• Structuring, negotiating, and closing purchase, sale, bargain-sale, and donation transactions, whether fee title or conservation easements.
• Drafting and reviewing documents, including conservation easements, deeds, amendments, road easements, licenses, baseline reports, management plans, and ancillary closing documents.
• Conducting and supervising due diligence prior to acquisition or sale.
• Evaluating the tax impacts of specific transactions.
• Counseling with regard to organizational, governance, and policy matters, such as maintaining tax-exempt status, holding assets in charitable trust, and compliance with Land Trust Alliance Standards and Practices.
• Obtaining accreditation from the Land Trust Alliance Commission.
• Preparing and reviewing compliance documents and forms, such as land trust policies, manuals, gift letters, and Forms 990 and 8283.
• Training staff on topics such as LTA Standards and Practices and Baseline Report preparation.
• Interpreting real estate documents, including conservation easements, and assisting with landowner land-use protocols, amendments, and dispute resolution.

• Structuring, negotiating, and closing purchase, sale, bargain-sale, and donation transactions, whether fee title or conservation easements.
• Drafting and reviewing documents, including conservation easements, deeds, amendments, road easements, licenses, baseline reports, management plans, and ancillary closing documents.
• Conducting and supervising due diligence prior to acquisition or sale.
• Evaluating the tax impacts of specific transactions, including the deductibility of charitable contributions.
• Preparing and reviewing compliance documents and forms, such as gift letters and Form 8283.
• Assisting with dispute resolution.

Ellen is a mediator with experience in dispute resolution in real estate and myriad other matters. Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution and is used to resolve disputes between two or more parties, preferably prior to the instigation of costly litigation. The mediator assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement or, in some cases, mediators may express a view on what might be a fair or reasonable settlement, generally where all the parties agree that the mediator may do so. With Ellen’s experience in conservation law, this service can be utilized to reach settlement in cases involving disputes over a landowner’s activities on easement-encumbered property whether before, during, or after the activity has commenced.

We have given numerous presentations at conservation conferences and continuing education courses on a wide variety of conservation matters. Contact us to arrange a speaking engagement or training event. Topics include:

• Anatomy of a Conservation Easement
• Drafting Conservation Easements
• Gift Substantiation: Practical Pointers on IRS Form 8283 and Contemporaneous Written Acknowledgements
• Recent Court Cases Affecting Land Trusts and Donations
• Advanced Tax Issues
• Preparing for and Responding to Condemnation
• Carbon Credits and Conservation Easements
• Taxation of Carbon Credits
• Commercial Use Provisions in Conservation Easements
• Conservation Easements to Create Access to Native American Cultural and Ceremonial Gathering Sites