SCHWARTZ LAW GROUP - Key Persons

Debra Burns, JD, PhD has been practicing law with SLG since 2013. She is admitted to practice law in California and is 1 of the 300 Certified Specialists in Taxation Law who have been certified by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization. She graduated from UC Hastings College of the Law with concentrations in Tax and Intellectual Property (IP). Besides addressing her clients' tax planning and compliance matters, Debra works with clients in their business formation and planning, various type of contracts, property sales, and trademark application and prosecution. She is also experienced in estate planning and trust administration. Debra has been active with Carmel Chamber of Commerce as board member (2016-2018), Government Affairs Committee member (2017-present), and Business Roundtable participant (2018-present). Since 2012 she has provided pro bono services for clients in the mortgage redress project at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. Debra enjoys research, writing and giving presentations. Her law-related publications include "Golden Apple of Discord: International Cost-Sharing Arrangements" in the Houston Business and Tax Law Journal (2015) and "Titans and Trolls Enter the Open-Source Arena" in Hastings Science and Technology Journal (2013). She won the 2012 Roger J. Traynor Writing Competition at the U.C. Hastings College of the Law for "Too Big to Fail and Too Big to Pay: States, Their Public-Pension Bills, and the Constitution." While at Hastings, she served as an Executive Supervising Editor for the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly and as an Articles Editor for the Hastings Science and Technology Journal. She has given presentations for the Monterey Bay Information Technologists on "Current Trends in Mining, Regulating and Taxing Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies" and "Current Legal Issues in the Open-Source Cloud". Debra's previous legal and paralegal positions have involved tax, probate, intellectual property, employment law, and civil litigation. As a law student, she mediated for the San Francisco Small Claims Court through the UC Hastings mediation clinic. Before law school, she was a paralegal coordinator and provided paralegal services for Morrison & Foerster, LLP (patent). She was also a paralegal for the Santa Clara County Office of County Counsel (probate and civil litigation), and several high-technology companies (intellectual property). For Burns Engineering, she helped prepare patent applications and research-grant proposals while managing its office.

Gary D. Schwartz, JD, LLM has over thirty years of experience in tax planning for individuals, corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies. He is able to create asset protection plans that include charitable trusts, foundations and other tax exempt entities as well as real estate trusts and real estate assets. His employment at two of the largest law firms in California and the United States, as well as a partnership at a well-known Illinois law firm and as outside legal counsel to Bank Trust departments, provides practiced experience in taxation and estate planning. "Gary has extensive legal and tax experience with sophisticated estate plans and complex business transactions." Gary's work in complex business transactions, including the acquisition, licensing, and development of FCC regulated cellular phone companies in Florida and Alaska; the permitting, acquisition and sale of FCC registered television stations in California, Idaho, and Oregon, and major real estate developments in Orange County and Monterey County, California provides practical experience in the legal aspects of complicated business transactions. By representing Fortune 500 executives and other business professionals, including doctors, dentists, attorneys and celebrities, Gary has one of the most sophisticated tax practices and clientele in the Monterey, California area. Prior to attaining his law license, Gary developed extensive management and transactional experience as a contact administrator and price analyst for the United States Air Force at Rockwell International in Anaheim, California, while working on the F-111 and the Minuteman Programs, which involved contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. He was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service.