Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

Joel H. Sharp, Jr., has been a general business lawyer for years concentrating in taxation and trusts and estates. As a Florida board-certified tax lawyer, Mr. Sharp has built a practice representing small businesses and small businessmen across the fields of corporate and individual tax and business planning, real estate transactions, trusts and estates, and general business advice. He is a member of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Mr. Sharp is currently extremely active in the trusts and estates practice, handling and planning major estates and developing a firm practice in probate and trust litigation. He is an active member of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel and serves on the Executive Council of the Florida Bar Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section.

Mr. Sharp did extensive work in creditors’ rights law during the mid-1970s when Orlando and Central Florida were experiencing a bad financial period. As a board member of Pan American Bank of Orlando, N.A. (1972-86), he gained substantial business experience in the commercial law area.

Mr. Sharp has been involved in community and bar association activities from the onset of his career. He served as President of the Orange County Bar and on the Board of Governors of the Florida Bar, one of fewer than 40 representing more than 40,000 members. Mr. Sharp played a major role in the Florida Bar’s development (1975-79) and has argued Bar matters before the Florida Supreme Court. Additionally, as a founding member of the Florida Bar’s Certification Program, Mr. Sharp was one of the initial chairpersons of the Certification and Designation Programs.

Mr. Sharp served as Chairman of the Florida Bar Tax Section (1976-77) and was extremely active in the ABA Tax Section, chairing that Section’s S Corporations Committee from 1986 through 1988. He has spoken extensively on local, state and national levels.

Mr. Sharp has served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce for six years. He was instrumental in founding Arts, Inc. and served as President, an organization that rose to one of the top 10 art fund-raising groups in the United States.

Mr. Sharp, through the years, has had extensive political contact, primarily in the Democratic party, but also locally in the county and major nonpartisan cities.

Areas of Practice

• Tax, Personal Planning and Employee Benefits
• Private Wealth Planning/Individuals and Businesses
• Trusts and Estates

Bar Admissions

• California, 1961
• Florida, 1964

Professional Associations and Memberships

• American College of Tax Counsel (Member)
• American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (Member)
• Florida Bar Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section (Executive Council)

Honors and Awards

• "Super Lawyers"
• "Best Lawyers in America"
• "Best Lawyers in America"

Education

• New York University School of Law, New York, New York, 1963
  LL.M.
  Major: Taxation
• Stanford Law School, Stanford, California, 1960
  LL.B.
• Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1957
  B.S.
  Honors: magna cum laude
  Major: Biophysics

Address

SunTrust Center, Suite 2300
200 South Orange Avenue
Orlando, FL 32801-3432

Phones

(407) 649-4019

Faxes

(407) 841-0168

Emails

Contact Us

Websites

http://www.bakerlaw.com