Jones Walker LLP

The tax implications of any business transaction — whether a routine day-to-day transaction or a merger, acquisition, or divestiture — should not be overlooked. While the tax advantages of a deal often serve as a primary driver of the transaction, any potential tax disadvantages or other implications should also be taken into consideration long before signing on the dotted line.

The transactional tax attorneys of Jones Walker LLP provide sophisticated, full-spectrum counsel to a broad range of clients, including regular corporations, Subchapter S corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies. We have extensive experience advising clients on the many domestic and international tax issues that play a role in complex, high-stakes deals. Our lawyers regularly help businesses negotiate tax-efficient structures for sophisticated transactions that also mitigate the risk of scrutiny from federal & state and local tax authorities.

The Best Lawyers in America© has included a number of our attorneys among the nation’s top tax advisors, a reflection of the depth of our experience and the quality of our service. We understand that each client has unique goals and needs, faces a constantly changing array of market pressures, and is often presented with industry- and sector-specific tax obligations and opportunities. Drawing on our in-depth knowledge of our clients and their industries —including energy, manufacturing, and water transportation — we offer seamless, cross-disciplinary counsel and practical, real-world solutions.

Our lawyers often serve as members of our clients’ broader teams of internal and external tax and business advisors. We are committed to working in a collegial, cooperative manner, implementing efficient processes, and providing clear communications at every step to add value to our clients’ businesses. We advise clients on the tax-implications of a broad range of transactions, including the following:

For-Profit Companies

• Business structures and formations, including corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies
• Financing transactions, including stock sales and issuance of debt
• Acquisitions, contributions, dispositions, and installment sales of property
• Liquidations
• Operating distributions and redemptions
• Requests for private letter rulings
• Tax-free reorganizations, including spin-offs and split-offs
• Tax-free like-kind exchanges of property
• State tax credits and incentives
• New markets tax credit transactions

501(c)(3) and Other Tax-Exempt Organizations

• Formation and operations
• Applying for and maintaining tax-exempt status
• Compliance issues

Diversity Mission Statement

Jones Walker LLP strives to encourage, foster and increase diversity across the firm. To this end, the Diversity Committee has adopted the goal of fostering a work environment that welcomes different perspectives, backgrounds and life experiences and ensures that an individual’s professional growth, experience or advancement is not limited because of gender, race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability or other similar factor.

Purposes of the Diversity Committee

• To increase awareness of the importance of diversity within the firm and of the means by which diversity enriches the firm;
• To encourage all lawyers and staff members to develop mutual respect and appreciation for different perspectives and backgrounds; and
• To develop and implement strategies to assist the firm in recruiting, retaining and advancing staff and lawyers from diverse backgrounds.
• Jones Walker values all employees who contribute positively to the firm’s practice, the firm’s environment, and the greater community we serve.

In 2009, Jones Walker was named to MultiCultural Law Magazine’s list of "Top 100 Law Firms for Women," part of a series of listings of the top 100 law firms for diversity. The listings are compiled based on diversity statistics derived from annual surveys that the publication sends to law firms with more than 100 attorneys.