Melissa Gierach

Melissa Gierach

Managing Director
About

Melissa Gierach joined DLA Piper in 2017 and is the Managing Director for tax policy overseeing technical and political advisement in all aspects of tax policy spanning both federal legislative and regulatory action with tax implications.

Prior to joining DLA Piper, she served as a senior advisor of tax and economic policy within the U.S. Congress for nearly ten years, having worked for multiple senior Members of Congress seated on top-tier committees of jurisdiction within the House of Representatives. Additionally, Melissa spent the latter years of her tenure on Capitol Hill advising the House Ways and Means Committee Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman.

While working on Capitol Hill, Melissa was focused on comprehensive tax reform efforts, with a more granular focus on the international tax space impacting multinational business. She developed, drafted and introduced more than a dozen pieces of stand-alone legislation in the tax space, as well as the intersection of tax and health care, as well as enactment of tax legislation into law. She developed bipartisan legislation known as Innovation Box highlighted early in the 114th Congress by the Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee, as well as House and Senate Leadership, as a more focused alternative to comprehensive tax reform.

Most recently, Melissa has focused her practice on advising clients with respect to areas of concern following passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, COVID-19 Pandemic tax and economic relief provisions, as well as assessment and substantiation of the Employee Retention Tax Credit across businesses of all sizes and industries.

Melissa Gierach is not a lawyer.
Education
  • M.P.H., Health Policy: Economics, George Washington University 2011
  • B.S., Florida State University 2007

Bylines

  • House tax proposal: significant statutory changes include raising corporate rate, overhauling international taxation system, 21 September 2021
  • Biden Administration "Green Book" tax proposals would affect private investment funds if enacted, 9 June 2021
  • COVID-19 Phase 4 limited legislative relief, tax extenders, and what else to expect in the near term, 28 December 2020
  • COVID-19 Phase 4 legislation: Information and progress update, 14 May 2020
  • COVID-19 Phase 4 federal legislation – UPDATE, 21 April 2020
  • Negotiations begin on legislation to mitigate economic impact of coronavirus outbreak: Congressional tax writers seek your input, 10 March 2020
  • DLA Piper to provide tax relief input to Congress from businesses impacted by coronavirus, 9 March 2020

Seminars

  • Policy & Technical Corrections Following Tax Reform: What's Ahead in 2018? 14 Feb 2018
  • The 115th Congress and Trump administration begin intense efforts to complete comprehensive tax reform, Webinar, 10 Jan 2017

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