New Tax Lobbying Firm launched: GDS Strategies

GDS Strategies launched as a new lobbying firm offering more than 80 years of combined experience in federal tax policy, policymaking and law. Three veteran tax experts joined forces in Washington, D.C to form the new firm. The firm’s partners–James C. Gould, Thomas R. Dwyer and Tucker C. Shumack–bring nearly two decades as advisors to senior members of the House of Representatives and Senate and have the experience of more than 30 years in representing clients in tax policy matters before Congress and the Treasury Department.

James C. Gould served on Capitol Hill for five years as staff director, chief counsel, and chief tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee under chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas). He was involved in negotiating and writing major tax legislation during that period, including the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, the seminal Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, and the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988. Gould served as a law clerk for the United States Tax Court, along with his GDS Strategies partner Thomas R. Dwyer.

Thomas R. Dwyer served as tax and banking counsel to Senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) from 1985 to 1987, when Danforth was a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee. Dwyer was the Senator’s primary advisor for the Tax Reform Act of 1986. As a partner in Washington’s Arnold & Porter law firm, in addition to representing clients in tax policy matters, he was a leader in a successful two-decade effort to recover major damages for the savings and loan (S&L) industry following the government’s retroactive repeal of tax benefits meant to encourage takeovers of insolvent S&Ls.

Tucker C. Shumack served as tax and finance counsel to Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He was involved in negotiating such legislation as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, the Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007, Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, and the Gulf Opportunity Zone Tax Act of 2005. He also worked for Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and the late Senator Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), a member of Senate leadership and the Senate Finance Committee.

“GDS Strategies is proud to open its doors at a time when Congress is gearing up to consider major reforms in federal taxation and when unsustainable federal deficits and the aging of the population will focus unrelenting attention on the federal tax code,” said James Gould. “We offer clients the judgment and perspective that comes with many years of experience in tax law and tax policy – including the experience of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 from the inside. We are a bipartisan group that has the goal of giving our clients a competitive edge in Washington.”