Jennifer C. Borden is a Partner in the Business Section of Holland & Knight. Ms. Borden’s primary areas of practice are government incentives and unclaimed property. She has considerable experience negotiating tax benefits and securing statutory incentives for her clients as well as counseling companies on multi-state escheat compliance issues, defending state abandoned property audits, and implementing strategic restructurings.
Ms. Borden is a frequent speaker on state and local tax issues, providing testimony before the Massachusetts Legislature's joint committees on Labor & Workforce Development and Economic Development & Emerging Technologies. She has chaired several panels on developments in unclaimed property law for Lorman Seminars, Massachusetts Hospitals Association, the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization, and other industry groups. Ms. Borden is a featured speaker for ReedLogic Studios' Video Leadership Seminars, appearing in the DVD The Business Side of Growing Your Tax Practice.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Borden was a senior manager in the New England State and Local Tax Practice for Ernst & Young. She was the leader of the Unclaimed Funds Practice as well as the leader of the Business Incentives Practice for the New England area. As the leader of the Unclaimed Funds Practice, Ms. Borden saved her clients millions of dollars in escheat liability. As the leader of the Incentives Practice, she secured millions of dollars in state tax credits, property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions, training grants and wage subsidies.
Ms. Borden spent four years as Deputy General Counsel for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Treasurer, where she had primary responsibility for the legal operations of the Unclaimed Property Division. In this capacity, Ms. Borden resolved disputes arising out of abandoned property audits, negotiated settlements with major corporations as well as state agencies, defended all actions against the Division, and annually approved several million dollars in returns of unclaimed funds to taxpayers. Her knowledge of audit practices and administrative policies locally and nationally enables her to provide her clients with unique insight into process and exposure.
Before representing the Unclaimed Property Division, Ms. Borden was counsel to the Commonwealth’s largest public pension fund, where she was responsible for defending all claims against the fund before the Division of Administrative Law Appeals, Superior Court, and the Massachusetts Appeals Court; insuring the fund’s compliance with state and federal law; and serving as counsel to the State Board of Retirement.