Blank Rome Adds Leading State and Local Tax Team in New York
Blank Rome LLP is pleased to welcome Craig B. Fields, Holly L. Hyans, Nicole L. Johnson, and Mitchell A. Newmark to the Firm’s New York office as Partners in the Tax, Benefits, and Private Client group. Craig, Nicole, and Mitchell joined on February 15 and Holly will join in early March. The Firm expects to continue expanding the team over the coming weeks. At Blank Rome, Craig serves as Co-Chair of the Tax, Benefits, and Private Client group and leads the national State and Local Tax practice. The prominent group regularly litigates state and local tax matters and counsels clients on state and local tax planning throughout the country. They join from Morrison & Foerster LLP where Craig served as co-chair of the tax department and chair of the firm’s state and local tax group, and Holly was a founding member of the group.
Collectively, the group has decades of experience representing clients in state and local tax controversies before administrative tribunals and judicial courts in jurisdictions throughout the United States and has resolved hundreds of cases throughout the country. They have secured successful outcomes for clients in state general jurisdiction courts and tax courts as well as appellate courts for a multitude of clients spanning a wide range of industries, including retail, manufacturing, and financial services, among others. They also have significant experience advising clients on all state and local income, gross receipts, franchise, sales & use, excise, and miscellaneous taxes and fees and state unclaimed property obligations. Additionally, the group counsels clients on state and local aspects of sophisticated planning and transactional matters, such as acquisitions, dispositions, restructurings, and asset-based financing transactions. They also successfully counsel individuals and estates regarding residency, domicile, and multistate taxability in audits and appeals. The group frequently writes about and speaks on state and local tax issues with leading media outlets and organizations.
Fields was selected as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2019, and serves as an advisory board member for various professional organizations, publications, and centers, including the Georgetown Law Center, the National Multistate Tax Symposium, the Journal of State Taxation, Bloomberg BNA State Tax, and State Tax Notes. He received the NYU School of Professional Studies Paul H. Frankel Award for Outstanding Achievement in State and Local Taxation in 2017. Fields earned his LL.M. from New York University School of Law, his J.D. from Duke University School of Law, and his B.A. from Queens College.
Hyans serves on the advisory boards of the Hartman State and Local Tax Forum at Vanderbilt University Law School, the NYU Institute on State and Local Tax, and Bloomberg BNA State Tax. She earned her J.D., Order of the Coif, from New York University School of Law where she served as a staff member of the New York University Law Review, and her B.A. from Brooklyn College of the City of New York. She previously clerked for the Honorable Pierre N. Leval, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Johnson was appointed to the New York Tax Appeals Tribunal Advisory Panel in 2018 and serves as a member of the Law360 Tax Authority State & Local Editorial Advisory Board. She was named a Rising Star in Tax by Law360 in 2019. Johnson earned her J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law, and her B.S.B. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. In 2006, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Michael B. Thornton, U.S. Tax Court.
Newmark was named a Law360 Tax MVP in 2019. He serves as co-chair of the State Practice, Procedure, and Liaison Committee of the Tax Section of the New Jersey Bar Association, and is a member of the Tax Section of the New Jersey Bar Association Executive Committee and Executive Council, which he previously chaired. He was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on the Tax Court for 11 years until he termed out in 2018. Earlier in his career, Newmark spent six years as a deputy attorney general at the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. From 1996 to 1997, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Irwin I. Kimmelman, New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division. Newmark earned his LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center, his J.D. from Widener University School of Law, and his M.B.A. and B.A. from Rutgers University.
