John Harper is a partner in the Northern Virginia office of Morrison & Foerster. He has more than 25 years of experience advising on a broad range of Federal income tax issues relevant to business transactions, for both closely held business entities and public corporations. His principal area of practice is the taxation of corporate/shareholder transactions, but he routinely advises clients on many other tax issues commonly arising in a business context. Mr. Harper works closely with lawyers in the firm's corporate technology group, which focuses on representing high-growth and emerging technology companies. His practice includes corporate tax planning for mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, spin-offs and corporate joint ventures. He also has extensive experience with pass-through entities (S corporations and LLCs), choice of entity issues, and tax aspects of equity structures and equity compensation arrangements. He also routinely assists clients in connection with tax compliance matters, including audit controversies and other administrative tax matters before federal and state taxing authorities. Mr. Harper is frequently retained as special tax counsel by other professionals requiring specialized tax expertise to assist their clients. Mr. Harper has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for the past four years (2006-2009) as leader in the field of Tax Law.

Mr. Harper a graduate of Miami University (B.A. magna cum laude, 1975) and received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center (J.D. magna cum laude, 1978), where he was Students Notes Editor for The Tax Lawyer. Following graduation from law school, Mr. Harper worked in the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service (Corporate Division), where he specialized in corporate consolidated return issues. While at the IRS, he completed a Masters of Law in Taxation at Georgetown University Law Center in 1982. He joined the law firm of Tucker, Flyer & Lewis in 1983, where he was a stockholder from 1986 to 2000. Before joining Morrison & Foerster LLP, Mr. Harper had been a partner at Shaw Pittman LLP for five years.

Mr. Harper is a member of Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association and the Tax Section of the District of Columbia Bar Association. As a member of the adjunct faculty, he taught tax aspects of Business Planning at Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Harper is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Virginia.