Mr. Bales represents founders, entrepreneurs, and family offices on the legal, tax, and structural matters that arise as private wealth is built, deployed, and transferred across generations. His practice encompasses multi-jurisdictional tax, business, and estate planning, buy-side and sell-side M&A, corporate and fiduciary governance, asset protection, and general counsel functions. He coordinates legal, accounting, advisory, and fiduciary professionals across each client's full range of planning relationships.
While he is engaged by clients on a transaction-by-transaction basis, his primary client base relies on him for sustained, cross-disciplinary advice within the context of a long-term, holistic advisory relationship.
Mr. Bales is licensed to practice law in Texas and Missouri, with other jurisdictions in process.
PRACTICE AREAS
- General Counsel to Family Offices and Entrepreneurs
- Buy-Side and Sell-Side M&A and Advisory Services
- Foreign and Domestic Fund Formation
- Creative Business and Entity Structuring
- Corporate and Fiduciary Governance
- Real Estate Transactions
- Multi-Jurisdictional Transactions
- Asset Protection and Wealth Preservation
- Foreign and Domestic Trust and Estate Planning
- Individual, Trust, and Business Taxation
EDUCATION
Liberty University School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, Certificate of Concentration in Taxation, 2017)
- Law Review Executive Editor
- Recipient of the 2017 Roger C. Bern Planning Award for excellence in business, tax, and estate planning
- CALI Award in Business Taxation
Liberty University School of Business (B.S., summa cum laude, Finance, 2014)
- President, Student Asset Management Fund
- 2014 Dr. John D. George Leadership Award and Scholarship for leadership in fund management
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- American Bar Association
- State Bar of Texas
- State Bar of Missouri
- Texas Young Lawyers Association
- Texas Forum on International Tax
- The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)
PUBLICATIONS
And Then It Was Gone: A Critique of Section 10(b) Collective Scienter Pleading in the Sixth Circuit’s Bondali Decision, 11 LIBERTY U. L. REV. 69 (2017).