George H. Runstadler III

Mr. Runstadler has successfully represented numerous business concerns involved in joint ventures, licensing, manufacturing, retail, service and insurance sales. His material involvement included tax planning, mergers and acquisitions, entity organization, agreements among owners as to succession, taxes, contract negotiation with employees and other concerns, financial aspects of operations of both emerging and distressed companies.

Mr. Runstadler has had extensive involvement with tax controversies at the audit, appellate and tax court stages. A major component of his practice is his estate planning practice which includes the design and preparation of estate plans, succession planning, charitable planning, probate and trust administration, taxes and litigation.

He has extensive experience teaching at advanced levels for a number of institutions of higher learning: Currently he is an Adjunct Professor at both Thomas Cooley Law School, LLM program and Walsh College in its Masters program. Previously, he was an Adjunct Professor at the Detroit College of Law (now Michigan State Law School). He has authored and presented material for the Michigan Bar Association, International Institute of Certified Financial Planners, Michigan Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education and numerous other organizations, both professional and private.

The bedrock of Berry Moorman’s excellent reputation was founded in tax law, starting with Raymond H. Berry, a renowned estate tax lawyer, who founded our Firm to represent Horace and John Dodge in recovering taxes on the profit from the sale of their shares of Ford Motor Company. Through the years, we have been involved in a number of noteworthy tax matters, including our successful representation of Mr. Clarence P. Chamberlin in the first preferred stock bailout case, which resulted in the adoption of Section 306 of the Internal Revenue Code; our representation of the American Automobile Association before the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the IRS’s taxation of subscription payments in the year received; and our role as appraiser of the shares of Hudson Motor Car Co. in connection with that company’s merger into American Motors Corporation.

Our Michigan tax attorneys regularly provide assistance in tax matters involving structuring the purchase or sale of businesses, tax-free reorganizations and liquidations, tax deferred exchanges, choice of entity matters, employee benefits and executive compensation. We have formed and consult with a number of private charitable corporations and private charitable foundations on tax matters. In addition, our attorneys regularly provide advise and counsel on all aspects of Michigan business taxes, sales and use tax and Michigan tax planning.