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Contact Us | JW Careers
Jackson Walker
Brian Dethrow

Brian Dethrow

Partner, Dallas
214.953.5794
bdethrow@jw.com
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Areas of Focus Practice Experience Recognition & Accolades Publications & Speeches Community Involvement Client Results Areas of Focus

Practice Areas

  • Tax
  • Wealth Planning

Experience

  • Family Office
  • International Taxation
  • Qualified Opportunity Zone Representation
  • Tax Controversy & Litigation
  • Transactional Tax Planning

Biography

Brian Dethrow focuses his practice on tax and business planning for the Family Office and complex corporate, partnership, family, and inter-generational transactions.

Brian has broad experience with innovative tax and business planning with a particular focus on closely held business and Family Offices. His clients have ranged from Fortune 500 to very large family-controlled businesses, as well as the families who own them. His clients include some of the largest and most sophisticated Family Offices in the country, as well as funds for real estate, qualified opportunity zones, private equity and hedge funds. He counsels on international tax, especially for very wealthy cross-border families, and estate, charitable and business succession for all the above.

Education

B.A., with high honors, University of Texas at Austin

  • Plan II Honors Program
  • Phi Beta Kappa

J.D., Harvard Law School

Bar Admissions

Texas, 1983

Areas of Focus Practice Experience Recognition & Accolades Publications & Speeches Community Involvement Client Results Areas of Focus

Clients who count on Brian for their transactional and tax planning include some of the largest private enterprises in the country.  Brian also represents many of the wealthiest individuals in the country – and their Family Offices — on tax planning; succession planning; charitable giving, through the use of private foundations and public charities. Clients regularly seek Brian’s advice and help to:

  • Create innovative Family Office structures for maximizing investment expense deductibility and generational transfer of wealth and control
  • Develop an innovative qualified opportunity zone practice as a first adopter counsel
  • Multi-billion dollar combinations of family-owned businesses
  • Offshore tax restructuring of billion-dollar medical technology company, patent box, licensing arrangements
  • Create numerous private equity fund structures, tax planning for their founders, tax planning for acquisitions/dispositions of their portfolio companies
  • Develop complex offshore structure for largest equipment distributor in the U.S.
  • Multi-jurisdiction Family Office work for international tax driven changes to tax jurisdictions
  • Develop U.S. tax credit investment program for private multi-billion dollar international bank client and Fortune 500 company
  • Income and estate/gift tax planning for multi-billion dollar private companies and their owners
  • Income tax planning for Family Office tax reduction, qualified opportunity zone gain rollover
  • Create and structure funds used in real estate and private equity space
  • Business and succession planning, transfer of wealth and control
  • Tax controversy work for large privately held business and their families
  • Charitable giving, through the use of private foundations and public charities
  • Complete restructuring of multi-billion dollar family holdings in line with succession, asset and matrimonial protection and  wealth generation for G4
  • Develop Multi-Family Office investment structure used in deals involving billions of value, in many industries, onshore and offshore
  • Facilitate the tax-free transfer of billions of value in private companies among generations of family owners
  • Create tax-advantaged generational transfer of intellectual property for $500 million family
  • Develop Mexican / US cross-border entry point for billionaire foreign nationals in their estate planning
  • Complete restructuring of large multi-generation Family Office and its oil, real estate, and equities holdings
  • The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White Inc.), Tax Law, 2017-2021
  • Best Lawyers in Dallas, D Magazine, 2009, 2011-2012, 2014-2016, 2018-2020
  • Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers by Thomson Reuters, 2011-2012, 2020
  • AV Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell
Publications
  • Co-Author, “Tax Benefits of Investing in QOFs: A New Tax Shelter Approved by Congress!” (February 2019)
  • Co-Author, “Treasury Releases Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) Guidance” (October 25, 2018)
  • Author, “Qualified Opportunity Zones” (July 2018)
Speaking Engagements
  • “ACPEN Signature: 2020 Real Estate Taxation after Tax Reform,” The Accounting Continuing Professional Education Network (ACPEN) (June 2020)
  • “QOZ Update—COVID Disaster Declarations Make QOZ Even More Taxpayer Friendly,” American Academy of Attorney-CPAs (May 5, 2020)
  • “Qualified Opportunity Zones: The “Dirt” on Tax-Driven Real Estate Development,” UT Law’s 23rd Annual Land Use Conference (April 2019)
In the News
  • “Remember the Trump tax cut? Here’s how it might benefit low-income areas in Dallas,” Dallas News (September 20, 2018)
  • “Q&A With Jackson Walker’s Brian Dethrow,” Law360 (December 10, 2013)
Professional
  • American Bar Association
  • Texas Bar Association
  • Dallas Bar Association
Civic and Philanthropic
  • Texas Federal Tax Institute, Board
  • Harvard Club of Dallas – VP Schools, Co-Chair, Schools Committee
  • UT Southwestern, Presidents Research Council
  • Dallas Foundation, Advisory Council
  • Southwestern Medical Foundation, Advisory Board
Jackson Walker Advises Whataburger in Sale of Majority Interest to BDT Capital Partners

June 14, 2019

Jackson Walker Represents Bridger Logistics in Successful Divestiture of Saltwater Disposal, Crude Oil Truck Transportation, and Logistics Businesses

August 14, 2018

Jackson Walker Represents J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc. in Closing Private Offering of $350 Million of Senior Notes

April 30, 2018

Clients who count on Brian for their transactional and tax planning include some of the largest private enterprises in the country.  Brian also represents many of the wealthiest individuals in the country – and their Family Offices — on tax planning; succession planning; charitable giving, through the use of private foundations and public charities. Clients regularly seek Brian’s advice and help to:

  • Create innovative Family Office structures for maximizing investment expense deductibility and generational transfer of wealth and control
  • Develop an innovative qualified opportunity zone practice as a first adopter counsel
  • Multi-billion dollar combinations of family-owned businesses
  • Offshore tax restructuring of billion-dollar medical technology company, patent box, licensing arrangements
  • Create numerous private equity fund structures, tax planning for their founders, tax planning for acquisitions/dispositions of their portfolio companies
  • Develop complex offshore structure for largest equipment distributor in the U.S.
  • Multi-jurisdiction Family Office work for international tax driven changes to tax jurisdictions
  • Develop U.S. tax credit investment program for private multi-billion dollar international bank client and Fortune 500 company

Practice Experience

  • Income and estate/gift tax planning for multi-billion dollar private companies and their owners
  • Income tax planning for Family Office tax reduction, qualified opportunity zone gain rollover
  • Create and structure funds used in real estate and private equity space
  • Business and succession planning, transfer of wealth and control
  • Tax controversy work for large privately held business and their families
  • Charitable giving, through the use of private foundations and public charities
  • Complete restructuring of multi-billion dollar family holdings in line with succession, asset and matrimonial protection and  wealth generation for G4
  • Develop Multi-Family Office investment structure used in deals involving billions of value, in many industries, onshore and offshore
  • Facilitate the tax-free transfer of billions of value in private companies among generations of family owners
  • Create tax-advantaged generational transfer of intellectual property for $500 million family
  • Develop Mexican / US cross-border entry point for billionaire foreign nationals in their estate planning
  • Complete restructuring of large multi-generation Family Office and its oil, real estate, and equities holdings

Recognition & Accolades

  • The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White Inc.), Tax Law, 2017-2021
  • Best Lawyers in Dallas, D Magazine, 2009, 2011-2012, 2014-2016, 2018-2020
  • Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers by Thomson Reuters, 2011-2012, 2020
  • AV Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell

Publications & Speeches

Publications
  • Co-Author, “Tax Benefits of Investing in QOFs: A New Tax Shelter Approved by Congress!” (February 2019)
  • Co-Author, “Treasury Releases Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) Guidance” (October 25, 2018)
  • Author, “Qualified Opportunity Zones” (July 2018)
Speaking Engagements
  • “ACPEN Signature: 2020 Real Estate Taxation after Tax Reform,” The Accounting Continuing Professional Education Network (ACPEN) (June 2020)
  • “QOZ Update—COVID Disaster Declarations Make QOZ Even More Taxpayer Friendly,” American Academy of Attorney-CPAs (May 5, 2020)
  • “Qualified Opportunity Zones: The “Dirt” on Tax-Driven Real Estate Development,” UT Law’s 23rd Annual Land Use Conference (April 2019)
In the News
  • “Remember the Trump tax cut? Here’s how it might benefit low-income areas in Dallas,” Dallas News (September 20, 2018)
  • “Q&A With Jackson Walker’s Brian Dethrow,” Law360 (December 10, 2013)

Community Involvement

Professional
  • American Bar Association
  • Texas Bar Association
  • Dallas Bar Association
Civic and Philanthropic
  • Texas Federal Tax Institute, Board
  • Harvard Club of Dallas – VP Schools, Co-Chair, Schools Committee
  • UT Southwestern, Presidents Research Council
  • Dallas Foundation, Advisory Council
  • Southwestern Medical Foundation, Advisory Board

Areas of Focus

Clients who count on Brian for their transactional and tax planning include some of the largest private enterprises in the country.  Brian also represents many of the wealthiest individuals in the country – and their Family Offices — on tax planning; succession planning; charitable giving, through the use of private foundations and public charities. Clients regularly seek Brian’s advice and help to:

  • Create innovative Family Office structures for maximizing investment expense deductibility and generational transfer of wealth and control
  • Develop an innovative qualified opportunity zone practice as a first adopter counsel
  • Multi-billion dollar combinations of family-owned businesses
  • Offshore tax restructuring of billion-dollar medical technology company, patent box, licensing arrangements
  • Create numerous private equity fund structures, tax planning for their founders, tax planning for acquisitions/dispositions of their portfolio companies
  • Develop complex offshore structure for largest equipment distributor in the U.S.
  • Multi-jurisdiction Family Office work for international tax driven changes to tax jurisdictions
  • Develop U.S. tax credit investment program for private multi-billion dollar international bank client and Fortune 500 company

Practice Areas

  • Tax
  • Wealth Planning

Experience

  • Family Office
  • International Taxation
  • Qualified Opportunity Zone Representation
  • Tax Controversy & Litigation
  • Transactional Tax Planning

News

  • Qualified Opportunity Zones COVID-19 Relief Extended
  • Tax Planning for a Biden Presidency
  • Jackson Walker Congratulates Its 54 “Texas Super Lawyers” of 2020
  • ‘The Best Lawyers in America’ Honors 164 Jackson Walker Attorneys in 2021 Edition, Including 9 “Lawyers of the Year” and 25 “Ones to Watch”
  • COVID-19 Relief for Qualified Opportunity Funds
More News
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