The biennial Norman A. Sugarman Memorial Lecture in Nonprofit Law is funded by gifts from Mr. Sugarman’s law firm, Baker & Hostetler, LLP, its partners, and others to honor his memory and to continue his efforts on behalf of the philanthropic sector.

2010 Sugarman Lecture

Political Tax Law after Citizens United: A Time for Reform

Proposing a thorough reform of the federal tax law definition of political activity, with safe harbors, bright lines, and above all, simplicity and ease of understanding.

Presented by Gregory L. Colvin, Esq.

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Gregory L. Colvin

Greg Colvin is a principal with Adler & Colvin, a San Francisco-based firm committed to serving the legal needs of the nonprofit sector. The firm serves as legal counsel to grantmakers, nonprofit service providers, individual and corporate donors, and nonprofit advocacy groups. Among its many clients are the Asia Foundation, the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Google.org, the Levi Strauss Foundation, MoveOn.org, the Nature Conservancy, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, and United Way International.

Colvin’s practice includes political and lobbying activities of nonprofit organizations, fiscal sponsorship, donor-advised funds, anonymous giving, grantmaking, and other issues that arise between individual donors and charities. From 1991 to 2009 he co-chaired the Subcommittee on Political and Lobbying Organizations and Activities of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section. He is general nonprofit counsel to Toastmasters International, the worldwide public speaking organization, and to Community Initiatives, a leading regional fiscal sponsor based in San Francisco. He also served as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco’s former Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management.

After receiving an undergraduate degree in political science, magna cum laude, from the University of Washington, Colvin went on to earn his J.D. from Yale Law School, serving on the Yale Law Journal. He is the author of more than twenty articles on nonprofit lobbying and political activities. The expanded second edition of his book, Fiscal Sponsorship: Six Ways to Do It Right—called “simply the best resource one could want in understanding an important and growing strategy to help small and emerging nonprofit activities” by the president of the Tides Center—was published in 2006. Colvin uses his blog, fiscalsponsorship.com, to keep readers apprised of the latest developments.

Norman A. Sugarman

Born in Cleveland in 1917, Norman A. Sugarman attended Shaw High School and Western Reserve University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Adelbert College in 1938 and his J.D. degree from the School of Law in 1940. As an undergraduate, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He graduated first in his law school class and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

Sugarman served as an attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel of what was then the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Washington, D.C., from 1940 to 1949, interrupted by World War II military service with the Army in Europe. He was advanced in 1949 to Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel. In 1951, he was named to the management staff of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

After a reorganization of the IRS, he was appointed in 1952 as the first Assistant Commissioner of Internal Revenue under a civil service appointment. In this position, he directed the IRS staff responsible for advising on tax legislation, in particular the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, developing tax forms and instructions and issuing rulings and regulations, including those in the area of charitable and tax-exempt organizations.

In 1954, Sugarman returned to Cleveland to join the law firm of Baker Hostetler & Patterson (now Baker & Hostetler, LLP) as a partner. In 1977, he moved to Baker & Hostetler’s Washington office.

A recognized authority in the area of charitable giving and charitable tax-exempt organizations, particularly community foundations, Sugarman authored several books and numerous articles and was a frequent lecturer at national tax conferences. As an active member of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association, and as a member of its Council and chairman of various committees, he was a key participant in the Tax Section’s efforts to encourage the development of rational and fair tax policy.

Twice honored by the CWRU School of Law, Sugarman was the recipient of the Fletcher Reed Andrews Outstanding Alumnus Award and was elected to the Society of Benchers, an association that recognizes individuals who have contributed notably to the legal profession. Before his death in 1986, he also was honored by the Council of Jewish Federations and National 4-H for his major role in helping to establish their national endowment fund development programs.