David O. Middlebrook

David Middlebrook is licensed to practice law in Texas, Colorado, and the District of Columbia, and his practice emphasis is focused on representing tax-exempt organizations. His clients include all types of charitable, religious, and educational organizations.  Many nonprofit organizations retain Mr. Middlebrook as general counsel; others use his services as special nonprofit corporate counsel.  Mr. Middlebrook graduated with honors with a B.S. in Business Management in 1985 and earned his Juris Doctor in 1989 from Southern Methodist University.  He is also certified in risk management for churches and Christian schools by the University of Cambridge.  Mr. Middlebrook has authored and published numerous articles on nonprofit topics and is a frequent speaker on church legal subjects at conferences and seminars.  He is the author of The Guardian System, a comprehensive system for the prevention of child abuse within an organization, for which he was awarded a 2001 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Gold Medallion book award in recognition of excellence in evangelical Christian literature.  He co-authored Nonprofit Law for Religious Organizations: Essential Questions and Answers, which is a response to the need for guidance, direction, and clarification of legal and tax laws affecting churches and other religious organizations.

 

John Matthew Anthony

Matt Anthony is licensed to practice law and is a member of the State Bars of Texas, New York and Georgia.  His practice focuses in the area of nonprofit organizations with an emphasis on compliance issues, executive compensation and litigation/arbitration. His clients include all types of charitable, religious, educational organizations as well as individuals. Mr. Anthony attended Baylor University receiving his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in the areas of finance and real estate. He then attended St. Mary’s University School of Law where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1989 with honors in the study of Secured Transactions. Mr. Anthony is licensed in all Texas, New York and Georgia State Courts, as well as the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Federal Jurisdictions in the State of Texas and the Federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. He is also licensed in United States Tax Court.  Mr. Anthony began his legal career as an assistant county and district attorney before entering private practice.  He is AV Rated by the Martindale Hubbell Peer Review Rating System. An AV rating is a testament to the fact that his peers rank Mr. Anthony at the highest level of professional excellence.

 

Shane T. Hamilton

Shane Hamilton is licensed to practice law in Virginia and the District of Columbia and is one of the country’s leading practitioners in the area of tax-exempt organizations.  He represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service and has favorably resolved numerous issues and disputes with the IRS at the audit level, at IRS Appeals, and through closing agreements and private letter rulings.  Mr. Hamilton has also successfully litigated a host of complex tax issues before the U.S. Tax Court, Federal District Courts, and Federal Courts of Appeals. 

Mr. Hamilton has counseled a variety of nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations, including:  public charities; company-sponsored and large family-gift-endowed private foundations; social welfare organizations; trade associations; hospitals; private schools, colleges, and universities; churches and religious organizations; and private operating foundations.  He has in-depth knowledge in the substantive areas of the unrelated business income tax, intermediate sanctions, private foundation excise taxes, private inurement and private benefit doctrine, and other legal requirements for obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status.  Mr. Hamilton also has extensive experience with the church tax inquiry and examination procedures and the unique tax issues facing churches and other religious organizations.  Many high-profile tax-exempt organizations have called on Mr. Hamilton to conduct risk assessments or internal investigations (where appropriate) of their activities and he has assisted these organizations in taking appropriate corrective actions before an IRS inquiry arises.

   

Before joining Anthony & Middlebrook, P.C. as a Shareholder, Mr. Hamilton was a Member of Miller & Chevalier Chartered in Washington D.C. and was the head of that firm’s tax-exempt practice group.  He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1997 and also holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia.  While attending law school, Mr. Hamilton was an Executive Editor and the Tax Cite Editor for the Virginia Tax Review.  He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. 

 

David Royse Joe

David Royse Joe's practice consists primarily of civil litigation concentrating in employment law.  Mr. Joe, Shareholder, has practiced in the area of nonprofit corporation law handling a wide range of issues affecting churches and ministries. Within the field of nonprofit organization law, Mr. Joe advises clients on a wide range of issues arising under the laws of more than 25 states. Additionally, Mr. Joe's practice also includes employment related civil litigation alternative dispute resolution.

Mr. Joe graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 1997 where he participated in moot court competition and was a staff editor of the Texas Forum on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights. In the course of earning his Juris Doctor, Mr. Joe completed training in mediation and was certified to mediate in his third year of law school. Prior to law school Mr. Joe attended Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History.

 

Robert W. Rucker

Mr. Rucker, Shareholder, graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981 and earned his Juris Doctor in 1984 from Saint Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. While in law school, Mr. Rucker was an Associate Editor of the Law Journal, was a member of the Board of Advocates, and was elected as the third-year class representative to the Honor Court. Mr. Rucker is a former criminal prosecutor. He has represented numerous nonprofits in business transactions, in drafting governance documents, employee handbooks and making employment decisions, drafting policies, seeking tax-exempt status, and in litigation and mediation situations. Mr. Rucker has a certificate in Risk Management for Churches and Schools from the University of Cambridge. He advises religious nonprofits in the management of their intellectual property and routinely files trademarks and copyrights for them. He co-authors a recurring legal column in Church Executive Magazine and often speaks before nonprofit organizations about current legal issues of interest.

 

Peggy B. Fallin

Ms. Fallin graduated magna cum laude from the University of North Texas and received her Juris Doctor from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Fallin worked in the corporate world where she gained a diverse background in the insurance, aerospace and oil & gas industries. Ms. Fallin practices in the areas of transactional law, nonprofit and for profit corporation law, probate and estate planning, and is licensed to practice in all Texas state courts, as well as, the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

 

 

 

Wendi L. Hodges

Ms. Hodges graduated magna cum laude from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in both English and History.  She earned her Juris Doctor from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas in 2007.  Ms. Hodges practices in the area of transactional law, focusing on nonprofit and church law, and she has assisted clients with issues ranging from corporate governance to volunteer policies.  Ms. Hodges regularly reviews legal contracts for clients and researches complex legal issues that will affect our clients.

 

 

 

Michele V. Sparkman

Ms. Sparkman graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications. She earned her Juris Doctor from Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas in 2007. Ms. Sparkman was a law clerk for the Honorable Bob McCoy of the Second District Court of Appeals, Fort Worth in 2007-2008. She practices in the areas of appellate law, nonprofit law, and transactional law.

 

 

 

 

Joel B. Moore

Mr. Moore specializes in civil litigation, contract drafting and negotiation, dispute negotiations, conflict mediation, corporate and nonprofit legal compliance, and general legal and organizational consulting. He is admitted to practice law in the states of Texas and Illinois, and is admitted to the bars of multiple federal courts. Mr. Moore, a pastor’s son, earned a B.A. and an M.A. from Michigan State University, and obtained his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Vanderbilt University Law School. He published The Natural Law Basis of Legal Obligation in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transactional Law, and earned the Vanderbilt Journal of Transactional Law Outstanding Editor Award. Before joining Anthony & Middlebrook, Mr. Moore clerked for a federal judge sitting on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, practiced civil litigation for several years in the major Texas-based law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP, represented the State of Texas as an Assistant Attorney General, and served as in-house counsel at Focus on the Family. Mr. Moore also has experience working in a U.S. Attorney's Office and as a state prosecutor, and has taught history on the collegiate level.

 

Marilyn R. Norrod

Marilyn Norrod earned her B.A. with honors from the University of Texas at Austin's prestigious Plan II program.  She also received her law degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and she holds a Masters Degree in Music from Texas State University.  Ms. Norrod practices law in the Austin area, where she counsels and represents clients in the areas of contract negotiation, corporate law, consumer law, estate planning, family law and intellectual property issues.  Ms. Norrod is admitted to the Texas State Bar and in the Federal Bar for the Western District of Texas.  She is also a trained mediator.  

 

 

 

Robert R. Mancha

Mr. Mancha is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas. He graduated with a BBA in accounting from The University of Texas at Austin in 1972 and earned his J.D. from South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas in 1979. Mr. Mancha later earned an LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Mancha’s practice has focused on taxation. He worked for the Internal Revenue Service at the audit level (Estate and Gift Tax Attorney – Houston) and with the IRS Chief Counsel International at the National office in Washington, D.C. He also has worked for a Fortune 100 corporation as Tax Counsel and with the international services group for a “Big Four” public accounting firm. Mr. Mancha is fluent in Spanish.  

 

Max Bishop

Max Bishop is an attorney licensed to practice in Texas since 1992 and has since developed a statewide practice in the areas of estate planning, probate, and real estate transactions. His clients include persons with charitable focus and charitable entities.

Max gained his B.A. in history with distinction and a B.A. in Political Science from Southern Methodist University in 1987, and graduated with his Juris Doctor from the University of Miami in 1990, before completing his Masters of Business Administration at Southern Methodist University in 1991.

Max’s tenure of practice allows him to review current estate plans with an eye to the future and make changes as clients’ circumstances mandate. This experience also allows Max to draft estate plans which meet clients’ needs now and into the future, making sure that lifetime needs are as much of the estate plan as are prudent distributions at passing. Max counsels clients with an eye to making sure that the client’s real priorities are reflected in their estate plans.