John Sare

Tax-Exempt Organizations; Trusts and Estates

John Sare is a partner in the tax-exempt organizations practice and the trusts and estates group of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. Mr. Sare has extensive experience in the representation of museums, colleges, private foundations and other types of exempt organizations, and in the representation of philanthropists. This work includes advising charities on the issues and options they face with respect to their endowment funds and other types of restricted gifts, including cy pres and deviation proceedings. Mr. Sare has significant experience representing tax-exempt organizations in connection with matters before the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Mr. Sare has advised multiple clients about the establishment of institutes, centers and prize programs within universities and museums.  Mr. Sare also advises individuals and fiduciaries on legal issues involving works of art, charitable giving, estate planning, and the administration of estates and trusts. He taught the Seminar in Law and the Visual Arts at the Columbia University School of Law from 2001 until 2011 and is a co-author of Estate Planning for Artists and Authors, published by Tax Management, Inc. (2004); Splendid Legacy: The Guide to Creating Your Family Foundation, published by the National Center for Family Philanthropy (2002); and Splendid Legacy 2:  Creating and Re-Creating Your Family Foundation (2017). He has also written and spoken about the New York Non-Profit Revitalization Act of 2013, the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act and the New York version of it, and many other exempt organization and charitable giving topics, such as gifts of art to museums and the implications of the COVID pandemic and other crises for  nonprofit governance.

J.D., 1990, Columbia Law School (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar); B.A., 1986, Southern Methodist University, (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa)