Deborah Z. Read

Practices

• Tax
• Health Care

Professional Experience

Deborah serves as Thompson Hine's firm-wide Managing Partner. In this capacity, she is also a member of the firm's Executive Committee. Previously, she served as the firm's Hiring Partner and the chair of the 65-lawyer Tax, Benefits and Planning Department.

Deborah practices Tax law and Health Care law. She functions as outside general counsel to two large exempt organizations. She focuses her tax practice on tax and corporate planning for nonprofit organizations and foundations and health care organizations. She assist clients in the formation of nonprofit entities, qualification of nonprofit entities for tax exempt status, conversions to and from exempt status, corporate reorganizations and liquidations, including reorganizations of exempt organizations, hospitals, and other health care providers, Internal Revenue Service Ruling requests, unrelated business income, lobbying, and political contribution tax compliance, tax reviews, and tax controversy work including Internal Revenue Service audits, appeals, and tax litigation. She advises organizations on nonprofit corporate law issues and nonprofit Boards on fiduciary duty issues. She counsels nonprofit organizations on best practices for corporate governance, including the application of Sarbanes-Oxley concepts to nonprofit organization. She advises private corporate foundations about permissible charitable programs they may operate to advance charitable objectives for the employees of their corporate sponsors, including programs involving an international workforce. She counsels hospitals, physician groups, and health care providers on contractual relationships, corporate planning, acquisitions, and legal structures for affiliations, ventures and other business arrangements, including compliance with Medicare/Medicaid anti-kickback and physician self-referral rules. She advises purchasers of health care services and structures contractual relationships between or among payors, providers, administrators, and employers. Deborah is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Ohio.

Education

• Boston University School of Law, J.D., 1982
• Ohio University, A.B., 1979, summa cum laude

• Options for Donors Seeking Influence Over Charitable Gifts: A Comparison of Private Foundations, Supporting Organizations, and Donor Advised Funds, Regional Exempt Organizations and Financial Advisors Forum
• Current Nonprofit Regulatory Trends: Are Your Practices in Need of Reform?, Lorman Education Services
• Emerging Standards for Nonprofit Board Governance (Including H.R. 4 Governance Provisions), Business Volunteers Unlimited
• Intermediate Sanctions: What Every Advisor Needs to Know, The Ohio Society of CPAs
• Research and Technology Transfer, American Health Lawyers Association
• Health Care Law Update, Health Care Financial Management Association of Ohio
• Developments in Nonprofit Governance: The Evolution of New Standards, Cleveland Tax Institute
• The Art and Science of Trusteeship, Grantmakers in Aging National Meeting
• Board Liability Under Intermediate Sanctions, Education Finance Council National Meeting
• Limited Liability Companies and Potential Uses by Health Care Providers, National Health Lawyers Association
• Taxable Subsidiaries and Limited Liability Companies, National Health Lawyers Association
• Chairperson, Exempt Organizations Session, Cleveland Tax Institute
• Use of Compliance Plans by Health Care Providers, Cleveland Society of Anesthesiologists
• Invited speaker on numerous topics for client presentation and the Cleveland Tax Institute

• Selected as one of Crain’s 2012 Women of Note
• 2010 Athena Award
• 2006 YWCA Career Woman of Achievement
• 2006 Rainmakers, Northern Ohio Live, 2006
• 2001 Honoree Kaleidoscope Magazine "Women Who Give Back - Salute to Women"
• Leadership Cleveland · Class of 1999
• 1998 Greater Cleveland United Way Volunteer of the Year
• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2012
• Named as a "Leading Lawyer" by Inside Business magazine, 2010