Federal Real Estate and Partnerships Tax Conference 2026 (presented by NYU School of Professional Studies)

Kevin Salinger is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, a role to which he was appointed in April 2025 under Secretary Scott Bessent. In this capacity, he serves as principal deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, overseeing the Office of Tax Policy’s legal counsels, advising on federal tax policy, legislation, regulations, and administrative guidance, and ensuring Treasury’s priorities are reflected in the development of tax regulations and guidance. He also represents the Department on significant tax policy matters and currently serves as Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. Prior to joining Treasury, Mr. Salinger spent more than ten years at Jefferies, where he was Managing Director and Head of Tax Counsel & Advisory, advising the firm’s global investment banking and capital markets businesses on a wide range of domestic and international tax matters with a focus on financial services and long-term tax planning. He also served as Vice President of the Wall Street Tax Association. He began his legal career as a tax associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, advising clients on financial products, mergers and acquisitions, and cross-border tax planning. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Steven R. Schneider is a Partner at Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC, where he focuses on transactional and tax policy matters primarily in the areas of partnerships, limited liability companies, REITs, and energy transition. He is a nationally recognized tax lawyer with significant experience in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and real estate funds, qualified opportunity zone funds, data centers, cross-border tax, REITs, bioscience, international investors (including sovereigns), and S corporations. He started his career as a lawyer in the IRS’s national office and has had many years of national-level law firm and Big Four accounting firm experience, including prior roles at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Baker & McKenzie, and Goulston & Storrs. He previously chaired the ABA Partnership Tax Committee and has taught a course on drafting partnership and LLC agreements at Georgetown University Law Center since 2005. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from Bryant College, a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and an LL.M. in Tax from Georgetown University Law Center.

Andrea M. Whiteway is a Principal in the National Tax Department of Ernst & Young LLP, based in Washington, DC, where she focuses on sophisticated tax planning for partnerships, REITs, and real estate transactions. She has substantial experience in the dispositions and acquisitions of real estate and operating businesses, complex partnership transactions, REIT tax status and structured dispositions involving REITs, corporate acquisitions and mergers, structuring private REITs, and forward and reverse like-kind exchanges. She co-chairs the NYU School of Professional Studies Federal Real Estate and Partnerships Tax Conference alongside Paul Wilner, an annual gathering she has co-led for many years. She was the first woman to serve as Chair of the Real Estate Committee of the ABA Section of Taxation and has served as Chair of the Federal Taxation of Real Estate Committee of the ABA Section of Real Property, Trusts and Estates. She is an ACTC Fellow and a Legal 500 and Chambers USA-ranked leader. Prior to EY, she was a principal at McDermott Will & Emery, a partner at Arnold & Porter, and held tax roles at Steptoe & Johnson, Miles & Stockbridge, and Arthur Andersen.

Paul H. Wilner is an Advisor at Grossberg Company LLP in Bethesda, Maryland, where he focuses on federal income tax matters involving troubled business workouts and complex real estate, partnership, REIT, and business transactions. He recently retired as Managing Partner and Lead Tax Partner of the firm and now serves in an advisory capacity through his professional corporation. For many years, he has served as co-chair of the NYU School of Professional Studies Federal Real Estate and Partnerships Tax Conference alongside Andrea Whiteway of EY — one of the most respected annual forums for real estate and partnership tax professionals in the country. He has served as Chair of the AICPA Partnership Technical Resource Panel, Chair of the AICPA’s annual National Real Estate Tax Conference, Chair of the NYU annual National Real Estate and Partnership Tax Conference, Chair of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs Federal Taxation Committee, and as a member of the AICPA Tax Executive Committee. Washingtonian Magazine has named him one of the top tax accountants in Washington, DC.

Evan Adams is an Attorney-Advisor in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington, DC, where he works on the development and implementation of domestic tax policy and administrative guidance. The Office of Tax Policy’s attorney-advisors work within the Main Treasury Building advising the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy and senior Treasury officials on the formulation of legislative and administrative proposals affecting domestic tax policy. His role places him at the center of the Treasury’s real estate and partnership tax guidance development, and he has appeared as a government representative at national tax conferences including the NYU Federal Real Estate and Partnerships Tax Conference.

Brian J. O’Connor is a Partner and Chair of Venable’s Transactional Tax Group, where he provides sophisticated tax and business advice to publicly traded and closely held businesses and their owners. His practice focuses on foreign and domestic tax matters for partnerships, LLCs, joint ventures, REITs, regulated investment companies, C and S corporations, and wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs. As a transactional tax attorney, he has worked on deals ranging from small sales to mergers valued in the billions of dollars, and as a tax controversy attorney he has represented clients in disputes with amounts at issue exceeding $1 billion. Before joining Venable, he was an attorney-advisor in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, where he worked on high-profile legislative projects, regulations, and guidance related to partnerships, S corporations, trusts, and cooperatives. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches an advanced course on the technical tax aspects of partnerships and practical matters including partnership and LLC agreement preparation. He holds a B.S. from the University of Connecticut, a J.D., magna cum laude, from Washington and Lee University School of Law, and an LL.M., with distinction (Shell Oil Scholar, highest possible GPA), from Georgetown University Law Center.

David L. Friedline is a Partner at Deloitte Tax LLP and Co-Leader of Deloitte’s Global Real Estate Funds Group, with more than 30 years of real estate industry experience. He has advised a wide range of clients on the U.S. tax aspects of domestic and cross-border real estate matters, including REITs (equity and mortgage), partnerships and joint ventures, M&A transactions and due diligence, capital raising and fund formation, debt-workouts and purchases of distressed debt portfolios, leasing and tax-deferred exchanges, and real estate securitizations. He has significant experience with all major property types, including hospitality, healthcare, railroad, military housing, cell towers, power plants, and infrastructure. He also served as a senior tax counsel and regional tax director in the London and Stamford offices of GE Capital Real Estate, giving him an operating company perspective that supplements his extensive Big Four advisory background. He holds a B.S. from Florida State University, a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law, an LL.M. in Tax from Georgetown University Law Center, and is a CPA.

Ellen K. Harrison is Counsel in McDermott Will & Schulte’s Private Client Practice in Washington, DC, where she has been widely recognized as one of the United States’ preeminent private client lawyers for more than three decades. She advises clients on a broad range of tax issues including estate planning and administration, tax controversies, and U.S. and international income, gift, and estate tax planning for high-net-worth individuals, families, businesses, and charitable organizations. Her practice encompasses drafting wills, trusts, powers of attorney, prenuptial arrangements, and buy-sell agreements, as well as tax controversy and litigation involving IRS audits, IRS appeals, refund claims, and U.S. Tax Court litigation. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a Past Regent and Past Chair of ACTEC’s International Estate Planning Committee, and currently serves as Chair of the Washington Affairs Committee. She is also a Vice President (Americas) of the International Academy of Trust and Estate Lawyers. She holds a B.A., with highest honors, from the University of Michigan and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Caitlin M. Orr is a Partner in McDermott Will & Schulte’s Private Client Practice in Washington, DC, where she focuses on private client matters for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and their families. She advises clients on all aspects of estate and wealth transfer planning and on a broad range of tax issues, including income, gift, and estate tax planning for individuals, businesses, and charitable organizations. Her practice includes analyzing estate, gift, and GST taxation issues, counseling individuals and families on wealth management needs, preparing primary estate plans, probating complex estates, advising fiduciaries in trust and estate administration, implementing sophisticated wealth transfer transactions (including sales to IDGTs and GRATs), advising on liquidity planning for estate tax, and preparing and reviewing federal gift, estate, and GST tax returns. She is an elected Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches an Estate and Gift Taxation course to LL.M. candidates. She holds a BBA and an MAcc from the University of Georgia, and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.

Michael Greenberg is a Principal in PwC’s U.S. Tax practice in Los Angeles, where he focuses on the tax aspects of real estate, partnership, and investment fund transactions. He advises U.S. and non-U.S. investment fund sponsors on fund formation, coinvestments, restructurings, secondary transactions, and minority investments in fund sponsor groups, with significant experience representing REITs, offshore investors, and investors in real estate and infrastructure assets. His practice includes advising on cross-border real estate investment structures, partnership tax planning, and REIT-related M&A and joint ventures. He is a regular presenter at the NYU Federal Real Estate and Partnerships Tax Conference and other national real estate and partnership tax forums.

Chelsea Riedel is a CPA who recently joined VICI Properties Inc. as Director of Tax after nearly a decade as a Managing Director in KPMG’s real estate and partnership tax practice. At KPMG, she specialized in tax planning for partnership transactions and compliance for clients including real estate, private equity, hedge, operating partnerships, and alternative investment funds. She was deeply involved in developing and instructing many of KPMG’s federal tax seminars on the taxation of partnerships, and served as a frequent instructor for internal and web-based training programs. She holds an LL.M. in Tax from New York University School of Law and was previously a faculty member at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Glenn M. Johnson is a Principal in Ernst & Young LLP’s U.S. National Tax Department in Washington, DC, where he leads the U.S. PPP Infrastructure Tax Practice and serves as Director of Leasing Tax Services. He focuses on leasing, asset-based structured transactions, infrastructure finance, deferred like-kind exchanges, and captive leasing company structures, advising both developers and investors on a wide range of tax issues. He joined Ernst & Young in 1998 and has spent his entire career in the EY National Tax Department, becoming one of the firm’s leading authorities on leasing and infrastructure taxation. He is the former ABA Tax Section Chair of the Capital Recovery and Leasing subcommittee, a member of EY’s Federal Income Tax Committee, and leads EY’s Infrastructure Tax Committee. He has been a longtime member of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association Federal Tax Committee for more than 13 years. He earned his LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law School, his J.D., with honors, from Boston University School of Law, and his B.A. in Economics from Wesleyan University.

Robert D. Schachat is a Managing Director in BDO USA’s National Tax practice, where he focuses on all federal income tax aspects of real estate, including REIT, partnership, LLC, and S corporation formations, acquisitions, like-kind exchanges, development, leases, financings, workouts, dispositions, and liquidations. He is co-author (with Jim Lowy) of the CCH treatise Federal Taxation of Real Estate Investment Trusts — the definitive reference work on REIT taxation — and is a frequent author and speaker at real estate industry and tax conferences. He joined BDO in 2021 after 23 years in the National Tax Real Estate Group of a Big Four accounting firm and 12 years as a partner in a Manhattan law firm specializing in real estate taxation, bringing more than 40 years of total real estate tax experience to his current role. He has served as Chair of the Real Estate Committee of the ABA Section of Taxation, Vice Chair of the Tax Policy Advisory Committee of The Real Estate Roundtable, and Conference Chair of the NYU Like-Kind Exchange Tax Conference. He holds an S.B. from MIT and a J.D. and LL.M. from New York University School of Law.

Andrew (Andy) Weiner is Counsel at Kostelanetz LLP in Washington, DC, where he focuses on tax controversies — both civil and criminal — in trial and appellate courts and at the agency level. He is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, a Forbes contributing columnist on tax controversy and policy, and an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law. Prior to Kostelanetz, he was a DOJ Tax Division trial attorney for more than a decade, briefing and arguing approximately 50 cases before U.S. Courts of Appeals and handling complex matters in the Court of Federal Claims involving tax shelters, research credits, and other federal tax issues. He held the Director of the Graduate Tax Program and founding Director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Temple University Beasley School of Law. (See full biography in the main Tax Conference Panelists file.)

Ryan P. McCormick is Senior Vice President and Counsel at The Real Estate Roundtable in Washington, DC, where he is responsible for managing the organization’s tax policy activities. He coordinates the Roundtable’s Tax Policy Advisory Committee — a group of 150 leading real estate tax experts including in-house tax directors, general counsel, CFOs of major real estate companies, and senior partners from national law and accounting firms — and created and directs the Real Estate Research Consortium, which commissions and supports academic and economic research on real estate taxation. Ryan joined the Roundtable in May 2013 following nearly 11 years in the U.S. Senate as a tax and economic policy advisor to Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Bob Graham, and Bill Nelson. In the 112th Congress, he served as Staff Director of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth. Prior to the Senate, he practiced tax law at Miller & Chevalier Chartered and was editor-in-chief of the University of Texas International Law Journal. He was a Fulbright Scholar. He holds a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and previously served as a tax associate at Miller & Chevalier.

Sarah Brodie is a Tax Planning Partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Washington, DC, where she concentrates her practice on partnership tax, advising financial institutions, energy companies, and other multinational corporations on partnership transactions, M&A, internal restructurings, and proceedings before the IRS. She is the co-author of two of the most widely used treatises in the partnership tax field: McKee, Nelson, Whitmire & Brodie: Federal Taxation of Partnerships and Partners (Thomson Reuters/Tax & Accounting, 5th ed. 2024) — the leading multi-volume treatise on partnership taxation — and Whitmire, Nelson, McKee & Brodie: Structuring and Drafting Partnership and LLC Agreements (Thomson Reuters/WG&L, 4th ed. 2021). Previously, she was a Principal in the National Tax Department at Ernst & Young LLP. She has also interned for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, Large and Mid-Sized Business division, assisting in tax shelter litigation and settlement negotiations with corporate taxpayers.