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Alton E. Bayard III

Shareholder
Baton Rouge
T: 225.381.7019
F: 225.382.0219
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Alton "Biff" Bayard, leader of the Firm's Tax Group, represents individuals, professionals, business owners and businesses in tax planning, estate planning, structuring business acquisitions, estate administration and disputes.

Featured Experience

Advised a commercial and industrial service company and its sole owner on personal estate planning and business transition planning, including selecting the appropriate entities, creating operating agreements, handling the acquisition of a service company, preparing personal planning documents and consideration of transition plans including an ESOP, potential sale to an outside entity and sales of business interests to family members.

Represented an executrix in litigation concerning the validity of testamentary trusts and dispositions.

Defended the executor of an estate in litigation invalidating an attempted amendment to a trust document upsetting the decedent's testamentary transfer plan.

Professional Biography

Mr. Bayard received his LL.M. from Southern Methodist University in 1980, is Louisiana board certified in tax law since 1985 and in estate planning since 1997, and is recognized in Best Lawyers in America® since 1995 in the areas of Tax Law, Trusts and Estates, Non-Profit/Charities Law, Trusts and Estates Litigation, Litigation and Controversy - Tax, and Closely Held Companies and Family Businesses Law.

Mr. Bayard has been recognized in Louisiana Super Lawyers since 2007 in the area of Estate Planning and Probate.

  • Advised a commercial and industrial service company and its sole owner on personal estate planning and business transition planning, including selecting the appropriate entities, creating operating agreements, handling the acquisition of a service company, preparing personal planning documents and consideration of transition plans including an ESOP, potential sale to an outside entity and sales of business interests to family members.

  • Represented an executrix in litigation concerning the validity of testamentary trusts and dispositions.

  • Defended the executor of an estate in litigation invalidating an attempted amendment to a trust document upsetting the decedent's testamentary transfer plan.

  • Represented the executrix of an estate in the negotiating, drafting and closing the sale of the estate's interest in a limited liability company to the surviving member.

  • Converted multiple C corporations to limited liability companies to be taxed as S corporations for federal purposes free of state franchise tax.

  • Assisted two related corporations in the liquidation and distribution of their remaining assets to their shareholders.

  • Prepared numerous limited liability companies and trusts to transition the operation and transfer the ownership of real estate, active businesses, oil and gas interests, and other assets to accomplish orderly and tax-efficient transfers to the next generation of managers and family members.

  • Listed since 1995 in Best Lawyers in America® in the areas of Tax Law, Trusts and Estates, Non-Profit/Charities Law, Trusts and Estates Litigation, Litigation and Controversy - Tax, and Closely Held Companies and Family Businesses Law
  • Named the 2019 Best Lawyers' Baton Rouge Tax Law "Lawyer of the Year"
  • Named the 2017 Best Lawyers' Baton Rouge Trusts and Estates "Lawyer of the Year"
  • Listed in Louisiana Super Lawyers since 2007
  • Listed in Chambers USA High Net Worth Guide in the area of Louisiana Private Wealth Law (2022)
  • Recognized as a "Top Lawyer" by New Orleans Magazine in Non-Profit/Charities Law (2013)
    • Fellow – The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC)
  • American Bar Association
  • Louisiana Bar Association – Past Chairman of Estate Planning and Administration Advisory Commission
  • Baton Rouge Bar Association
  • Baton Rouge Estate and Business Planning Council
  • Board Certified Tax Law Specialist, certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization (1985 – present)
  • Board Certified Estate Planning and Administration Specialist, certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization (1997 – present)
  • AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
  • "Business Succession Planning in Light of Potential Tax Changes," New Orleans Entrepreneur's Organization Forum (June 2021)
  • "Business Succession Planning in Light of Potential Tax Changes," Baton Rouge Entrepreneur's Organization Forum (March 2021)
  • "Succession Planning - Advising Clients on Growth, Transitions, and Continuity," American Bar Association's Annual Meeting Forum on Construction (April 2018)
  • "Back to Basics: Wills, Trusts and Successions," Louisiana State Bar Association Annual Meeting and Louisiana State Bar Association/Louisiana Judicial College Joint Summer School (June 2016)
  • "Planning for Voluntary and Involuntary Changes in Your Business' Ownership," Business Succession Planning (April 2015)
  • "Business Succession Planning," Annual Associated Builders and Contractors of Louisiana State Convention, Sandestin, Florida (July 2013)
  • "Medicaid-related Personal Service Agreements," Louisiana State Bar Association's "Summer School Revisited Seminar," New Orleans (December 2012)
  • "The Estate Tax under the 2010 Tax Relief Act," the Baton Rouge Chapter of the Financial Planning Association (May 2011)

Practices

Industries

Education

  • Southern Methodist University, LL.M. in Taxation, 1980
  • Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University, J.D., 1976
  • Louisiana State University, B.S. in Business Administration, 1975

Admissions

  • Louisiana, 1977

[Alton Bayard] has a very good commercial sense, by which I mean a sense of the balance and practicalities behind transactions, and that makes him an extremely effective counsellor.

From Chambers USA 2021

What makes [Alton Bayard] such a terrific lawyer is his sense of the commercial and practical needs of a transaction, whether tax or estate planning.

From Chambers USA 2021

Featured Media

22 Baker Donelson Attorneys Named to 2023 Louisiana Super Lawyers List
Press Release / December 19, 2022
Baker Donelson Attorneys Earn Recognition in The Best Lawyers in America® 2023 Listing
Press Release / August 18, 2022
Six Baker Donelson Attorneys Recognized in 2022 Chambers High Net Worth Guide
Press Release / July 21, 2022

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