Rod Donnelly joins Morgan Lewis in Palo Alto from McDermott Will and Emery
Morgan Lewis today announced the addition of Rod Donnelly—a leading international tax practitioner—to the firm’s Tax Practice, resident in Palo Alto. Mr. Donnelly brings to Morgan Lewis more than a decade of experience advising clients throughout the Silicon Valley on transfer pricing and cross-border structural issues, in both the planning and tax controversy areas.
“With international tax enforcement as a high priority of the IRS, Rod fits perfectly with our strategy to integrate controversy, consulting and policy advice to our large multinational clients who are regularly subject to IRS audits,” said Gary Wilcox, head of the firm’s Tax Practice and former Deputy Chief Counsel of the IRS. “We set out five years ago to broaden our tax practice by recruiting leading local talent on the West Coast and Rod is a natural fit to help deepen our bench strength in Northern California.”
“Rod’s experience representing Silicon Valley corporate clients will strengthen our tax planning and controversy capability not only in the high-tech industry, but also in the pharmaceutical, financial services and energy sectors,” said Tom Kellerman, Managing Partner of Morgan Lewis’s Palo Alto office and a partner in the firm’s Business and Finance Practice. “He is yet another top-level addition to our presence in Northern California and we are thrilled to welcome him to the team.”
Mr. Donnelly focuses his practice on the tax aspects of complex international corporate transactions and on transfer pricing, especially with an intangible property component, at both the planning and the controversy stages. He has extensive experience in transfer pricing, subpart F, and tax-related aspects of manufacturing supply chain and R&D, at both the planning and audit defense levels, for large multinational corporations.
“Bart Bassett and I worked closely with Rod for years before joining Morgan Lewis, and are excited to re-unite as a team and continue building our strength in transfer pricing locally, nationally, and internationally,” noted partner Bill Colgin, a former lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice and nationally-known tax controversy practitioner. “Rod is an exceptionally talented lawyer whose experience and insight will serve our clients well,” added Kim Reeder, a state and local tax partner who worked with Rod at another firm, and is the most recent addition to the practice, having joined Morgan Lewis last year.