CHARLOTTE -- The Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association has tapped Charlotte partner C. Wells Hall, III to serve as chair of the section, consisting of over 14,000 members, for the coming year. Hall has been an active member of the section since 1974. The section serves its members and the public by providing education about taxes and tax systems and by providing leadership to support the development of an equitable, efficient, and workable tax system.

Hall advises clients on the federal, state, and multi-state tax aspects of acquisitions, reorganizations, restructuring of business entities, and private equity transactions, and estate and gift tax planning in connection with such transactions. He has been recognized for his legal practice, including by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business Tax – North Carolina, Best Lawyers in America, and Business North Carolina Magazine Legal Elite — Tax and Estates.

Asked about priorities for his year as chair, Hall says: “The Tax Section has meant so much for me and my career. I want to see us expand the section’s membership to include tax lawyers who may not appreciate what it can do for their practices and professional relationships. In our Summer Leadership Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, our leadership team resolved that we will focus on the following priorities and initiatives:

• Continue to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in furtherance of the ABA’s Goal III and make sure it is sustainable, through the full funding of the Loretta Collins Argrett Fellowships Program and our other diversity initiatives already in place.
• Grow our section membership to include all (not just some) of the growing tax bar.
• Maintain the involvement of student members and encourage them to renew as full members as they matriculate and get fully involved in the practice of tax law.
• Expand remote and virtual CLE opportunities for all section members through webinars, podcasts, and other media, including co-branding CLE programs with state and local bar tax sections.
• Expand participation of IRS personnel, state tax administration personnel, and enrolled agents in our section activities.
• Continue to grow participation in the section’s pro bono “pillars,” such as the Tax Court Calendar Call Program (pro bono assistance to pro se taxpayers), Adopt-A-Base, VITA, Low Income Tax Clinics, the Christine Brunswick Public Service Fellowships, other innovative pro bono programs, and the role of section members in providing tax assistance to disaster survivors, elderly taxpayers, taxpayers eligible for the expanded child tax credit, and service members.
• Increase the section’s influence on the regulatory process through the quality and volume of our government submissions.

“Obviously, these are ambitious goals, and we have our work cut out for us!” Hall’s term will run until August 2023. Other professional leadership roles he has held include president of the American College of Tax Counsel, North Carolina state chair of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and on the Board of Advisors, Planning Committee, J. Nelson Young Tax Institute. He has served as a member of the drafting committee for the original enactment and subsequent revision of the North Carolina Limited Liability Company Act and is a founding Fellow of the American College of LLC and Partnership Attorneys.

Hall served as vice chair for pro bono and outreach of the Section from 2013 to 2016. During his tenure he championed programs to increase pro bono participation among section membership and access to tax assistance for low-income and underserved populations. Among other efforts, Hall was a driving force behind the section's "Adopt-A-Base" program, through which tax attorneys provide Military Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program training to service personnel on military bases throughout the country. Under Hall's leadership, the Adopt-A-Base program expanded from two bases in 2013 to 47 bases in the most recent tax filing season. For his service, he received the 2017 Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award from the Section of Taxation. 

Established in 1897, Nelson Mullins is an Am Law 100 firm of more than 930 attorneys and government relations professionals with offices in 15 states and Washington, D.C. For more information on the firm, go to www.nelsonmullins.com.