Deborah Z Read

Deborah is a partner in the firm’s Tax practice and focuses on the tax exempt, nonprofit corporate, and health care areas. From May 2012 to May 2024, she served as managing partner and chair of the firm's Executive Committee, the principal governing body responsible for its strategic direction, financial affairs, and the oversight of its eight offices. Prior to that she served as a regular member of the firm’s Executive Committee for 12 years.

Earlier, she served in various management roles at the firm, including hiring partner, chair of the 65-lawyer Tax, Benefits and Planning Department, and chair of the Lawyer Personnel Committee.

Deborah functions as outside general counsel to two large exempt organizations. She focuses her tax exempt practice on tax and corporate planning for nonprofit organizations and foundations and health care organizations.

Deborah assists clients in the formation of nonprofit entities; qualification of nonprofit entities for tax exempt status; conversions to and from exempt status; corporate reorganizations and liquidations, including reorganizations of exempt organizations, hospitals, and other health care providers; arrangements between for-profit and tax exempt entities; Internal Revenue Service Ruling requests; attorney general inquiries and filings; unrelated business income, lobbying, and political contribution tax compliance; structuring of for-profit corporate sponsorship arrangements; tax reviews; and tax controversy work, including Internal Revenue Service audits, appeals, and tax litigation.

Deborah spends a considerable portion of her practice advising organizations on governance and nonprofit corporate law issues, including counseling nonprofit boards on fiduciary duty issues and best practices for corporate governance. She counsels nonprofit corporations on restructuring their governing bodies to achieve better governance frameworks. She advises private corporate foundations about permissible charitable programs they may operate to advance charitable objectives for the employees of their corporate sponsors, including programs involving international workforces

• Boston University School of Law, J.D., 1982
• Ohio University, A.B., 1979, summa cum laude