Partner

Mark P. Miller

With expertise in both estate planning and nonprofit law, Mark offers seamless assistance to clients in their family estate planning and charitable giving, enabling them to make transfers to family and friends that are both tax-efficient and adapted to family and personal dynamics, while also pursuing their charitable objectives.

Biography

Mark has headed the firm’s estate planning group since 2009, assisting clients in their estate planning to minimize federal transfer taxes (gift tax, generation-skipping transfer tax and estate tax), to accommodate their family dynamics and to find tax-smart means to give to charity and family. He has extensive experience preparing the documentation needed for federal estate-tax and gift-tax saving vehicles, including wills with credit shelter trusts, testamentary trusts, lifetime trusts, insurance trusts (ILITs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), charitable remainder unitrusts and annuity trusts (CRUTs and CRATs), charitable lead trusts (CLTs), family limited partnerships (FLPs) or family limited liability companies (FLLCs), and numerous other estate planning and charitable giving techniques.

In addition to his work in the estate planning group, Mark has worked extensively since 2003 in the firm’s corporate practice group on all aspects of a corporation’s life cycle, including entity formation, commercial transactions, intellectual property licensing, asset purchase and sale, and mergers and acquisitions. In the corporate area, his primary focus is commercial transactions.

Since 2012, Mark has worked extensively in the firm’s nonprofit practice group where he has formed and secured IRS tax exemption of public charities and private foundations and has regularly advised such entities on a range of issues, including contracts, employee matters, charitable solicitation, intellectual property matters, corporate structuring and IRS compliance. In this way he has been able to guide nonprofits from their inception through ongoing management to enable them to maximize their pursuit of their exempt purposes without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status or incurring tax liabilities.

Mark obtained his law degree from the University of Cambridge and pursued further legal studies at University of Notre Dame in London in its Concannon International Law Program, where he earned his LL.M. magna cum laude, focusing on European Union law. He obtained his B.A. degree summa cum laude in history and French from Covenant Life College in Brussels, Belgium. During this time, he also pursued extensive training in the French language, graduating with honors from Alliance Française, which is affiliated with the Sorbonne University of Paris. While in Brussels, he obtained an M.B.A. from Boston University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, with a focus on international business. His thesis on the status of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement in European Union law was published in the Notre Dame Law Review. Before returning to the United States, Mark continued his academic pursuits by obtaining a Master of Arts of Religion from Westfield House of Theological Studies in affiliation with Fitzwilliam College of the University of Cambridge. Mark concluded his academic pursuits in 2017, when he obtained a Master of Arts in Ministry from Richmont Graduate University. Mark is fluent in French.

In his spare time, Mark enjoys traveling, European history, theology, fine art collecting, piano, theater and tennis.

Experience

Provided complex estate planning to a family whose net worth exceeded $70 million and eliminated transfer tax liability through various estate and gift tax savings vehicles.

Guided entrepreneurial husband and wife, whose closely held business resulted in an estate worth over $400 million, through an estate and business succession planning process that safeguarded the business upon their death.

Assisted a mother in establishing a special needs trust for her daughter after her daughter was involved in a catastrophic car accident.

Publications, Presentations & Recognitions

The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement and Direct Effect in European Community Law, 74 Notre Dame Law Review 597 (1999)

Professional and Civic Activities

Mark is a founding member of The Atlanta Leaders Group (roundtable of industry leaders and professionals), as well as a founding member of The Principled Way Advisors (roundtable of Christian industry leaders and professionals).

Mark launched and administered the European Enrichment Program of a liberal arts college, which brought American and Canadian university students to Cambridge, England for advanced studies in secular and church history, theology, economics and political science. In the European Enrichment Program, Mark also served as a professor of theology and of medieval church history.