Nonprofit Issues for the Non-Nonprofit Attorney: Essential Federal Filing Obligations

Lisa has practiced law with both nonprofit organizations and business organizations since her admission to the Minnesota Bar in 1977 and to the California Bar in 1978. Lisa is a graduate from Hamline University, where she received her B.A. in Philosophy, and the University of Minnesota Law School.

Lisa is a prolific writer and author. She is the principal author and editor of the recently released Guide to Representing Religious Organizations, published in February 2009 by the American Bar Association, Business Law Section and the author of a guidebook The ABCs of Nonprofits, published in April 2005 by the American Bar Association, Business Law Section.(Click here to read a review by Stephen Nill, founder of CharityChannel.) She has also written numerous articles and contributed extensively to professional literature regarding nonprofit organizations, and is regarded as an expert in the area of nonprofit organizational law. Lisa was the first recipient of the Outstanding Lawyer Award by the ABA Business Law Section, a Nonprofit Lawyers Award.

Since 2014, Stephen Clarke has been a managing director of the Exempt Organization Tax Services division at Ernst & Young LLP, based in Washington, D.C. Steve provides tax advisory and compliance services to tax-exempt organizations across the country in various areas, including IRS examination and tax controversy support, exemption applications, public charity status, unrelated business income tax, private benefit/inurement and intermediate sanctions, private letter rulings, compliance with ACA 501(r) requirements for tax-exempt hospitals, and compliance with the tax requirements of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the CARES Act.

Before joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Clarke was a tax law specialist, project manager and guidance group manager with IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TEGE). He served as the project manager for the 2008 redesign, rollout, and ongoing revision of Form 990, the information return filed annually by charities and other exempt organizations. As guidance group manager, he managed a group of tax law specialists in drafting guidance for and responding to private letter ruling requests of tax-exempt organizations.

Prior to joining the IRS in 2005, Mr. Clarke worked as an attorney with Gammon & Grange, P.C., a law firm in northern Virginia, where he served tax-exempt organizations, radio broadcasters, and trust and estate clients since 1996.

Throughout his career he has worked with nonprofit organizations, helping them to understand and comply with tax and other regulatory requirements while also helping them to meet their charitable goals. He serves on the board of directors of Good Samaritan Advocates, a nonprofit organization providing pro bono legal services to low-income persons, since 2004. He also serves on the board of directors of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Council, a group that facilitates dialogue between IRS TEGE and the tax-exempt sector.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wheaton College in Illinois and his juris doctorate from the College of William and Mary School of Law, where he served as an editor of the Law Review. He is an active member of the Virginia bar.