William E. Saul provides business tax structuring and transactional advice and is an estate planner. He is experienced in federal income, state income and franchise, sales and use and property tax with particular emphasis on tax transactions and representation of taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. Saul started his legal career as a trial lawyer with the Internal Revenue Service. In 1980 he left the IRS as a senior trial attorney and joined the law department of Southern Pacific Transportation Company as a tax attorney. Initially he represented the company before the IRS and provided significant tax advice on the sale of SPRINT to GTE. In 1984 he became the railroad’s tax counsel while it was held in a voting trust pending ICC approval of its merger with the Santa Fe railroad. During that period he was the company’s lead tax attorney, handling its tax litigation with the Internal Revenue Service and managing its property tax litigation with the State of California. After the railroad was acquired by Rio Grande Industries in 1988, he was appointed Assistant Vice President and Counsel-Taxes (its principal tax officer). In that capacity, he managed a Tax Department of more than 35 personnel, was lead attorney in its tax litigation with the IRS, advised on the sale of subsidiaries and was responsible for the deferral of more than $1 billion of gain on real estate sales. Bill left Southern Pacific in 1997 when it was acquired by Union Pacific to join the tax consulting practice of Deloitte & Touche, LLP where he provided tax advice to major clients and participated in its tax controversy practice. Since 2001, he has been in private practice focusing on business structuring and tax and estate planning

He received his B. A. degree from Purdue University in 1967, his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1970, and an LL.M. in Taxation, with honors, from Golden Gate University in 2001. He has an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, which he received in 1980. He is on the Board of Directors for the Marin Senior Coordinating Council (Whistlestop), a member of the Board of Trustees of the Marin County Law Library and a board member of his Rotary Club. He is a former member of the Tax Policy Committee of the American Association of Railroads and a former Director of the California Tax Policy Committee.

Bill is a member of the State Bar of California and is an inactive member of the Ohio Bar. He is admitted to practice before the United State Tax Court, the United State District Court for Northern California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He is a Colonel, USAR, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, retired, and has served as an adjunct professor of law at Golden Gate University School of Law.

Mr. Saul lives with his wife in San Anselmo, California, and has three children and two grandchildren