Trustees of UC Davis Foundation Honor Attorney Stephen Boutin as 2019 Recipient of Prestigious Charles J. Soderquist Award

The Trustees of the UC Davis Foundation have named Boutin Jones shareholder Stephen Boutin the recipient of the 2019 Charles J. Soderquist Award. The Award is given annually in recognition of “exceptional volunteer leadership and support of philanthropy at UC Davis.” Established in 2005 to honor “Charlie” Soderquist for his many contributions to the University of California, Davis, it is designed to recognize individuals whose volunteer accomplishments have made a significant and lasting impact to UC Davis.

The Award comes with a $5,000 philanthropical gift that Mr. Boutin can direct to a UC Davis area of his choosing. To celebrate the Award, Stephen and Linda Boutin will make an additional personal donation of $5,000 to UC Davis. Capping off the contributions, the Sacramento-based Boutin Jones law firm will also donate $5,000 to UC Davis to celebrate the Award and honor their colleague’s commitment to UC Davis. This brings the total contribution associated with the honor to $15,000. The Boutin Jones firm, which is comprised of many UC Davis and UC Davis School of Law alum, has chosen to earmark its gift to UC Davis School of Law, where Boutin earned his J.D. in 1972. The gift will be directed to the Rex R. Perschbacher Scholarship, which was established at the UC Davis School of Law to “ensure legal education is accessible to students with an economic need, especially those who are the first in their family to attend law school.”  The other $5,000 gifts will be directed toward the University’s student-run Pantry that provides healthy food for food-needy students and toward the Athletic Department—two sources of Aggie Pride for Mr. Boutin.

Mr. Boutin’s volunteerism at UC Davis has spanned 30 years and touched numerous areas of the university. He and his wife Linda were charter board members of the Mondavi Performing Arts Center. He has served as Chair of the King Hall Alumni Board, and he has been on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Athletics and the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees. His enthusiasm and volunteerism at the law school led to the creation of the annual Stephen Boutin Invitational Golf Tournament, an event designed not only to raise funds for the public interest King Hall Legal Foundation but to bring together the law school, students and community in a day of celebration.

Mr. Boutin will be honored by the Trustees of the UC Davis Foundation at a luncheon on Friday, May 3, 2019.

Attorney William Webster Joins Boutin Jones Inc.

Attorney William Webster has joined the Boutin Jones law firm where he will assist corporate and real estate clients with business and tax advice. Webster has a lengthy background of experience both as a business owner and a corporate/securities and tax attorney. In addition to practicing law and running his own law firm, he brings a decade of experience founding and operating a commercial mortgage fund, which he registered as public and grew assets that eventually exceeded $25,000,000. After returning to the practice of law, and operating a law practice in Roseville, Webster is now returning to the Sacramento legal community. “The diversity of experience gives me a different perspective, and insight into the challenges faced by clients in forming and operating their businesses and real estate projects,” Webster said. In addition to earning a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, Webster has an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of San Diego.

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Renowned Tax Attorney and Real Estate Transaction Strategist Lou Weller Forms Alliance with Boutin Jones Inc.

Nationally-recognized tax attorney and real estate transaction strategist Lou Weller and Sacramento-based law firm Boutin Jones Inc. have announced a formal strategic alliance. The alliance will give Boutin Jones clients who undertake complex business transactions—especially those involving the exchange of property—intricate and sophisticated tax planning advice. The alliance gives Weller’s clients immediate access to top-notch legal services in a multitude of practice areas.

Weller, Managing Partner of Marin County-based Weller Partners LLP, has served as National Director of Real Estate Transaction Planning and National Director, Like Kind Exchange Services at Deloitte Tax LLP and practiced law with the national law firm Bryan Cave LLP. He has extensive experience designing and implementing strategies for real estate and business asset acquisitions, transfers, exchanges, leases, financing work-outs, business start-ups, limited liability companies, partnership and joint venture formations, transactions involving REITS and capital-raising through placement of partnership interests and stock.

He has written extensively about cutting-edge tax issues in a number of nationally-acclaimed journals and been invited to speak at every major national tax institute. He serves as the Real Estate Department editor of the Journal of Taxation and is the past Chair of the Real Estate Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section and of that committee’s Subcommittee on Like-Kind Realty Exchanges. He is a Founder and the Co-Chair of the annual Jeremiah Long Advanced Seminar on Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 and a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Among the Boutin Jones clients who will most benefit from the new alliance are real estate developers, business clients and partnerships throughout the Western United States. The formal strategic alliance with Weller Partners LLP is the newest of three alliances that afford the law firm’s entire client base high-level expertise designed to supplement existing legal services. In 2018, Boutin Jones formed a strategic alliance with Clear Advocacy, LLP to provide lobbying and governmental relations services. Boutin Jones is also one of only two California law firms who have been chosen to participate in SCG Legal, a worldwide network of independent law firms that affords Boutin clients experienced legal services in all 50 states and over 70 countries.

Boutin Jones is Sacramento’s second largest law firm and represents clients in Agribusiness; Banking, Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights; Corporate and Securities; Employment Law; Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Administration; Healthcare; Litigation; Real Estate; and, Tax.

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Visit Our New Real Estate Portfolio

Boutin Jones’ real estate team represents clients with real estate projects in California and throughout the United States.

Boutin Jones Inc. Shareholders Elect Kent Silvester President and Chairman of the Board

The shareholders of Boutin Jones Inc. have elected Kent Silvester as President and Chairman of the Board. Kent begins a two-year term on February 1, 2019.

In addition to leading Boutin Jones, Kent will continue to provide tax and estate planning for high net-worth individuals, and succession planning for closely-held businesses. Kent will also continue to volunteer in the region, and will serve as President of the Broadway Sacramento Foundation Board of Directors. He previously served as President of the Sacramento Estate Planning Council and is a Past Trustee of the Sutter Medical Center Foundation. “This is an incredibly exciting time to be leading our firm,” Kent notes. “There is tremendous opportunity in the Region, and I am thrilled to be working alongside our outstanding group of attorneys to help our business—and our clients’ businesses—thrive.”

Kent will be joined on the Boutin Jones Inc. Board of Directors by shareholders Iain Mickle, Bob Swanson, Jim Moore, Bashar Ahmad and Julia Jenness. Julia continues as a board member after having successfully led the firm as President for the past four years.

The Sacramento Business Journal recently named Boutin Jones as the second largest law firm in Sacramento in its annual rankings of regional firms. Boutin Jones has nearly 50 attorneys who represent clients in the areas of Agribusiness; Banking, Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights; Corporate and Securities; Employment Law; Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Administration; Healthcare; Litigation; Real Estate; and Tax.

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Attorney Elizabeth Key Joins Boutin Jones Litigation Group

Attorney Elizabeth Key has joined the Boutin Jones law firm where she will practice civil and business litigation. A 2018 graduate of the University of California, Davis School of Law and a 2014 graduate of the University of Oregon, Elizabeth also served as a Judicial Extern to the Honorable Troy L. Nunley, Eastern District of California. She is a former summer associate at Boutin Jones, and in 2016 she was the recipient of the Women Lawyers of Sacramento Scholarship.

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Employment Attorney Errol C. Dauis Joins Boutin Jones

Errol Dauis has joined the firm’s employment law practice where he will work with employers to provide employment law advice and counsel. He is a former Judicial Extern for Judge John A. Mendez, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. He is also active in the community, having served on the Board of Directors of La Raza Centro Legal, including having served as its President. He is a current member of the Board of Directors for the Davis Food Co-op.  Errol is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, School of Law and California State University, Long Beach.

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Boutin Jones Welcomes New Attorney Rabia Z. Reed

Rabia Z. Reed has joined Boutin Jones Inc. as an attorney practicing employment litigation. She is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, School of Law and earned a Scottish Masters of Arts with Honors from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. At UC Davis School of Law, she was active in a number of organizations and served as class commencement speaker. In addition to English, she is fluent in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, and conversational in Brazilian Portuguese. She is active in the local legal community and serves as a Board Member for the South Asian Bar Association of Sacramento (SABA).

Reed Rabia

Disaster Relief

Like others throughout California, we have been looking for ways to support those impacted by recent wildfires. There are a number of worthwhile organizations working hard to assist our communities, so for those seeking ways to give, we are sharing three that we have chosen to support among the many worthy groups that exist. Please consider joining us by donating, if you are able, to one of these groups or another organization. To support those impacted by the Camp Fire: North Valley Community Foundation (www.nvcf.org). To support those impacted by the Carr Fire during the summer: Tri Counties Bank Carr Fire Fund 2018 (https://www.gofundme.com/tcb-2018-carr-fire-fund) and Shasta Regional Community Foundation (https://www.shastarcf.org/).

Strategic Alliance With Clear Advocacy, LLC

http://www.clearadvocacy.com/

Boutin Jones Inc. and Clear Advocacy, LLC have entered into a strategic alliance to provide lobbying and government relations expertise in the California capital to clients of both firms and those of the law firm members of SCG Legal, an international network of independent law firms. Clear Advocacy, LLC is a full service governmental relations practice based in Sacramento. The principals, Peter Kellison, Fred Main and Kevin Pedrotti, each have over 30 years of lobbying experience. The firm represents a broad range of clients in retail, financial services, health care, and other businesses.

Boutin Jones is one of the largest law firms in the Sacramento region. The firm represents businesses and individuals in a wide range of matters, including litigation, corporate, securities, real estate, employment, tax, health care, trusts and estates and creditors’ rights. SCG Legal is comprised of 148 independent law firms in 82 countries.

Clear Advocacy partner Fred Main stated, “We look forward to working with the clients of Boutin Jones and those of the member firms of SCG Legal in California’s challenging legislative and regulatory environment.”

Boutin Jones’ managing shareholder, Julia Jenness, remarked, “We are pleased to have formed this strategic alliance with Clear Advocacy. Our clients, and those of the SCG member firms, now have access to the lobbying and government relations services needed to address California’s complex administrative environment.”

For more information about this strategic alliance, contact Jim Leet at Boutin Jones (916) 321-4444 or Fred Main at Clear Advocacy (916) 479-7400.