Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Tax-Exempt Organizations Practice

Thomas (Tom) Schroeder has spent his entire professional career involved with nonprofit organizations. He brings this unique experience to bear by providing practical and timely advice on complex state and federal laws and regulations so that his clients can focus on what matters to them.

Tom advises on the full range of legal issues faced by nonprofits and foundations, including: entity choice and organizational structures, formations, dissolutions and reorganizations (including subsidiary formation and operation, affiliated organizations, and mergers, acquisitions and dispositions). He also handles tax qualification and compliance for all types of tax-exemption organizations, including public charities, private foundations, social welfare organizations and trade associations. Finally, Tom counsels clients on corporate governance (fiduciary duties, conflicts of interest, board policies, and practice), executive compensation, and advocacy activities, including campaign intervention and lobbying.

Tom's significant in-house experience enables him to offer creative and pragmatic solutions to complex charitable giving issues, such as private foundation grantmaking, significant gifts to operating charities and creation and operation of donor-advised funds and supporting organizations. Tom also works with clients to navigate charitable trust law and endowment matters, including representing them before state attorneys general.

Principal Counsel, Nonprofit Organizations & Charitable Giving, University of California, Oakland, CA, 2013-2022 Associate General Counsel, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park, CA, 2011-2013 Associate, Tax-Exempt Organizations, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, Seattle, WA, 2006-2011 Project Coordinator and Project Manager, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, 1996-1999 and 2000-2003 Assistant, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, 1995-1996

Admitted to Practice

Washington, 2006 California, 2014 New York, 2019

Co-chair, Educational Organizations Subcommittee, Exempt Organizations Committee, Section on Taxation, American Bar Association Exempt Organizations Committee, Section of Taxation, American Bar Association National Association of College and University Attorneys American Health Law Association QLaw – The LGBTQ+ Bar Association of Washington Board Member and Secretary, Berkeley Lab Foundation

J.D., University of Washington School of Law, 2006, with honors 

Order of the Coif 

Executive Articles Editor, Washington Law Review 

M.A., History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 2000  A.B., Art History and English, Bowdoin College, 1995, summa cum laude 

Phi Beta Kappa