Clayton J. (“Clay”) Vreeland
Clay Vreeland has more than thirty years of experience working as a business transactions and tax attorney in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business (magna cum laude) and the UCLA School of Law, where he was a Comment Editor on the UCLA Law Review. Prior to law school Clay worked for three years as an auditor at Arthur Andersen & Co., where he learned to analyze and interpret financial statements and to deal with issues of GAAP interpretation and disclosure. He became a licensed certified public accountant in the State of California in 1980. (His CPA license is now inactive.) Clay has an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell – its highest ranking – indicating a “very high to preeminent” legal ability and “very high” ethical standards.
Before Clay founded Vreeland Law Firm, Inc., he was a business and tax partner in the Los Angeles office of San Francisco-based law firm McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen LLP and the Los Angeles office of successor law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP. While at the McCutchen and Bingham firms, Clay focused his practice on corporate, tax, and financing matters, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, federal and state tax matters (including both tax planning and tax controversy matters), financing transactions (both equity and debt), new business formations (including choice of entity planning), strategic alliances and transactions, and general business matters (including business contracts and other operations-related legal needs). Although based in Los Angeles Clay spent considerable time in the Silicon Valley offices of those firms, representing entrepreneurial companies and investors, and he completed, as lead counsel to the issuing company or to a major investor, private company equity transactions that raised in excess of $500 million.
Before Clay joined McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen LLP he was employed as Counsel in the Los Angeles and London offices of AmLaw 100 law firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue LLP. Clay was a member of the Tax Group at Jones Day for seven years, and during that time he focused his practice primarily on domestic and international corporate tax planning, including corporate tax-free reorganization transactions, tax planning for mergers and acquisitions, partnership and joint venture tax planning, S corporation tax planning, and like-kind real property exchanges. Clay also has extensive tax controversy experience; he has represented tax controversy clients in the United States Tax Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, California Board of Equalization, California Court of Appeals, California Supreme Court, and the Los Angeles County Assessment Appeals Board. Clay has assisted many clients with FTB and IRS tax audits.
On a personal level, Clay and his wife celebrated their thirtieth (30th) wedding anniversary in 2013. They have two children, now adults, of whom they are very proud.