Robert Rizzi

Partner

Robert Rizzi is a partner in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC and New York offices and head of the Tax Practice.  He was one of the founding partners of the Firm’s Silicon Valley office in 2001.
   

His practice covers federal and state income tax aspects of corporate and partnership business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, joint ventures, and workouts, as well as tax advice on executive compensation plans and equity participation arrangements.  Bob’s representations have included tax planning for major transactions in the telecom, financial services, technology, real estate and hospitality sectors, principally in international markets as well as tax advice and structuring for mid-market and private equity transactions in the U.S. and abroad. 

For the past 10 years, his practice has also included advising senior executive branch appointees on “vetting” and related matters.  His clients have included cabinet and subcabinet members, administrators and commissioners of various agencies, and a numerous ambassadorial appointees in both Democratic and Republican administrations. 

Bob taught government ethics at Harvard Law School in 2012, has taught corporate taxation at Catholic University Law School and government ethics at the Georgetown University Law Center, and has also taught graduate tax courses in real estate taxation and in bankruptcy taxation. He has written and spoken on a wide range of tax-related topics, including, most recently, “Tax Issues in Taxable Acquisitions of Private Companies,” at the USC Tax Institute (2011). He writes a bi-monthly column, “Corporate Organizations and Reorganizations,” for the Journal of Corporate Taxation and is a founding editor of Mergers and Acquisitions, The Monthly Tax Journal.

Bob has served on the Board of Trustees of American Friends for New College (Oxford).  He was an in-house counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1981-1982.

Professional Activities