A Focused Practice With Depth
Chambers USA (2019) praises us for our “focus and depth within the tax-exempt sector.” We have decades of experience advising nonprofit corporations and charitable trusts on tax matters, including The Robert A. Welch Foundation on the creation and funding of The Welch Institute at Rice University, and Texas Medical Center on tax issues related to the development of the TMC3 campus.
Our team is highly regarded for its experience and knowledge of complex tax rules and regulations, such as:
- compliance with the private inurement proscription
- the private benefit limitation
- excise taxes applicable to private foundations and related persons
- lobbying and electioneering rules
- structuring investments to avoid unrelated business income tax
- IRS examinations and rulings
- tax-exempt finance
In addition, we provide legal guidance to nonprofit corporations in connection with a variety of business transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, sales and purchases of physician practices and debt offerings. We also advise tax-exempt organizations on corporate governance matters, helping them draft and interpret governance documents and policies, as well as negotiating gift and naming rights agreements with donors.
Our clients include hospitals and healthcare organizations, senior living facilities, colleges and universities, independent and parochial schools, museums and arts organizations, conservation organizations, advocacy groups, student loan organizations, and grant-making foundations and charitable trusts.
Recognition for Excellence
Our client work has earned our lawyers and practice national recognition within the legal industry.
- Chambers USA – Texas: Tax
- Legal 500 US – Taxes: Non-contentious
- U.S. News – Best Lawyers – National Tax Law (Tier 1); Austin Tax Law (Tier 1), Houston Tax Law (Tier 1), Seattle Tax Law (Tier 1)


Market-Leading Engagements
We provide tax advice on signification transactions involving tax-exempt organizations.
- East Texas Medical Center Healthcare System on the sale of substantially all assets to Ardent Health Services, which included the formation by Arden and The UT Health Science Center of a partnership to investment more than $125 million in the new UT Health East Texas health system
- Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) in connection with a sophisticated and complex spin-off transaction involving the licensing of software to Pieces Technologies, Inc., an innovative healthcare analytics entity that deploys cutting-edge technology to improve clinical and community health outcomes
- Texas Medical Center on the development of a 28-acre biomedical innovation and commercialization campus known as TMC3 which will be a cooperative development between the medical center and four public or non-profit medical institutions, including a world-renowned cancer center and a major public university’s health center
- The Robert A. Welch Foundation on the creation and funding of The Welch Institute, a $100 million joint venture with Rice University that combines fundamental chemistry and materials science with the latest in machine learning and artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery, design and manufacture of the next generation of materials with applications to new energy systems, sustainable water, space systems, telecommunications, manufacturing, transportation and security