Stephen J. Small

Steve is recognized as the nation’s leading authority on private land protection options and strategies in which he has more than four decades of unmatched experience. He authored the Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements, the series of Preserving Family Lands books, and The Business of Open Space: What’s Next?? As an attorney-advisor in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, he was the initial draftsman of the federal Income Tax Regulations on Conservation Easements. 

Steve represents individual, corporate, and family owners of ranchland, farmland, forestland, plantations, family estates, and historic property on federal tax planning and succession planning matters for family property, including conservation and preservation easements. He also advises government agencies and nonprofit organizations on a range of land protection projects, including leveraging land acquisition dollars through tax-advantaged planning and legal planning for property owners.   

Steve advises and designs plans for conservation buyers, and represents individual and corporate clients in structuring bargain sales of easements and property to conservation and preservation organizations and government agencies. Steve spends considerable time on addressing a variety of tax and related issues faced by donors of land and conservation easements, including planning for “bargain sales.” He also represents landowners under IRS audit in connection with conservation easement donations.

Steve has advised on some of the largest land conservation cases in the country, including as adviser to the landowner in a major conservation purchase by a government agency (with a purchase price in excess of $100 million); as adviser to the prospective purchaser (state government agencies) in an offer to acquire a multi-thousand acre parcel (purchase price a multiple of $100 million); as counsel to the easement holder in the largest conservation easement transaction to date (more than 750,000 acres) in the United States; as counsel to the easement holder in one of the largest conservation purchases by a non-profit organization (purchase price in excess of $60 million); and as counsel to the donor in what is believed to be the most valuable (in dollar terms) land conservation contribution in the United States.

Steve has authored numerous books and articles, and speaks extensively at events, including seminars, workshops and continuing legal education programs across the country and abroad, on a wide variety of private land protection issues. He received an LL.M. in Taxation and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, an M.S. in Journalism from Medill School of Journalism Northwestern University, and a B.A. from Yale University.