Mr. Justin T. Mannino
Partner
Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips, LLP
http://www.taylorporter.com
Practicing law since 2013, Taylor Porter Special Counsel Justin T. Mannino represents individuals and businesses in the areas of federal, state and local taxation; multigenerational estate planning; numerous business and corporate governance and ownership matters; successions; and trusts.
Justin works with individuals and families to prepare estate plans and implement wills, powers of attorney and to establish trust instruments [grantor trusts, multigenerational trusts, and grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs)]. Justin also advises clients regarding the structure of multi-generational wealth conservation plans to effectively access the exemptions for the gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes and to transfer intra-family wealth with minimal transfer tax cost and without disruption of business operations. He also handles will contests and disputes, the implementation of wealth conservation plans, and the administration of estates and trusts. Justin offers advice to executors in executing his or her duties as administrator and properly administering complex estates. Justin frequently presents at CLE seminars on the topics of estate planning, successions and federal taxation. Justin is a member of the Baton Rouge Estate and Business Planning Council.
Justin regularly advises clients concerning business and personal financial transactions, including developing the tax structure for sales, mergers or acquisitions of businesses, and drafting buy-sell agreements, asset or stock purchase agreements, operating agreements, or other corporate governance instruments. He provides business planning for closely-held corporations, and provides tax advice for matters from formation to liquidation.
Justin’s additional representative matters and experience include:
Representation of various business owners, including closely-held businesses, in evaluating the best tax structure for sale or purchase of businesses.
Handling large-scale federal and state tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service and Louisiana Department of Revenue.
Representation of clients in the formation of 501(c)(3) charitable organizations and foundations, including application for tax exempt status with the IRS, and providing advice to nonprofit entities on formation, corporate governance, tax exemption, and compliance with tax-exempt law.
Representation of businesses in corporate matters and mergers and acquisitions, in particular a multi-million dollar merger of a fumigation company which had footholds nationally with a publically-traded corporation.
Justin was a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association Leadership Class of 2016-2017. He is an active member of both the LSBA and the Baton Rouge Bar Association. Justin has been a member of the LSBA Ethics Committee since 2017.
Justin received his J.D./D.C.L. cum laude from Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University in 2013. During his time at LSU Law, Justin served as the SBA Executive President and as the student member of the LSU Board of Supervisors (2012-2013). After LSU Law, Justin continued his legal education at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he graduated with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation in 2014. Justin also received a B.S. in Accounting in 2010 from the E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University.
A Baton Rouge native, Justin is a 2006 graduate of Catholic High School, Baton Rouge. In the community, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Catholic High School Alumni Association. Justin chairs the worship committee for St. Aloysius Catholic Church.
Ms. Rebecca S. Luster Radford
Associate
Wiener, Weiss & Madison, APC
Rebecca S. Luster Radford is a shareholder at the Shreveport, Louisiana law firm of Wiener, Weiss & Madison, a Professional Corporation, and a practitioner primarily in the areas of taxation, estate planning, successions, trusts, and business and commercial transactions. Ms. Radford is a Board Certified Estate Planning and Administration Specialist as Certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Business Administration, cum laude, from Rhodes College and a Master of Science in Accounting from the University of Virginia. Ms. Radford earned a J.D. and a Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, cum laude. Subsequent to her studies at LSU, Ms. Radford earned a Master of Laws in Taxation from the University of Florida. She is a frequent speaker on estate planning and taxation topics and is a co-author of Estate Planning in Louisiana, which is part of the Louisiana Practice Series since 2020.
Professor Ronald J. Scalise Jr.
Tulane Law School
Ronald J. Scalise Jr. is the John Minor Wisdom Professor of Civil Law at Tulane Law School. He joined the Tulane Law faculty in 2009 and held the A.D. Freeman Professorship from 2009 to 2018. He served as Vice Dean of the law school from 2012 to 2016. Prior to arriving at Tulane, Professor Scalise served on the faculty of the Louisiana State University Law Center from 2004 to 2009. In 2007, he was awarded the McGlinchey Stafford Associate Professorship there, and, in 2009, he served as Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
While in law school, Professor Scalise served as an Articles Editor for the Tulane Law Review. After graduation, he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for Judge James L. Dennis and then worked as an associate in the New Orleans law firm of Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann, LLC. He pursued his LL.M. at Trinity College, Cambridge University, on a Gates Fellowship.
During his time in practice and in academia, Professor Scalise has served on a number of law reform projects and on projects related to the betterment of the legal profession. He currently serves as Reporter for the Successions and Donations Committee, the Trust Code Committee, the Prescription Committee, and the Committee on Aleatory Contracts/Signification of Terms of the Louisiana State Law Institute and as a member of the Council and a committee member of over a dozen other subject-matter specific revision committees. He currently serves as a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Board of Governors, a position he previously held from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2017 to the 2019. In addition, from 2011-2017, Professor Scalise served on the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization, including in positions as both Chair and Vice Chair of the Board.
In 2011, he was appointed to serve as an appeals judge in cases contesting decisions made by the BP oil spill compensation system, and in 2012 he was elected as an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is both a board member and the Treasurer of the American Society of Comparative Law. Professor Scalise has written extensively on civil and comparative law topics, particularly in the area of successions, wills, and trusts. He is also the primary author for the annual updates for five volumes in the Louisiana Civil Law Treatise series on property and obligations. In 2014, he was elected as an academic fellow to the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC), and in 2015 was given the Leadership in Law Award by New Orleans City Business. In 2018, he was awarded both the Felix Frankfurter Award for law teaching and the John Minor Wisdom Award for the best civil law article published in the Tulane Law Review. In that year, Professor Scalise also assumed editorial responsibility for the annual pamphlet edition of the Louisiana Civil Code. In 2019, Professor Scalise was elected to the American Law Institute and was appointed by the Uniform Law Commission as Reporter for the revision of the Uniform Disposition of Community Property at Death Act. Since 2021, he has also served as the Reporter for Uniform Law Commission’s project on Uniform Conflict of Laws in Trusts and Estates.
Ms. Cherish van Mullem
Director, Tax Services
LSU Law Center
Cherish joined LaPorte in 2018 where she provides tax planning, advisory, and compliance services to a variety of clients, with a focus on estate, gift, and succession planning, state and local taxation, and family business tax planning. Cherish is also an adjunct professor at LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center where she teaches Income Tax I.
Cherish began her professional career representing the Internal Revenue Service before the US Tax Court on procedural and tax controversy issues and contributing to the drafting of regulations dealing with tax collection issues. She later worked for a large regional law firm. Cherish’s legal practice consisted of counseling and representing clients on trust and estate planning and administration (successions); federal, state, and international taxation; and entity governance issues.
Cherish has extensive experience assisting a wide variety of nonprofit clients through the lifecycle of their needs from tax exempt status through compliance and operations to dissolution. In addition, she has assisted nonprofit clients with formation, governance, and reinstatement issues.
As a member of the LaPorte Transaction Advisory Services team, Cherish helps partnerships, S corporations and closely held businesses with options on structuring transactions and operations. She also guides her clients on sales and use tax issues.
Cherish received a Master of Laws in Tax from New York University School of Law and a Juris Doctorate and Bachelor of Science in Accounting, both from Louisiana State University.
She is a Certified Public Accountant, Board Certified Estate Planning and Administration Specialist and Board Certified Tax Law Specialist both as Certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization. She is a Former LSBA Tax Section Chair, Tax Specialization Committee Member and a Member of the New Orleans Estate and Business Planning Council. She is also a contributing author for the book “Estate Planning in Louisiana,” 2017–2023. In 2022, she was nominated as a City Business Woman of the Year for Non Profit Organizations.
Ms. Katherine Wells Gressett
Sternberg, Naccari & White, LLC
Katherine Wells Gressett is an attorney with Sternberg, Naccari & White, LLC, joining the firm in 2022 and practicing in the firm’s New Orleans office.
Katherine brings her considerable talents to the firm’s estate planning and business litigation groups, after working most recently in environmental litigation, and representing states in natural resource damages litigation. She also practiced with a large regional firm based in New Orleans.
In her legal career, Katherine has extensive experience in both federal and state court. She has advocated for both plaintiffs and defendants in environmental, toxic tort, and legacy litigation, as well as commercial, construction and insurance litigation. She has experience in all stages of litigation, from pre-suit investigations and negotiation, to discovery, dispositive motions, oral argument, trial, and federal and state appeals.
Katherine received her Juris Doctor and Diploma in Civil law cum laude from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where she was a member of the LSU Journal of Energy Law and Resources, was selected for the Moot Court Board and travelled nationally with LSU’s Jessup International Moot Court team. During law school, Katherine also completed an externship with U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Vance at the Eastern District of Louisiana as well as a summer clerkship with Judge Phyllis Keaty in the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal.
Katherine earned her bachelor’s degree in French Literature at Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, Katherine completed coursework at the Sorbonne in Paris and Aix-en-Provence.
Before attending law school, Katherine worked in Washington D.C. on a USAID-funded international health policy project advocating for maternal health services in Francophone West Africa.
Katherine is originally from Jackson, Mississippi but has adopted the francophone city of New Orleans as her home. She remains fluent in French. She lives in Mid-City with her husband, Tim, where they enjoy all kinds of outdoor adventures, traveling, and appreciating all the food, music, and culture that the region has to offer.
Mr. Jacob C. White
Ayres, Shelton, Williams, Benson & Paine, LLC
Jacob is a partner at Ayres, Shelton, Williams, Benson & Paine, LLC in Shreveport and is engaged in a transaction-focused practice covering all facets of Louisiana and Texas business and estate planning and operations, from initial planning, structuring, and negotiation stages through closing, with an emphasis on federal income (including corporate and partnership), estate, and gift taxation.
In addition to serving as general outside counsel for various businesses, representative matters include formation, amendment, governance, and recapitalization of various business entities; representation of both purchasers and sellers in taxable stock, membership interest, and asset sales and non-taxable mergers and reorganizations; tax free property exchanges; and structuring multi-tiered estate plans, integrating limited liability companies, family limited partnerships, trusts , and private non-profit foundations.
In addition to his primary transactional practice, Jacob assists clients in Louisiana succession and ancillary succession proceedings, both complex and simple, and in litigation focusing on business and estate related matters, including contested succession, fiduciary, and commercial proceedings.
Jacob has been listed in Super Lawyers® for Louisiana as a Rising Star for his practice in the field of tax law since 2018. Jacob is a Board Certified Tax Law Specialist by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization and currently serves as a member of the Tax Law Advisory Commission of the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization.
In 2008, Jacob received his undergraduate degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in History and Spanish, with a Concentration in American Studies. In 2011, Jacob graduated from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center and was admitted to practice in Louisiana in 2011 and in Texas in 2013. Jacob received his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law in 2014.
