O. E. “Sonny” Schow, IV is a member of the firm whose primary
areas of practice include federal and state taxation, including tax disputes in
federal and state court, estate planning, trust administration, probate law and
estate administration, business entity formations and governance, mergers and
acquisitions, general corporate and transactional law.
Mr. Schow assists clients with transactional tax planning,
including entity formation, operation and governance, real estate exchanges and
transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and the design and implementation of
transactions in a tax effective manner. Mr. Schow also assists clients in all
aspects of estate planning, including the drafting of various testamentary and
trust documents, trust and estate administration and related fiduciary matters,
and all aspects of the probate and estate administration process. Mr. Schow
also represents clients in disputes with state and federal agencies, including
the Tennessee Department of Revenue and Internal Revenue Service and has
represented clients in tax disputes before the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Tennessee Board of Equalization, and
local Property Assessors.
Mr. Schow was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He
graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1992 with a B.A. in
psychology, where he was a member of the Psi Chi honor society. Mr. Schow
received his J.D. from The University of Tennessee in 1996 and was a member of
the first class to graduate with a concentration in business transactions from
the Center for Entrepreneurial Law. Following his graduation from law school,
Mr. Schow served from 1996 to 1997 as the Law Clerk to the Honorable R. Vann
Owens and the Honorable Howell N. Peoples, Chancellors, Hamilton County,
Tennessee.
Mr. Schow was admitted to practice law in 1996. Mr. Schow is a
member of the Knoxville, Tennessee, and American Bar Associations and is a
member of the Taxation Section of the American Bar Association and the
Knoxville Estate Planning Council. Mr. Schow has been named as a one of
Knoxville’s top attorneys by Cityview Knoxville magazine in the areas of estate
planning/trusts, wills, probate, and taxation.