Areas of Practice
Corporate Law, Tax, Estate Planning
Education
University of Miami School of Law, Juris Doctorate 1976
University of Miami, BA Finance & Accounting 1973
Memberships
State Bar of Texas
State Bar of Florida
United States Tax Court
5th and 11th Federal Circuits Court of Appeal
American Bar Association
Tax Executives Institute
Kenneth ("Ken") M. Krasny serves Of Counsel with the Firm as a senior corporate, tax and estate planning attorney. Mr. Krasny brings over 30 years of experience in accounting, finance and law, and he possesses extensive international and domestic experience in leading, developing and structuring projects in all aspects, with a particular focus on structured finance, planning, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and tax controversies.
Importantly, Mr. Krasny has served in dual corporate and legal positions and helps clients maximize the insights and strategic planning which result from the marriage of roles. Currently, in addition to his work with the firm Ken is CFO and Vice President of Signet Maritime Corporation where he leads structured financings, acquisitions and disposals, and various tax analyses. In addition to handling multi-million dollar deals, he has matured the company's infrastructure and created financial tools and procedures that improve profits and lending terms. Under his leadership Signet has grown from $2 million in revenue and assets without profits to $40 million in revenues, $23 million in assets and $4 million in annual profits.
Throughout his career Mr. Krasny has helped his clients achieve a myriad of significant transactions. Those range from the tax planning for a $183 million sale of a LNG fueled power plant to a Spanish energy company, to structuring joint venture agreements for a publicly traded company with its Korean manufacturing operations and the $100 million acquisition of a Panamanian power plant for a privately held client. Ken has also recommended changes to a client's incentive compensation plan to bring it into compliance with IRS and state rules, and led projects that balanced future monetization, income avoidance, partner tax requirements and local ownership mandates.
From 1977 through 1996 Mr. Krasny worked as Corporate Tax Counsel at Tenneco, Inc., eventually becoming the senior-most tax attorney for the $23 billion conglomerate with interests in natural resources, pipelines, manufacturing, real estate and insurance. While there he was responsible for handling multi-million state tax controversies ranging from $560,000 to $36 million, guiding project structuring activities, and developing and implementing over $40 billion of domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and structured financings. One synthetic sale transaction developed in 1992 resulted in a $79 million book gain without taxable income. The transaction generated the majority of Tenneco's earnings for the year.
Mr. Krasny also works with the firm's clients on Estate and Tax Planning matters. He has represented public and privately held corporations, high net worth individuals, and entrepreneurs undertaking concurrent personal and corporate planning. His experience includes complex tax analysis; designing and creating estate plans and wills; a myriad of different trust vehicles, such as Special Needs, Grantor Trusts, Spendthrift, Life insurance and Tax By-Pass trusts; and Advance Directives like Medical Power of Attorney, Durable Power of Attorney and Living Wills.
Mr. Krasny received his Bachelor of Business degree cum laude from the University of Miami (1973) where he graduated first in his class in Finance and Accounting with a minor in Economics. He then received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami School of Law (1976) where he graduated cum laude. He is admitted to practice law in Texas and Florida, US Tax Court, and the 5th and 11th Federal Circuits Court of Appeal and the Federal Middle District Court of Florida. He is a member of the American Bar Association's Section of Taxation Partnership Committee, as well as a member of the Tax Executives Institute.
