Overview

William B. Sherman is a partner in Holland & Knight's Miami and Fort Lauderdale offices. Mr. Sherman concentrates his practice in the area of domestic and international taxation. He provides sophisticated tax planning for mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, joint ventures and investments for clients in diverse industries, such as private equity, healthcare, hospitality, petrochemicals, aluminum, real estate, transportation, telecommunications, retailing, investment management, pharmaceuticals and numerous others. In addition, Mr. Sherman has experience in a broad range of transactions involving United States investment overseas, foreign investment in the U.S., as well as international, federal, state and local taxation issues involving structuring investment management funds, corporate reorganizations, partnerships, equipment leasing, Subchapter S, executive compensation, stock options, and trusts and estates.

Mr. Sherman is a well known lecturer and chairs the New York University's Summer Institute in Taxation's Introductory and Advanced International Tax Seminars and its Institute on Federal Taxation International Tax Program. For 12 years, Mr. Sherman was an adjunct professor of Tax Law at the University of Miami, Graduate Tax Program. He is admitted to practice in New York and Florida and has served on numerous panels with The Florida Bar and the American Bar Association, where he is a past chair of the American Bar Association's Tax Section Committee on U.S. Activities of Foreigners and Tax Treaties.

Representative Experience

  • Tax Structuring: advised one of the nation's leading physician-led nephrology organizations in connection with a strategic investment from a major private equity firm; the engagement consists of 1) assisting with the structuring of ongoing acquisitions, and 2) negotiating the transaction documents
  • Tax Structuring: advised an investor that is in the business of developing, owning, operating and investing in renewable energy projects in North America; firm handled all of the structuring of the investment, including tax structuring
  • Tax Structuring: advised a private equity company that manages more than $2 billion in private equity capital on behalf of leading institutional family offices, foundations, endowments and pensions in connection with a sale of a majority of the equity interests of a company
  • Tax Structuring: advised on the tax structuring of the domestication of a foreign company engaged in U.S. government contracting work and its transition to domestic ownership; this tax structure enabled the company to retain its status in its home country
  • Tax Structuring: advised on the tax structuring of a $200 million-plus investment in four venture real estate developments projects on an island in the Caribbean, resulting in a minimization of local and U.S. tax liability
  • State Taxation: advised a foreign-based company on U.S. state tax issues, from tax rulings and tax registrations to minimization of overall tax consequences involving multiple states, in the context of the company’s restructuring and expansion of business in U.S. markets

Credentials

Education
  • Brooklyn Law School, J.D., with honors
  • Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, B.A., cum laude
  • New York University School of Law, LL.M., Taxation
Bar Admissions/Licenses
  • Florida
  • New York
Memberships
  • American College of Tax Counsel, Fellow
  • New York University's Institute on Federal Taxation, Advisory Board
  • American Bar Association, Section of Taxation, U.S. Activities of Foreigners and Tax Treaties Committee, Past Chair 
  • New York State Bar Association, Tax Law Section
  • International Fiscal Association
  • The Florida Bar, Tax Law Section
Honors & Awards
  • The Legal 500 USA, Tax – International Tax, Tax – U.S. Taxes: Non-Contentious, 2023
  • Who's Who Legal: Corporate Tax, 2018; Corporate Tax - Advisory, 2019, 2022
  • The Best Lawyers in America guide, Litigation and Controversy - Tax, 2005-2024; Tax Law, 2013-2024; Closely Held Companies and Family Business Law, 2014-2024
  • Chambers USA – America's Leading Business Lawyers guide, Tax, 2009-2023
  • Top Lawyer: Tax Law, Fort Lauderdale Illustrated, 2020
  • Who's Who Legal Florida: Corporate Tax, 2020
  • The Best Lawyers in America guide, Fort Lauderdale Litigation and Controversy - Tax Lawyer of the Year, 2020, 2022
  • Florida Super Lawyers magazine, 2015-2019  
  • Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated

Publications

Speaking Engagements

News