Our Team

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Shane Hamilton

Managing Member

Shane Hamilton has represented tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations in connection with their federal tax and nonprofit governance matters for over two decades, including family- and company-sponsored private foundations, publicly supported charities, supporting organizations, social welfare organizations, and trade associations. He regularly counsels tax-exempt organizations on a wide range of matters involving governance best practices, obtaining and maintaining federal tax-exempt status, the unrelated business income tax (UBIT), excess benefit transactions (intermediate sanctions), private foundation excise taxes, and other legal requirements applicable to tax-exempt organizations.

In addition to advising tax-exempt clients on their tax and legal issues, he offers clients practical advice on navigating the challenges presented when business or mission-oriented goals conflict with the tax laws. Over the years, Shane has acted as outside general counsel for many different organizations; currently he serves in that role for The Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute for Texas.

Shane has helped a variety of tax-exempt organizations resolve tax controversies during the IRS examinations (audits), at IRS Appeals, through closing agreements, and in court. When the stakes are high, Shane teams with other law firms as co-counsel in litigation matters.

Considered by many lawyers and other professionals to be a "lawyer’s lawyer," Shane advises in-house counsel and tax departments on complex tax-exempt organization issues. He also serves as co-counsel with corporate and criminal defense lawyers in matters that involve or raise issues related to tax-exempt organizations. Shane often assists accounting firms when their nonprofit clients face unique or especially thorny tax-law issues or require representation before the IRS.

Shane is also the co-author, with Bruce Hopkins, of The Tax Law of Private Foundations, Sixth Edition and The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, Thirteenth Edition.

Before forming Hamilton Law Group PLLC, Shane was a Member of Miller & Chevalier Chartered in Washington, D.C. and was the head of that firm’s tax-exempt practice group. While attending the University of Virginia School of Law, he served as an Executive Editor and the Tax Cite Editor of the Virginia Tax Review. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, University of Virginia.

Rankings and Recognition

The Best Lawyers in America: Tax Law: 2012 - present

Publications

Bar Admissions

Virginia, 1997
District of Columbia, 1998
Texas, 2012

Federal Court Admissions

U.S. Tax Court
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas
U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
District of Columbia Court of Appeals

Education

J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1997
M.A. (English), University of Virginia, 1997
B.A. (Economics), University of Virginia, 1993

David M. Coolidge*

Benefits Counsel

(207) 807-6703 | [email protected]

David Coolidge practices in the areas of employee benefits and executive compensation. Dave practice covers design, implementation and compliance work for all forms of tax-qualified pension, savings, and welfare benefit plans, including defined benefit, 403(b) and 401(k) plans, as well as executive compensation arrangements and other incentive arrangements.

Dave drafts and negotiates all relevant plan and trust documents and contracts, drafts employee disclosures, prepares government filings and obtains agency rulings. He has assisted employers with voluntary compliance proceedings at the IRS and Department of Labor to protect benefit plans against potentially disqualifying errors.

Dave’s practice also covers many of the laws that regularly attach to employee benefits, such as the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA, COBRA, and the Medicare secondary payer rules; age and other employment discrimination labor laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act; and the securities law aspects of employee benefit plans. He regularly advises clients on Affordable Care Act interpretive issues, compliance requirements, and support around IRS assessments and audits; on the preparation of group health plan amendments and implementing resolutions; and on consumer-driven health care matters, such as integrated health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements.

* David Coolidge is an independent contractor to Hamilton Law Group PLLC and is not licensed in Texas.

Bar Admissions

Maine, 2003

Federal Court Admissions

U.S. Tax Court

Education

J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1996
B.A., Stanford University, 1988

Bruce R. Hopkins (1941 – 2021)

In Memoriam

Remembering our dear friend, colleague, mentor, legal sage, and Dean of the Tax-Exempt Bar, Bruce Hopkins. You will be sorely missed but will live on in our hearts and minds, not to mention in the four dozen books on our shelves that comprise a spectacular nonprofit law library in themselves.

The Bruce R. Hopkins Memorial Scholarship Fund and The Bruce R. Hopkins Student Award for Nonprofit Excellence have been established at the University of Kansas School of Law where Bruce taught for many years. Gifts can be made to support these scholarships and student awards as a one-time gift or pledge over several years at the following website: www.kuendowment.org/hopkinsfunds.

Additionally, Georgetown University has established the Bruce R. Hopkins Nonprofit Law Endowed Fund in support of the “Bruce Hopkins Memorial Update on Key Current Developments” during Georgetown's Representing & Managing Tax-Exempt Organizations Continuing Legal Education Program. Bruce founded and served as the keynote speaker at this conference for four decades. Gifts to the fund can be made with a one-time contribution or a pledge over several years at the following website: https://give.georgetown.edu/Bruce-Hopkins-Fund.