WC&B - Key Persons
Andrew Dye practices all areas of nonprofit law including formation of non-profit organizations, exemption, dissolution, governance, and other corporate issues. Mr. Dye also helps landlords and tenants with real estate matters including leases of all sizes. Andrew works with non-profit organizations seeking to obtain tax exemption status and in so doing he drafts bylaws, articles of incorporation, conflicts of interest, whistleblower, and record retention policies, and applications for state tax exemption in Maryland, the District of Columbia and other states. In addition, he also helps organizations in their charitable registration process. Andrew also advises regarding government statutes and regulations covering Veterans Affairs, Department of Transportation and other government agencies.
Prior to working at Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Andrew clerked at the Boston Board of Zoning Appeal, where he attended bimonthly hearings for appeals from the zoning laws and drafted decisions for the Board. Before attending law school, Andrew worked in Property Management in the Washington, DC, area for several years. He also interned in a congressional office.
Mr. Herold was an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission before joining the firm. He has previously chaired the Antitrust Law Committee of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, the Trade Association Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, and the Legal Section of the American Society of Association Executives. Mr. Herold is the President of the Washington Nonprofit Legal and Tax Conference and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Charles Watkins counsels and represents national and regional trade and professional associations, charities, public policy advocacy organizations, churches, other religious organizations, and other tax-exempt organizations on income and employment tax, employee benefits, qualified and section 403(b) retirement plans, nonqualified deferred compensation, corporate governance, fundraising and charitable solicitation registration, contracts, and other legal and regulatory matters.
He has written and maintains prototype section 403(b) retirement plans for section 501(c)(3) church and non-church employers.
Mr. Watkins frequently speaks, writes, and teaches seminars on these and other issues of interest to tax-exempt organizations.
Before joining Webster, Chamberlain & Bean in 1986, Mr. Watkins served as an attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service. During his tenure there, he was responsible for issues relating to employee benefits and retirement plans and tax-exempt organizations.
Conor Kelly's practice includes lobbying and government relations, antitrust, and association law. He provides counsel to a variety of nonprofits and trade associations and monitors legislation and regulations affecting their interests. Conor graduated from George Washington University Law School in May, 2020. He received his BA in History and Government with high honors from the University of Virginia, where he served as an opinion editor and member of the editorial board of The Cavalier Daily.
Prior to joining Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Conor served as counsel on the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration for Senator Amy Klobuchar. In that role, he helped to guide the For the People Act through markup.
Court Culver's practice includes antitrust, contracts, employment, and charitable registration. While in law school at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, Court was Executive Editor of the Journal of Law, Economics, and Policy. He received his BS in Economics and an MS in Applied Economics from Florida State University.
Prior to joining Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Court served as Assistant General Counsel for a political nonprofit where he gained experience in 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), and PAC Compliance. He also worked as a clerk for the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust.
David M. Abrahams concentrates on intellectual property matters including managing worldwide trademark and copyright portfolios for firm clients and providing trademark, copyright and Internet counseling including trademark clearance, trademark prosecution, copyright registration, enforcement of trademarks and copyrights, and prosecution of domain name disputes. In addition, Mr. Abrahams negotiates and drafts intellectual property related agreements such as licenses, assignments and coexistence agreements. Mr. Abrahams also assists firm clients with corporate matters including entity formation, obtaining federal tax exemptions and drafting, reviewing and negotiating all types of contracts.
Prior to joining Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Mr. Abrahams was a trademark Examining Attorney at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). During his tenure with the USPTO, Mr. Abrahams reviewed trademark applications for statutory and regulatory compliance with the Lanham Act, the Trademark Rules of Practice, and the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure. He also prepared ex parte appeal briefs for consideration by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
David Goch has represented numerous clients before the US Congress on legislative matters ranging from health care, to commercial law issues, electronic payment issues, transportation and privacy.
Mr. Goch also oversees the firm's state charitable solicitation registration program.
Heidi Abegg has over twenty-two years of legal experience in private practice focusing on all aspects of political law, lobbying compliance, government ethics, campaign finance, and non-profit law at the state and federal levels. Her practice focuses on providing tailored legal solutions to a variety of compliance matters, especially in the integration of law and public policy, including the opportunities and challenges nonprofit entities face when engaged in government relations, grassroots advocacy, political campaigns, and strategic communications.
Her clients include charities, social welfare organizations, professional societies, trade associations, corporate political action committees, as well as candidate committees, Presidential campaign committees, independent expenditure committees, donors, lobbyists and consultants, and unregistered political organizations.
She has extensive experience in rendering advice and legal opinions regarding the applicability of the Federal Election Campaign Act, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as state and local laws regulating lobbying, campaign finance, government ethics, communications, and disclosure.
Her work also includes rendering advice with respect to all areas of business, transactional and contract law, as well as privacy issues, including donor, financial, and medical privacy laws, data and security laws, the General Data Protection Regulation, employment and general corporate matters, including governance issues, non-profit tax law, including obtaining federal, state and local tax-exempt status and group exemption rulings, and other tax matters.
She has prepared position papers, rulemaking comments and testimony before the Federal Election Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and the American National Standards Institute, and files amicus briefs in various courts.
Jim Wilson counsels both non-profit and for-profit organizations on a range of corporate, regulatory and legislative matters. Mr. Wilson's practice principally consists of serving as general counsel to trade associations, professional societies and other non-profit organizations. In that capacity, Mr. Wilson advises his clients on issues relating to corporate organization and governance, tax, antitrust compliance, commercial contracts, real estate lease and acquisition transactions and employment matters. He also represents nonprofit executives negotiating employment agreements. He frequently speaks and writes on many of these topics.
Mr. Wilson was the 2015-2016 Chair of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Legal Section Council.
Mr. Wilson maintains an active real estate practice, representing tenants in commercial office lease negotiations. Prior to joining Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Mr. Wilson was a member of the Business & Finance practice group at a major international law firm.
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- Senior Counsel
John Strout provides general counsel to non-profit organizations. His practice focuses on corporate matters for charities, trade associations, professional societies, social welfare organizations, and other tax exempt organizations. In working with exempt organizations he has extensive experience preparing and negotiating contracts, including contracts for conferences centers, hotels, contractors, vendors, C suite executives and other employees, and publishing contracts for associations. He also helps exempt organizations in all forms of corporate matters including incorporation, exemption, mergers, review of governing documents, state sales tax exemption, and dissolution.
John works closely with clients in providing solutions to employee, contract, tax, and various other issues and advises clients regarding charitable solicitation registrations and exemption from solicitation registration. He has also worked with preparing copyright and trademark applications and providing responses to inquiries from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.S. Copyright Office.
John has presented lectures for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "Institute" program throughout the country and the Washington Nonprofit, Legal, Finance and Grants Conference.
John Hazard's practice includes all areas of nonprofit corporate and tax law including antitrust, tax, contracts, human resource matters, mergers, compensation, and intellectual property.
Mr. Hazard has worked with and represents associations and companies of all types including publicly traded and private corporations, trade and professional groups, foundations, charities, and sports groups. Mr. Hazard has participated in litigating numerous trademark infringement matters both in the U.S. and abroad, as well as domain name disputes and general corporate matters. He has been very successful in stopping trademark infringement for many of his clients and regularly assists in developing intellectual property policing and registration programs on a world-wide basis.
Mr. Hazard has lectured extensively in the areas of corporate governance, mergers, trademark and copyright infringement, and is the author of a treatise on copyright law, Copyright Law In Business and Practice (Thomson West), which is updated twice annually.
Mr. Hazard has been a partner with the firm since 1988 and is admitted to practice in Washington, D.C. and Virginia.