Harry L. (Hank) Gutman is of counsel to Ivan Phillips Barker (IBP). He brings to IPB 50 years of tax experience and leadership that includes federal government Treasury and Congressional positions, full time teaching at major law schools, and law practice.
As Joint Committee Chief of Staff from 1991 through 1993, Hank was the primary nonpartisan adviser to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees concerning the technical, economic and revenue aspects of tax legislation. Hank also served as deputy tax legislative counsel in the Treasury Department Office of Tax Policy. Throughout his career, Hank has counseled major multinational corporations on various implications of tax legislative change. He has represented clients in legislative matters. Of particular current relevance, he has represented clients — individually and in coalitions — before both the Treasury and the IRS in the tax guidance process.
Hank also has extensive experience in estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes. While at the Treasury he was responsible for overseeing guidance and policy issues involving those taxes. He was the co-author of a wealth transfer tax casebook extensively used in law schools and was the reporter for an American Law Institute project on the generation-skipping tax. He has taught and written extensively in the area and has testified before Congress on estate tax issues.