of Law and the New York University School of Law. He spent most of his time in law school correcting citations. Alas, this still has failed to make Terry independently wealthy, so Terry continues to work long hours and many weekends. Terry’s early practice in law was concentrated on tax problems of the entertainment industry, principally film and music, areas in which his clients were infinitely more successful than he. Terry’s practice shifted to corporate tax problems, real estate tax problems, tax problems of real estate investment trusts, partnership tax problems and tax problems related to the cable television industry, fields in which most of his clients are infinitely more successful than he. Over the years, Terry’s hair has turned grey, his eyesight has dimmed, his knees have become more fragile, his weight has increased substantially, his tennis game has slowed down (in speed but not in enthusiasm) and has become more erratic (although his left-handed serve has improved), and his practice now spans the spectrum of real estate and partnership tax and tax problems of real estate investment trusts. Terry writes and lectures nationally about a wide variety of partnerships and real estate tax problems. Terry recently has particularly focused most of his writing and lecturing on problems involved in drafting partnership and LLC agreements, problems of Section 1031 exchanges, partnership audit rules, and problems of structuring and presenting Excel spreadsheets in the real estate, finance, and tax areas. Terry writes and lectures about techniques that lawyers use to undermine the planned economics of partnership agreements and LLC agreements. Terry also writes and lectures about the many ways in which taxpayers and their advisors can foul-up Section 1031 exchanges. Terry also writes and lectures about taxation of real estate investment trusts. Outside of his day job, Terry devotes much of his time to exploring the military and naval history of the American Revolution (in which Terry did not serve) in all of its international theatres. Having become old and infirm, Terry’s limits other extracurricular activities to running around the tennis courts at the Live Oaks Tennis Club in South Pasadena, chasing a yellow tennis ball, lounging in his backyard swimming pool, taking photographs of things that move and things that stand still, walking around the Huntington Gardens in San Marino, and trying to make Excel spreadsheets do things that they do not want to do. Terry is active in VBA programming both in Excel and in Word.

Chris Cunningham handles a wide array of tax issues for a broad spectrum of clients, but has developed a particular expertise and reputation in complex like-kind exchanges, Qualified Opportunity Zone investments, and taxation of real estate investments.

Chris is actively involved in state and national bar service, having served as Co-Chair of the Sales, Exchanges, and Basis Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section, as well as being a former member of the Council of the Tax Section of the State Bar of Texas, and a member of the board and Chair of the Speaker Relations Committee of the Texas Federal Tax Institute.

Chris is also a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, the American Bar Foundation, and the Texas Bar Foundation, as well as a member of the Texas Bar College. Before practicing law, Chris earned a B.S. cum laude in Computer Science and Math from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, a J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, and an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University.

Chris had a prior career as a network security engineer and believes that technical, design-oriented approach brings a unique perspective and ability to clients’ legal problems. Outside of practicing law, Chris enjoys astronomy and runs a historical European martial arts school where students practice medieval and renaissance sword fighting, studying directly from original period fighting manuals.

Christopher Fenolio is a Partner at Weller Partners LLP, where he advises institutional and private real estate investors on the structuring and execution of tax-deferred exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code and a broad range of complex transactional real estate matters. Prior to joining Weller Partners, Mr. Fenolio counseled real estate clients and pass-through entities at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.

Mr. Fenolio’s practice encompasses the full spectrum of like-kind exchange structures and related transactional matters, including forward and reverse exchanges, construction and improvement exchanges, partnership redemption (drop-and-swap) transactions, partnership division transactions, tenancy-in-common arrangements, Delaware Statutory Trusts, and partnership roll-up transactions, including complex 1031/721 UPREIT structures. He also regularly advises clients on the identification, negotiation, and acquisition (including due diligence and financing) of qualifying replacement properties.

Mr. Fenolio speaks frequently on Section 1031 matters before professional and industry audiences. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Sales, Exchange, and Basis Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation, and he is also a contributing author to the California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) treatise on Real Property Exchanges.

Mr. Fenolio holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Business Taxation from the University of Southern California, and a Juris Doctor with a certificate in Environmental, Real Estate and Land Use Law from Chapman University School of Law. During his undergraduate and graduate studies at USC, he served for three years as a teaching assistant in financial accounting, leading weekly instructional sessions for undergraduate students. Mr. Fenolio is admitted to practice before the California State Bar, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Supreme Court.

In addition to his client practice, Mr. Fenolio contributes pro bono legal counsel to the Civil Air Patrol, United States Air Force Auxiliary, where he serves as a Wing Legal Officer and as a government relations officer engaged in legislative advocacy before federal and state legislatures. He currently holds the rank of Captain and is a Mission Pilot and Orientation Pilot. He regularly flies on USAF-sponsored missions, including flying cadets as part of the cadet orientation flight program.

Bio to come.

Glenn Johnson is a Principal in Ernst & Young LLP’s US National Tax Department.  Glenn leads the US PPP Infrastructure Tax Practice and is the Director of the Leasing Tax Services. Glenn is experienced in planning leasing and other asset-based structured transactions. Also, Glenn has provided US tax services with respect to many infrastructure projects where he advises on a wide range of tax issues to both developers and owners.  In addition, Glenn has worked with domestic and foreign manufacturers in establishing and operating captive leasing and finance companies.  Further, Glenn has significant experience concerning deferred like-kind exchange transactions where he advises on a wide range of tax and operational issues.

Glenn, who joined Ernst & Young in 1998, earned his LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law School; his J.D., with honors, from Boston University School of Law; and his B.A. in Economics from Wesleyan University. Glenn also is active in a number of civic and charitable organizations.

Glenn currently is and has been a member of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association Federal Tax Committee for over 15 years.  Glenn is the former American Bar Association Chair of the Capital Recovery and Leasing sub-committee.  Glenn is a member of EY’s Federal Income Tax Committee and leads EY’s Infrastructure Tax Committee.

Jared Kassan is a partner in the Los Angeles office who counsels individuals and companies on tax-efficient ways to structure their business and real estate transactions. His practice includes negotiating, structuring, and documenting joint ventures and other partnerships for the financing, purchase, sale, and development of commercial real estate; restructuring transactions to minimize adverse tax exposure; federal, state, and local tax planning; Section 1031 exchanges; and broader operational matters. Jared represents a diverse cross-section of Fortune 100 companies, national real estate investment and development firms, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. Widely-respected for his experience resolving complex California property and documentary transfer tax issues, Jared advises on residential, industrial, and commercial office deals throughout California. In addition to his counsel on real estate and joint venture acquisitions, dispositions, and recapitalizations, Jared represents sponsors on the issuance and structuring of tenancy-in-common interests, real estate developers in creating employee investment vehicles, and property owners with property tax change in ownership disputes before county assessment appeal tribunals. Before starting his legal career, Jared was an analyst with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency creating statistical models using mortgage and other bank data to measure compliance risk at nationally-chartered banks. Jared uses his data analysis skills to help clients with issues such as calculating and allocating distributable proceeds, creating IRR models, and determinations of basis. Jared served as a law clerk to the Honorable James S. Halpern of the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C. While in law school, he worked for the Office of Chief Counsel at the Internal Revenue Service. Jared regularly speaks at industry events on partnership restructuring and Section 1031 exchanges.

Todd Keator is a former partner at Holland & Knight LLP. He has an L.L.M. in Taxation from NYU and is a former Chair of the Real Estate Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section. His practice focuses primarily on U.S. transactional tax issues, with an emphasis on partnership, real estate, and oil and gas transactions. Recent practice highlights include 1031 exchanges involving real estate and oil and gas assets, private REIT formation and acquisitions, partnership formations and recapitalizations, debt workouts, and transactions involving “tracking” stock.

Bob Schachat has more than 40 years’ experience advising clients in all federal income tax aspects of real estate, including REIT, partnership, limited liability company and S corporation formations, acquisitions, like-kind exchanges, development, leases, financings, workouts, dispositions and liquidations. He has also advised clients on a regular basis in monitoring federal legislative and regulatory activity in the real estate area.
Bob joined BDO in 2021 after 23 years in the National Tax Real Estate Group of a big four accounting firm and 12 years as a partner in a Manhattan law firm practicing in the taxation of real estate. Bob has published many articles and lectures frequently at many real estate industry and tax conferences. He is co-author with Jim Lowy of the CCH treatise, Taxation of REITs and UPREITs.
Bob has served as Chair of the Real Estate Committee of the ABA Section of Taxation, Vice Chair of the Tax Policy Advisory Committee of the Real Estate Roundtable and co-chair of the Cost Recovery Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee of the NYSBA Tax Section, and he continues to serve as a member of the Government Relations and Real Estate Committees of the ABA Section of Taxation.

David Shechtman has developed a national practice structuring and documenting like-kind exchanges of real estate and other assets for real estate investors, exchange intermediaries, and major corporations.  He is the former Chair of the Committee on Sales, Exchanges and Basis of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section.  He is a regular speaker at ABA Tax Section meetings and other tax conferences and has published articles in the Journal of Real Estate Taxation, Journal of Taxation of Investments, Tax Notes and the NYU Institute on Federal Taxation.  He received a B.A. degree, with high honors, in Economics from Swarthmore College in 1974, and a J.D. degree from Cornell University Law School in 1977.  He is also an Adjunct Professor of Tax law at the Temple University Law School.

Kevin Thomason is a Partner in Elliott Thomason & Gibson, LLP, in Dallas, Texas.  Kevin focuses on the representation of clients in tax matters. He provides advice and counseling on partnership, corporate, and real estate tax issues, with an emphasis on like-kind exchanges including creative uses of tenant-in-common and Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) structures. He also advises on wealth preservation and estate planning matters and provides general counsel to businesses in multiple sectors.  He is a Past Chair of the Section of Taxation of the State Bar of Texas, the Section of Taxation of the Dallas Bar Association and the Real Estate Committee of the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association.  He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Texas Federal Tax Institute and is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.  While Chair of the State Bar Tax Section, Kevin drafted legislation to ban tax strategy patents and had such legislation approved by both the Council of the Tax Section of the State Bar of Texas and the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas, a first.  All you really need to know about Kevin is that he was the starting catcher on the 1972 State Champion Ardmore Tigers Baseball Team.  It has all been downhill from there.

Marty Verdick is  a partner with RSM US LLP, based in Champaign, Illinois, with over 30 years of experience in the field of real estate taxation.  Mr. Verdick serves as the firm’s lead specialist for like-kind exchanges. He has been an instructor at RSM’s national tax conference on the topic of advanced concepts in like-kind exchanges and is a visiting lecturer in the Finance and Accountancy departments at the University of Illinois and at the University of Illinois School of Law.  Mr. Verdick has been a speaker for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education on the subject of like kind exchanges.  He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Joyce Welch is a Tax Practitioner who specializes in income tax planning for acquisition/disposition of highly appreciated assets.  Ms. Welch, as a retired member of Deloitte Tax’s Washington National Tax Periods and Methods Group, she has practiced accounting and tax services for over 30 years and has been involved in complex partnership tax structuring and the development and implementation of deferred and reverse like-kind exchanges, sale-leasebacks, and other capital gain preservation strategies for REITs, private equity funds and other public and private owners of real estate and other tangible property.  Ms. Welch has been a featured speaker at several real estate industry conferences and has published articles in Journal of Taxation, Real Estate Tax Digest and Tax Management Memorandum and was a contributing author of the treatise, Real Property Exchange, 3rd edition, published by the Continuing Education of the Bar of California.  Ms. Welch received her B.S. in Accounting at Arizona State University.  She holds her CPA in California.