Accomplishment: Recipient of Lawyers Alliance for New York’s 2014 Cornerstone Award honoring outstanding pro bono legal services to nonprofits, to be presented on October 30.
Highlights: James W. Perkins is a shareholder in the Litigation Practice of Greenberg Traurig’s New York office. He received a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1983 and his J.D. from American University Washington College of Law in 1987.
Mr. Perkins and Greenberg Traurig colleagues, including New York Co-Chairman Edward C. Wallace and Associate Lauren B. Grassotti, wrote an amicus brief on behalf of Lawyers Alliance for New York, Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, and Queens Chamber of Commerce that helped persuade the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, to issue an important decision for the nonprofit sector. The Appellate Division affirmed that groups engaged in economic development are eligible for the charitable exemption from the state’s real estate tax. Real estate taxes are unaffordable for many nonprofit organizations. The charitable exemption allows such organizations to own property, enabling them to have a continued neighborhood presence, plan for the future, and provide social services to vulnerable people who a landlord might not want on the premises.
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