Dan A. Kusnetz, formerly a partner of the Firm, retired from his tax practice and now concentrates solely on representing pro-bono clients. Most of his representations are for nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, with most of them focused on social justice and equity based issues. He often serves as principal outside counsel to such entities and his practice encompasses all aspects of the life cycle of nonprofit entities; from formation, achieving tax-exempt status, dissolution, mergers and commercial transactions. Currently active clients include, among numerous others, Girls Who Code, Habitat for Humanity, Foundation Rwanda, Partners in Health, Justice for Greenwood, the Urban Justice Center, Marshall Plan for Moms and Guernica.
Prior to retiring from his tax practice, Dan focused on the tax aspects of complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, bankruptcy, workouts, corporate restructuring and distressed asset investing, structured finance and real estate. Some of Dan’s more significant engagements and transactions, throughout a professional career spanning 40 years, include his representation of Cerberus Capital Management in the acquisition of a controlling interest in Chrysler (and, later, the sale of Chrysler and its debtor subsidiaries’ assets in their Chapter 11 reorganization and sale of Chrysler Financial to TD Bank); a group of senior secured lenders in their acquisition and recapitalization of the assets of Westmoreland Resource Partners LP; an institutional real estate investor in a $3-billion leveraged recapitalization of a real estate joint venture; several major financial institutions in respect of the acquisition of over $2.5 billion of life settlement assets and several fund sponsors and other investment vehicles in the formation of litigation finance funds.
Dan has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America and The Legal 500 United States as a leading tax lawyer. He received his B.A., cum laude, from Tulane University in 1980; his J.D., magna cum laude, from Tulane University Law School, where he was Order of the Coif and managing editor of the Tulane Law Review, in 1982; and his LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law 1988.
