Peter H. Jost

Biography

In his 40+ years of practice, Peter Jost has developed a broad-based global practice featuring:

  • International and domestic transactional and project matters
  • Structuring ventures that require multijurisdictional knowledge
  • Matters requiring the combination of tax, corporate, commercial, real estate, project finance, and administrative skills

Experience

International

  • Advising foreign and U.S. companies on the tax and business aspects of doing business in the United States and abroad.
  • Structuring foreign branch and subsidiary operations and negotiating international joint venture, license, franchise, partnership, power purchase, equipment, facility lease, and distributorship agreements.
  • Served as project counsel to TermoEmcali I S.C.A. E.S.P., a Colombian company organized to design, construct, finance, and operate a 233.8 megawatt electric generating facility in Cali, Colombia (1995–1997).
  • Advised the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey on electricity law and  on the implementation agreements for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline (the pipeline, now completed, transports 1,000,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the Caspian region to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in southern Turkey via the Georgia Republic) (1998–1999).

Taxation/Administrative/Legislative

  • Obtaining rulings from Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of the Treasury, including rulings on the exempt status of newly organized 501(c)(3) organizations, and private letter rulings, the latter to save tax dollars or eliminate tax exposure.
  • Assisting clients in monitoring, analyzing, and obtaining specific tax legislation.
  • Served for 22 years (1994–2016) as general counsel to The Student Conservation Association, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization that is the leader in linking volunteers to service on public lands.    
  • Provided tax opinions in more than 300 syndications of real property located throughout the United States (1981–1985).

Real Estate/Commercial

  • Advised Japanese investors (Toho America Realty Inc.) on the divestiture of their commercial real estate located in Northwest Washington, D.C. (1999).
  • Served as counsel to the British Coal Board and advised on the divestiture of its Washington, D.C.-based real estate portfolio (which included the Watergate Complex) from 1989 to 1993.
  • Serving as special tax/real estate counsel to the Virginia Toll Road Corporation, the first non-governmental entity in the last 50 years chartered to build a privately-funded toll road in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Assisting clients in monitoring, analyzing, and obtaining specific tax legislation.
  • Served for 22 years (1994–2016) as general counsel to The Student Conservation Association, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization that is the leader in linking volunteers to service on public lands.
  • Provided tax opinions in more than 300 syndications of real property located throughout the United States (1981–1985).

Recognitions

  • 2015–2022, listed in Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll
  • 2016, Citizens Association of Georgetown Preservation Award
  • 2004, listed in Washingtonian’s Top Lawyers
  • 1989, National Association of Housing & Redevelopment Agency Award for Program Innovation

Affiliations

Memberships

  • Canadian-American Business Council
Professional Activities
  • President and Trustee of the Foundation for the Preservation of Historic Georgetown, an organization that accepts conservation easements on property located in the historic area of Georgetown in Washington, D.C.
  • Past president and current general counsel of the Canadian-American Business Council (“CABC”), the leading organization dedicated to fostering U.S.-Canadian trade interests
  • Member of the Sharon Pratt Dixon Transition-Housing Subcommittee (1990–1991).
  • Chairman (1986–1990) and Commissioner (1984–1986) Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority 
  • Former board member of Friends of Volta Park, Inc., another Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) organization that is chartered to restore and beautify Volta Park and other public facilities in Washington, D.C.

Credentials

Admissions

  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court - Eastern District of Virginia
  • U.S. Tax Court

Education

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, AB
  • University of Virginia School of Law, JD
Languages
  • French