Stephen M. Breitstone is Chair of the firm’s Private Wealth and Taxation Practice Group. His approach combines business planning and income, estate and gift tax planning with a special emphasis on real estate.  His clients include domestic and international real estate owners and developers, closely held businesses, public companies, private equity funds, trusts and estates, and charitable organizations.  His combination of skills as a transactional and income tax attorney and as an estate planner enables him to effectively advise clients on their individual needs and those of their businesses. 

He frequently serves as general counsel and financial and business advisor to several of his clients and has been an expert witness in litigation over Section 1031 exchange transactions.  He has been an adjunct professor, teaching Tax and Business Planning for Real Estate Transactions and Taxation of Partnerships at Cardozo Law School and is a Fellow of both the American College of Trusts and Estates Council (“ACTEC”) and the American College of Tax Council (“ACTC”).  He is currently a co-chair of ABA’s Sales, Exchange and Basis Committee (“SEB”) and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

He has presented papers at the NYU Institute on Federal Taxation, Practicing Law Institute, Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute, Bloomberg BNA Tax Management, National Multi-Housing Conference, Jeremiah Long Section 1031 Conference, Federation of (1031) Exchange Accommodators, etc. 

His style of practice is personal, not institutional; and his clients’ goals and objectives are his priority.  He has been interviewed on tax and financial topics by local and national media, including CBS, ABC, Fox, Fox Business News, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, among others.  Stephen also is a Member of the Member of the National Dance Institute Board and co-chair of its Finance Committee.