Mark Leeds, senior tax counsel at Deutsche Bank in New York, has left the investment bank to join Greenberg Traurig, an international law firm, as a shareholding partner.
|
Mark Leeds: leaving Deutsche Bank for private practice |
At Deutsche Bank, Leeds led the tax counsel function within the Americas tax group, focusing on the US tax aspects of financial instruments and strategies. He specialized in structuring different types of exposures for Latin American clients.
His work at the bank involved structuring as well as managing risk to ensure that products and financial strategies were appropriate for the client and the bank's risk appetite. "When I left on April 4 we were just so busy trying to get in the 2004 return that we were going to be happy just to get that done by September," he said. "The return looks like two phone books, like the Manhattan phone directory," he said. "Compiling that level of financial information into the required format for tax purposes takes an army!"
Leeds did have some regrets about leaving Deutsche Bank. "It is a fabulous place and I loved working there. I loved the people I was working with and I loved the job that I had." But he explained why he has made the move from in-house tax executive to external adviser. "When I was in-house I missed being the person who the banks went to," he said. He had previously led Deloitte's capital markets practice in the US.
Leeds is looking forward to having the resources at Greenberg Traurig to provide more in-depth analysis, such as tax opinions. "At the bank I looked broadly at an area and would then speak to an outside attorney. They would be the one who had the luxury of being able to spend the time to go through the issues with the kind of depth that – at least for me – is very attractive," he said.
Before his four-year stint at Deutsche, Leeds was general counsel at Chubb Financial Solutions, a credit derivative company. Before this he was at Deloitte.
Leeds wants to build Greenberg Traurig's structured finance practice, particularly derivatives, structured products and structured transactions by leveraging the firm's large client base. "I want to help clients understand how derivatives and financial products can provide the type of exposure they are looking for in a tax-advantageous manner," he said.
"Mark Leeds' extensive experience handling tax aspects of financial products and strategies makes him an excellent addition to the firm as we continue to expand the breadth of our growing tax and structured finance practices," said Richard Rosenbaum, managing partner of the firm's New York office, announcing the appointment on April 27.
Greenberg Traurig is the eight-largest law firm in the US, by partner numbers, and has offices in Milan, Amsterdam and Tokyo.
ITR Week welcomes your feedback on this or any other story. Please email the author with your comments. Letters may be published online.
