CEO
Opportunity Alabama
Alex Flachsbart is the Founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama (OPAL), an organization dedicated to building more prosperous rural downtowns and urban commercial corridors through tax-advantaged financing. Founded in 2018, OPAL has invested in almost three quarters of a billion dollars worth of catalytic real estate developments through a family of loan and investment funds. OPAL has won recognition from Forbes Magazine to the New York Times for its work in driving Alabama into the Top 10 nationally for Opportunity Zone investing, and it continues to diversify investment infrastructure into other place-oriented incentives that align with its mission – including creating Alabama’s first community development financial institution focused on commercial real estate financing.
Alex is a recovering attorney who practiced for several years with Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, specializing in tax credit and economic development-related work. Alex was a member of Teach for America’s charter corps in Alabama, where he taught high school mathematics in one of the most impoverished rural counties in the US. A native of Northern California (but a naturalized Alabamian), Alex received undergraduate and masters degrees in economics from The University of Alabama and a J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law. Alex, who was recently named one of the Top 100 national influencers in Commercial Real Estate by the Business Journals of America, serves on the board of Main Street Alabama, is a fellow in the Blackburn Institute and the Alabama Leadership Initiative, is a member of the Birmingham Rotary Club and a member of Leadership Birmingham’s Class of 2023-’24.
Thompson has practiced as an estate planning attorney for over a decade with a particular focus on complex estate and wealth transfer planning, wealth preservation planning, and estate and trust administration. His experience includes advising clients on a range of issues, including business succession planning, charitable planning, engaging next generation family members, and family office planning.
As a fifth-generation family owner of a Georgia company with diverse asset composition, Thompson understands the complexities and nuances of the intra-family issues that arise in the family business context from both a personal and professional standpoint. This unique perspective enables him to provide practical and customized solutions that address his clients’ unique needs and goals.
Alan Rothschild has practiced estate planning, taxation and tax-exempt law in Columbus and Atlanta for over 35 years. In the estate planning area, Mr. Rothschild works with individuals and their advisors to design estate plans that effectively address each client’s unique tax, business and family goals. Much of his work in this area focuses on successful strategies for multi-generational wealth succession planning, including the transition of family businesses and family lands to future generations.
Mr. Rothschild also has extensive experience advising clients on the design and implementation of thoughtful and effective charitable gifts – both while the client is in life, through techniques such as private foundations, donor-advised funds, conservation easements and charitable trusts, and at death, through their wills and testamentary trusts.
A substantial part of Mr. Rothschild’s practice is dedicated to the representation of tax exempt organizations throughout the southeastern United States. Representative clients include university-related foundations, family foundations, community foundations, and regional non-profits in the areas of education, the arts, social services and religious activities. Since, 2015, Mr. Rothschild has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where he teaches a course in the Master of Law program on Charitable Giving and Exempt Organizations.
Probate and estate administration also constitute an important part of Mr. Rothschild’s practice. This includes the representation of individual beneficiaries, executors and trustees, as well as representing corporate fiduciaries in the probate and administration of estates and the on-going administration of trusts. Mr. Rothschild also has significant experience resolving tax audits, estate disputes and dealing with the challenges of an aging population, including guardianships, conservatorships, and health care decision making.
Event Leader
Bradley
Bruce Ely is a partner in the Birmingham, Alabama office of the multistate law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and founder of its SALT Practice Group. He represents taxpayers before various state and local government taxing authorities as well as the tax tribunals and circuit and appellate courts of Alabama and Mississippi, and before the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Tax Court.
Mr. Ely is Past Co-Chair of the New York University (NYU) Institute on State and Local Taxation, a long-time Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, and has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America” and “Super Lawyers” for a number of years. Until recently, he also served as Co-Chair of the ABA Tax Section SALT Committee’s “Task Force on the State Implications of the New Federal Partnership Audit Rules” and co-authored a model conformity/RAR statute now being advocated to the states. He is also co-editor of the Bloomberg Tax “Pass-Through Entities Navigator” and serves as Alabama correspondent for both Tax Notes-State and Daily Tax Report. He is a longtime member of the State Tax Advisory Board for Bloomberg Tax and received Bloomberg’s “State Tax Author of the Year” Award in 2017 and its Franklin C. Latcham Distinguished Service Award in 2021.
Mary Martin graduated magna cum laude from The University of Georgia in 2007 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance. She received her Juris Doctor from The University of Alabama School of Law in 2010. Mary Martin received a Certificate in Leadership from the Institute for Leadership Advancement in May 2007, and a Public Interest Certificate from the Public Interest Institute in May 2010. Mary Martin worked as an intern for the Domestic Violence Clinic in Tuscaloosa before she became a clerk for the law firm of Millsaps and Owens in Tuscaloosa. She worked as a staff attorney for the Rahmati Law Firm in Huntsville and for the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals in Montgomery before becoming Assistant Attorney General/Assistant Counsel for the Alabama Department of Revenue in October 2013. Mary Martin is a member of the Montgomery County Bar Association, the Montgomery County Young Lawyers Section, the Alabama State Bar Tax Section, and the Alabama State Bar In-House Counsel and Government Lawyers Section.
Cameran Clark, Director, Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs
Cameran Clark began her career with ALDOR in 2006 in the Sales and Use Tax Division. She transitioned to Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs in 2015, where she gained a comprehensive knowledge of tax administration through her experience in drafting and analyzing tax legislation and providing fiscal analysis. Now serving as director of Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs she is responsible for the department’s administrative rule process, tax policy direction for the department’s taxing divisions, and represents the department in legislative and governmental affairs.
Mrs. Clark has earned the Certified Public Manager designation. She is also appointed as the Department Secretary.
Barnes & Thornburg
Jeff Luechtefeld focuses his practice on resolving complex tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service, both in administrative proceedings and litigation. He represents clients before the United States Tax Court, U.S. district courts, and federal courts of appeals, and develops strategic approaches grounded in a deep understanding of IRS processes and enforcement priorities.
Barnes & Thornburg
Sirote & Permutt, P.C.
3590 Grandview Pkwy, Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama 35243-1946
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Alex Flachsbart is the Founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama (OPAL), an organization dedicated to building more prosperous rural downtowns and urban commercial corridors through tax-advantaged financing. Founded in 2018, OPAL has invested in almost three quarters of a billion dollars worth of catalytic real estate developments through a family of loan and investment funds. OPAL has won recognition from Forbes Magazine to the New York Times for its work in driving Alabama into the Top 10 nationally for Opportunity Zone investing, and it continues to diversify investment infrastructure into other place-oriented incentives that align with its mission – including creating Alabama’s first community development financial institution focused on commercial real estate financing.
Alex is a recovering attorney who practiced for several years with Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, specializing in tax credit and economic development-related work. Alex was a member of Teach for America’s charter corps in Alabama, where he taught high school mathematics in one of the most impoverished rural counties in the US. A native of Northern California (but a naturalized Alabamian), Alex received undergraduate and masters degrees in economics from The University of Alabama and a J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law. Alex, who was recently named one of the Top 100 national influencers in Commercial Real Estate by the Business Journals of America, serves on the board of Main Street Alabama, is a fellow in the Blackburn Institute and the Alabama Leadership Initiative, is a member of the Birmingham Rotary Club and a member of Leadership Birmingham’s Class of 2023-’24.
The tax reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill made some significant changes to popular incentive programs that have seen consistent utilization here in Alabama over the last decade. This session will provide a general overview of three of the most popular place-based federal investment programs - Opportunity Zones (OZs), Historic Tax Credits (HTCs), and New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs), with a dual focus on 1) changes created by OBBB to these incentives and 2) how these tools (particularly HTCs and OZs) get utilized from a practitioner's perspective. If you have clients that develop real estate or advise clients that want to eliminate some of their federal income tax liability, this presentation should have a number of interesting nuggets for you.
Alex Flachsbart is the Founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama (OPAL), an organization dedicated to building more prosperous rural downtowns and urban commercial corridors through tax-advantaged financing. Founded in 2018, OPAL has invested in almost three quarters of a billion dollars worth of catalytic real estate developments through a family of loan and investment funds. OPAL has won recognition from Forbes Magazine to the New York Times for its work in driving Alabama into the Top 10 nationally for Opportunity Zone investing, and it continues to diversify investment infrastructure into other place-oriented incentives that align with its mission – including creating Alabama’s first community development financial institution focused on commercial real estate financing.
Alex is a recovering attorney who practiced for several years with Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, specializing in tax credit and economic development-related work. Alex was a member of Teach for America’s charter corps in Alabama, where he taught high school mathematics in one of the most impoverished rural counties in the US. A native of Northern California (but a naturalized Alabamian), Alex received undergraduate and masters degrees in economics from The University of Alabama and a J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law. Alex, who was recently named one of the Top 100 national influencers in Commercial Real Estate by the Business Journals of America, serves on the board of Main Street Alabama, is a fellow in the Blackburn Institute and the Alabama Leadership Initiative, is a member of the Birmingham Rotary Club and a member of Leadership Birmingham’s Class of 2023-’24.
The tax reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill made some significant changes to popular incentive programs that have seen consistent utilization here in Alabama over the last decade. This session will provide a general overview of three of the most popular place-based federal investment programs - Opportunity Zones (OZs), Historic Tax Credits (HTCs), and New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs), with a dual focus on 1) changes created by OBBB to these incentives and 2) how these tools (particularly HTCs and OZs) get utilized from a practitioner's perspective. If you have clients that develop real estate or advise clients that want to eliminate some of their federal income tax liability, this presentation should have a number of interesting nuggets for you.
Thompson has practiced as an estate planning attorney for over a decade with a particular focus on complex estate and wealth transfer planning, wealth preservation planning, and estate and trust administration. His experience includes advising clients on a range of issues, including business succession planning, charitable planning, engaging next generation family members, and family office planning.
As a fifth-generation family owner of a Georgia company with diverse asset composition, Thompson understands the complexities and nuances of the intra-family issues that arise in the family business context from both a personal and professional standpoint. This unique perspective enables him to provide practical and customized solutions that address his clients’ unique needs and goals.
Retaining control over transferred assets can have unintended estate tax consequences. This session breaks down Section 2036, with real-world examples and guidance on structuring arrangements to avoid inclusion challenges.
Thompson has practiced as an estate planning attorney for over a decade with a particular focus on complex estate and wealth transfer planning, wealth preservation planning, and estate and trust administration. His experience includes advising clients on a range of issues, including business succession planning, charitable planning, engaging next generation family members, and family office planning.
As a fifth-generation family owner of a Georgia company with diverse asset composition, Thompson understands the complexities and nuances of the intra-family issues that arise in the family business context from both a personal and professional standpoint. This unique perspective enables him to provide practical and customized solutions that address his clients’ unique needs and goals.
Retaining control over transferred assets can have unintended estate tax consequences. This session breaks down Section 2036, with real-world examples and guidance on structuring arrangements to avoid inclusion challenges.
Alan Rothschild has practiced estate planning, taxation and tax-exempt law in Columbus and Atlanta for over 35 years. In the estate planning area, Mr. Rothschild works with individuals and their advisors to design estate plans that effectively address each client’s unique tax, business and family goals. Much of his work in this area focuses on successful strategies for multi-generational wealth succession planning, including the transition of family businesses and family lands to future generations.
Mr. Rothschild also has extensive experience advising clients on the design and implementation of thoughtful and effective charitable gifts – both while the client is in life, through techniques such as private foundations, donor-advised funds, conservation easements and charitable trusts, and at death, through their wills and testamentary trusts.
A substantial part of Mr. Rothschild’s practice is dedicated to the representation of tax exempt organizations throughout the southeastern United States. Representative clients include university-related foundations, family foundations, community foundations, and regional non-profits in the areas of education, the arts, social services and religious activities. Since, 2015, Mr. Rothschild has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where he teaches a course in the Master of Law program on Charitable Giving and Exempt Organizations.
Probate and estate administration also constitute an important part of Mr. Rothschild’s practice. This includes the representation of individual beneficiaries, executors and trustees, as well as representing corporate fiduciaries in the probate and administration of estates and the on-going administration of trusts. Mr. Rothschild also has significant experience resolving tax audits, estate disputes and dealing with the challenges of an aging population, including guardianships, conservatorships, and health care decision making.
An overview of charitable gift agreements, including key provisions, drafting considerations, and ethical issues involved in documenting donor intent and protecting both the donor and the organization.
Alan Rothschild has practiced estate planning, taxation and tax-exempt law in Columbus and Atlanta for over 35 years. In the estate planning area, Mr. Rothschild works with individuals and their advisors to design estate plans that effectively address each client’s unique tax, business and family goals. Much of his work in this area focuses on successful strategies for multi-generational wealth succession planning, including the transition of family businesses and family lands to future generations.
Mr. Rothschild also has extensive experience advising clients on the design and implementation of thoughtful and effective charitable gifts – both while the client is in life, through techniques such as private foundations, donor-advised funds, conservation easements and charitable trusts, and at death, through their wills and testamentary trusts.
A substantial part of Mr. Rothschild’s practice is dedicated to the representation of tax exempt organizations throughout the southeastern United States. Representative clients include university-related foundations, family foundations, community foundations, and regional non-profits in the areas of education, the arts, social services and religious activities. Since, 2015, Mr. Rothschild has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where he teaches a course in the Master of Law program on Charitable Giving and Exempt Organizations.
Probate and estate administration also constitute an important part of Mr. Rothschild’s practice. This includes the representation of individual beneficiaries, executors and trustees, as well as representing corporate fiduciaries in the probate and administration of estates and the on-going administration of trusts. Mr. Rothschild also has significant experience resolving tax audits, estate disputes and dealing with the challenges of an aging population, including guardianships, conservatorships, and health care decision making.
An overview of charitable gift agreements, including key provisions, drafting considerations, and ethical issues involved in documenting donor intent and protecting both the donor and the organization.
Bruce Ely is a partner in the Birmingham, Alabama office of the multistate law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and founder of its SALT Practice Group. He represents taxpayers before various state and local government taxing authorities as well as the tax tribunals and circuit and appellate courts of Alabama and Mississippi, and before the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Tax Court.
Mr. Ely is Past Co-Chair of the New York University (NYU) Institute on State and Local Taxation, a long-time Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, and has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America” and “Super Lawyers” for a number of years. Until recently, he also served as Co-Chair of the ABA Tax Section SALT Committee’s “Task Force on the State Implications of the New Federal Partnership Audit Rules” and co-authored a model conformity/RAR statute now being advocated to the states. He is also co-editor of the Bloomberg Tax “Pass-Through Entities Navigator” and serves as Alabama correspondent for both Tax Notes-State and Daily Tax Report. He is a longtime member of the State Tax Advisory Board for Bloomberg Tax and received Bloomberg’s “State Tax Author of the Year” Award in 2017 and its Franklin C. Latcham Distinguished Service Award in 2021.
Mary Martin graduated magna cum laude from The University of Georgia in 2007 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance. She received her Juris Doctor from The University of Alabama School of Law in 2010. Mary Martin received a Certificate in Leadership from the Institute for Leadership Advancement in May 2007, and a Public Interest Certificate from the Public Interest Institute in May 2010. Mary Martin worked as an intern for the Domestic Violence Clinic in Tuscaloosa before she became a clerk for the law firm of Millsaps and Owens in Tuscaloosa. She worked as a staff attorney for the Rahmati Law Firm in Huntsville and for the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals in Montgomery before becoming Assistant Attorney General/Assistant Counsel for the Alabama Department of Revenue in October 2013. Mary Martin is a member of the Montgomery County Bar Association, the Montgomery County Young Lawyers Section, the Alabama State Bar Tax Section, and the Alabama State Bar In-House Counsel and Government Lawyers Section.
Cameran Clark, Director, Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs
Cameran Clark began her career with ALDOR in 2006 in the Sales and Use Tax Division. She transitioned to Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs in 2015, where she gained a comprehensive knowledge of tax administration through her experience in drafting and analyzing tax legislation and providing fiscal analysis. Now serving as director of Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs she is responsible for the department’s administrative rule process, tax policy direction for the department’s taxing divisions, and represents the department in legislative and governmental affairs.
Mrs. Clark has earned the Certified Public Manager designation. She is also appointed as the Department Secretary.
Four panelists will survey the major Alabama tax legislative, judicial and administrative developments in the past 12 months and the likely impact of OBBBA’s key tax provisions on Alabama businesses.
Bruce Ely is a partner in the Birmingham, Alabama office of the multistate law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and founder of its SALT Practice Group. He represents taxpayers before various state and local government taxing authorities as well as the tax tribunals and circuit and appellate courts of Alabama and Mississippi, and before the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Tax Court.
Mr. Ely is Past Co-Chair of the New York University (NYU) Institute on State and Local Taxation, a long-time Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, and has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America” and “Super Lawyers” for a number of years. Until recently, he also served as Co-Chair of the ABA Tax Section SALT Committee’s “Task Force on the State Implications of the New Federal Partnership Audit Rules” and co-authored a model conformity/RAR statute now being advocated to the states. He is also co-editor of the Bloomberg Tax “Pass-Through Entities Navigator” and serves as Alabama correspondent for both Tax Notes-State and Daily Tax Report. He is a longtime member of the State Tax Advisory Board for Bloomberg Tax and received Bloomberg’s “State Tax Author of the Year” Award in 2017 and its Franklin C. Latcham Distinguished Service Award in 2021.
Mary Martin graduated magna cum laude from The University of Georgia in 2007 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance. She received her Juris Doctor from The University of Alabama School of Law in 2010. Mary Martin received a Certificate in Leadership from the Institute for Leadership Advancement in May 2007, and a Public Interest Certificate from the Public Interest Institute in May 2010. Mary Martin worked as an intern for the Domestic Violence Clinic in Tuscaloosa before she became a clerk for the law firm of Millsaps and Owens in Tuscaloosa. She worked as a staff attorney for the Rahmati Law Firm in Huntsville and for the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals in Montgomery before becoming Assistant Attorney General/Assistant Counsel for the Alabama Department of Revenue in October 2013. Mary Martin is a member of the Montgomery County Bar Association, the Montgomery County Young Lawyers Section, the Alabama State Bar Tax Section, and the Alabama State Bar In-House Counsel and Government Lawyers Section.
Cameran Clark, Director, Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs
Cameran Clark began her career with ALDOR in 2006 in the Sales and Use Tax Division. She transitioned to Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs in 2015, where she gained a comprehensive knowledge of tax administration through her experience in drafting and analyzing tax legislation and providing fiscal analysis. Now serving as director of Tax Policy and Governmental Affairs she is responsible for the department’s administrative rule process, tax policy direction for the department’s taxing divisions, and represents the department in legislative and governmental affairs.
Mrs. Clark has earned the Certified Public Manager designation. She is also appointed as the Department Secretary.
Four panelists will survey the major Alabama tax legislative, judicial and administrative developments in the past 12 months and the likely impact of OBBBA’s key tax provisions on Alabama businesses.
Jeff Luechtefeld focuses his practice on resolving complex tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service, both in administrative proceedings and litigation. He represents clients before the United States Tax Court, U.S. district courts, and federal courts of appeals, and develops strategic approaches grounded in a deep understanding of IRS processes and enforcement priorities.
How to manage litigation pitfalls for tax and estate plans on the frontend and it would cover issues like client identification, managing privilege with varying clients/interests, managing metadata, handling backdating v. effective dating, etc., and it also covers how a litigator must address the issues that the planner may have missed through real world examples.
Jeff Luechtefeld focuses his practice on resolving complex tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service, both in administrative proceedings and litigation. He represents clients before the United States Tax Court, U.S. district courts, and federal courts of appeals, and develops strategic approaches grounded in a deep understanding of IRS processes and enforcement priorities.
How to manage litigation pitfalls for tax and estate plans on the frontend and it would cover issues like client identification, managing privilege with varying clients/interests, managing metadata, handling backdating v. effective dating, etc., and it also covers how a litigator must address the issues that the planner may have missed through real world examples.
An overview of common valuation issues in tax and audit matters, including areas of dispute, documentation concerns, and practical considerations for navigating IRS scrutiny.
An overview of common valuation issues in tax and audit matters, including areas of dispute, documentation concerns, and practical considerations for navigating IRS scrutiny.
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