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About us
With a focus on tax law, business & corporate law, employment law, and non-profit law, Ronan Law Group has an impressive track record of obtaining the results our clients want in a timely, cost-effective manner.
Why us
Joseph Ronan has been providing a broad range of legal services to businesses and individuals for more than 40 years. Joseph has extensive experience in 2 major law firms and as in house tax counsel to a Fortune 50 company, and strong academic and practical credentials, allowing him to provide exceptional legal counsel to clients in matters involving business and employment issues, non-profit issues, and tax issues on an efficient and cost-effective basis.
At Ronan Law Group, we represent individuals (including groups of executives in executive compensation matters), and a variety of business clients, including , large corporations, start-ups, tech and biotech firms, and various other small and mid-size businesses across multiple industries.
Joseph Ronan has been a frequent speaker for the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Association and at ABA events. He has written several published articles on tax and employee benefits matters. In addition to teaching Executive Compensation, he has taught Tax II and Compensation Planning in the Villanova LLM program and Business Planning in the JD program. Joseph Ronan is a long-standing adjunct professor with Villanova University Charles Widenor School of Law where he develops and teaches courses in the Graduate Tax (LLM) Program. He is also an adjunct with Vermont Law School where he works with students on entrepreneurship issues.
Whether you need help with business planning, negotiating complex employment arrangements (including equity compensation) or negotiating severance transactionst, remaining in compliance with non-profit laws, or addressing tax controversy or payment matters, Ronan Law Group can help.
Work with a Thought Leader Across Fields
Executive compensation, IRS sections 280G, 409A, 83
Qualified
retirement plans and IRA’s
Non-Compete clauses
Deferred compensation for public and private companies
International compensation arrangements
LLS and partnerships agreements
NO BS
It is often the case that much (really a lot) of what we are told in negotiations and other business discussions is just arrant nonsense. In some cases it isn’t lies (which require knowledge of the truth to falsify) but instead is just words said to try to advance the speaker’s position. As Harry Frankfurt put it in his small book On Bullshit, “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.” Why is it so prevalent? “Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic.”
Joseph’s main job as a lawyer is to advise clients clearly and directly on risks inherent in the choices available to them. To be successful at this, there can be no BS. If we aren’t sure, we will say so and tell you what the source of the uncertainty is. If we don’t know, we will tell you that and also what we think would be needed to get a better handle on the matter. Sometimes that requires legal research, sometimes it’s more focused thought, sometimes it means referring the client to another expert (lawyer, accountant, consultant) who knows the topic. But there can be no BS.
Experience
Ronan Law Group, PLLC, Norwich, VT
Principal 2017 - current
Principal in firm focusing on tax, executive compensation, employee benefits and related areas.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP,
Philadelphia PA
Senior Counsel (2007-2016);
Partner (2001-2007);
Of Counsel (1999-2001)
Broad-based employee benefits, tax and executive compensation practice; internal responsibility for strategic planning and practice expansion.
Bell Atlantic Corporation (now Verizon),
Philadelphia, PA
General Attorney (1997-1999);
Senior Attorney (1993-1997); Attorney (1987-1993)
Broad-based tax, employee benefits and executive compensation practice; responsibility for transactional, state and local and pension issues.
Blank Rome, LLP,
Philadelphia, PA
Associate (1983-1987)
Broad-based tax and employee benefits issues.
“There’s nothing worth getting in this world that you can get easily…. But, when you put in… much time and effort, if you do achieve that difficult thing it becomes the cream of your life.”
Hideki Murakami
Public Service
- Member, Town of Sharon Selectboard (2017-); Chair (2018-present)
- Member, Town of Sharon, VT Planning Commission (2017-2019)
- Chair, Board of Trustees, Friends Select School (2009-2013); Chair, Capital Campaign (2012-2015); Clerk, Development Committee (2015-2017)
- Chair, Tax Section, Philadelphia Bar Association (2007)
- President, Board of Directors, Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (1987-1991)
- Board Member, Philabundance (2001-2007)
- Chair, Annual Fund Executive Committee, Haverford College (2004-2008)
- Chair, ABA Tax Section Committee on Public Utilities (1999)
- Adjunct Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law (2000-present)
- Adjunct Professor of Law, Vermont Law School (2018-present)
Education & Credentials
Education
- New York University School of Law, New York, NY
- J.D., 1979; LL.M. (Taxation), 1983
- Research Editor, NYU Review of Law and Social Change
- Rutgers University, Camden
- M.A., 2017 (English, summa cum laude, thesis with distinction)
- Thesis on Wallace Stevens
- Haverford College, Haverford, PA
- B.A. (Honors in Philosophy), 1976
- National Merit Scholar
- Friends Select School, Philadelphia, PA
- H.S.D., 1972
Professional services
- Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York, District of Columbia
- Various Federal Courts and U.S. Tax Court
Honors
- Listed in Best Lawyers in America; Superlawyers
- William E. Sheppard Award, Haverford College (alumni service to College)
- Charles Perry Award, Haverford College (fundraising service to College)
- Meritorious Service Award, Friends Select School
- Morgan Lewis Pro Bono Award
Speaking Engagements
“Tax and Social Justice” Panel discussion Vermont Bar Association. Oct 2000 Joseph Ronan, Anthony Infanti and Phyllis Taite.
Tax law is commonly thought of as a neutral economic legislation that has nothing to do with discrimination or difference. But tax law is actually tightly bound up with the society that creates it, reflecting not only the society's positive qualities and aspirations but also its shortcomings and flaws. In light of this relationship between tax law and society, this panel will explore the impact of federal and state tax law along lines of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, as well as other lines of difference and discrimination in American society. The panel will explore both instances of explicit discrimination embedded in tax law and facially neutral provisions that have disparate impacts on disadvantaged groups. Tax has an important role to play in furthering social justice, but can only play that role if we are all aware of how it currently operates to work injustices.
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