John A. Sanders is a retired partner with Foley & Lardner LLP where he was a member of the Tax & Individual Planning; Tax & Employee Benefits; and Estates & Trusts Practices. He was chair of the business practice in the Orlando office and from 1995 to 2002 was chair of the firm’s Taxation Practice.
John has represented numerous business clients, both privately held and publicly traded, engaged in a broad range of endeavors, including manufacturing, technology, wholesaling and retailing, franchising, banking, real estate, construction, agriculture and others. He has substantial experience in the planning and formation of all types of business ventures and in planning and implementing business reorganizations, acquisitions and dispositions.
John has significant experience in tax, valuation and fiduciary litigation matters. A large part of John’s practice consisted of tax and estate planning for individuals having significant wealth and in representing fiduciaries in the administration of estates and trusts. John has represented numerous clients before the Internal Revenue Service and the Florida Department of Revenue in connection with income tax, estate and gift tax, and sales tax audits and appeals. He has also participated in the litigation of a number of tax cases.
A significant portion of John’s practice consisted of the representation of clients engaged in health care practice and related businesses. His clients included individual physicians, group medical practices, and other health care ventures.
A member of the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association, John has spoken on tax, estate planning and other subjects for numerous professional organizations, including the ABA Tax Section, The Florida Bar, the Florida and Wisconsin Institutes of Certified Public Accountants, the Florida Bankers Association, the Florida Hospital Association, the Georgia Tax Conference, the Illinois Institute for continuing Legal Education and others.
John has held leadership roles in a number of community organizations. He has served on the board of the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival since 1998 and is serving as its president for the 2003 – 2005 seasons.
John was selected for inclusion in the 2006, 2009 and 2010 Florida Super Lawyers® lists and has also been selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2008-2011 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of corporate law, tax law, and trusts and estates.
John graduated from Duke University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1974), where he was note and comment editor of the Duke Law Journal, and from Lawrence University (A.B., magna cum laude, 1968), where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He was admitted to the Wisconsin Bar in 1974 and The Florida Bar in 1985.