Education
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Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 2004
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University of California at Los Angeles, M.A., 2001
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Brown University, B.A., with Honors, 1999
Bar Admissions
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District of Columbia
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Massachusetts
Awards and Honors
- American Bar Association Outstanding Young Nonprofit Lawyer Award, Section of Business Law, Committee on Nonprofit Organizations, 2009.
- Pro Bono Attorney of the Year (at previous firm), 2004
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Melissa Tai focuses her practice on advising nonprofit organizations, such as public charities, private foundations, trade associations and social clubs. She is experienced in working with clients to form new nonprofit organizations, applying for and obtaining tax-exempt status for these organizations and advising nonprofit organizations on compliance with federal and state regulations.
Ms. Tai regularly assists publicly-supported charities on matters such as control and governance, “rebuttable presumption” procedures in setting executive compensation, public support calculations, permissible lobbying activities, political campaign activities, charitable solicitation registration, mergers and acquisitions and unrelated business taxable income. She also advises private foundations with respect to international grant making, “tipping” grants, minimum distribution requirements, taxable expenditures and expenditure responsibility procedures. Ms. Tai counsels universities, charter schools and other educational organizations as to activities, endowments, grants, scholarships and funding. She provides guidance to supporting organizations on matters such as control and governance, grant making and taxable expenditure rules. She assists sponsoring organizations of donor-advised funds in matters such as taxable distributions, excess benefit transactions, taxes on prohibited benefits and the deductibility of charitable contributions. She has assisted churches with matters relating to tax-exempt status and determining parsonage allowances. Additionally, she advises charitable organizations on exempt scientific research activities. Ms. Tai counsels trade associations regarding matters such as trade shows, antitrust issues, deductibility of membership dues and assessments and mergers and acquisitions. She also assists social welfare organizations on matters relating to permissible lobbying activities, political campaign activities and grant-making activities. Ms. Tai also provides advice to Indian tribal governments as well as multistate instrumentalities.
She has applied for and received exempt status for nonprofit organizations from state and local income, franchise, sales and use and personal property taxes, and has experience in drafting and filing various state charitable solicitation registrations.
Before joining Patton Boggs, Ms. Tai served as an associate at another Washington, DC firm, where she handled exempt organization matters, estate-planning and probate matters and general tax matters.
Representative Matters
- Formed and represented a large publicly supported public charity established and coordinated through the joint efforts of current and former U.S. Ambassadors, a Foreign Minister, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Treasury to improve the social economic condition of people in a foreign country.
- Assisted with the representation of a major private foundation in structuring a series of grants to a foreign country totaling over $150 million for the purposes of funding business incubators, improving infrastructure, renovating cultural institutions, providing housing for people devastated by an earthquake, and constructing public schools.
- Represented a District of Columbia charter school in seeking and obtaining exemption from District of Columbia real estate taxes for property purchased to serve as a school campus.
- Assisted with the formation and representation of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, a publicly supported public charity established by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to deliver emergency assistance, promote jobs and create economic opportunities that will lead to long-term growth and prosperity for Haiti.
- Assisted in the representation of a major network of affiliated exempt organizations on governance and tax issues raised by the Government Accountability Office.
Professional Affiliations:
American Bar Association
Section of Taxation
Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law
Young Lawyers Division
Brown Alumni Association
UCLA Alumni Association
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