ROBERT G. KESTER
|
PARTNER
Exchange Place
53 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
USA
617.570.1681
Robert Kester is a partner in the firm's Business Law Department and a member of the Tax Practice, and is also the firm’s tax counsel and Tax Matters Partner. He specializes in business and investment taxation, including the representation of clients in the structuring of commercial and investment transactions.
WORK FOR CLIENTS
Mr. Kester’s practice includes the tax-advantaged structuring of acquisitions and dispositions, reorganizations and other business restructurings, IPOs, venture capital investments and international transactions. A significant part of his time is devoted to regulated investment companies (RICs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), other collective investment vehicles and financial institutions and financial services companies, including attention to the special tax considerations faced by such entities and companies and their investors.
Mr. Kester has sought and obtained private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service on many significant issues, including tax-free corporate reorganizations and spin-offs; RIC multi-class, preferential dividend, asset test and other qualification issues; the use by RICs and REITs of a functional currency other than the U.S. dollar; REIT asset test and qualification issues; and partnership and investment fund taxation matters. He has also represented a number of clients in resolving tax controversies with IRS, including at the Appeals Office of the IRS and the U.S. Tax Court, and has worked successfully on behalf of clients in non-audit matters to secure IRS waivers of widespread information reporting and withholding errors and omissions.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Mr. Kester is a member of the Tax Sections of the Boston, District of Columbia and American Bar Associations.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Mr. Kester was a law clerk to the Hon. Will Garwood, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in 1990-91.
BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS
Mr. Kester is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Supreme Court and various other federal courts.
EDUCATION
- LL.M., 1997
Boston University School of Law
- J.D., 1990
The University of Chicago
(with honors, Order of the Coif) - A.B., 1985
The University of Chicago