John Harper advises 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 transactions, but he routinely advises clients on many other tax issues commonly arising in a business context.

Mr. Harper's 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.

Before joining Morrison & Foerster, Mr. Harper worked in the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service (Corporate Division), where he specialized in corporate consolidated tax return issues. Mr. Harper was a member of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught tax aspects of Business Planning. Mr. Harper is an active member of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation and regularly participates in activities of the committees on S Corporation, Corporate Tax, and Affiliated and Related Corporations.