Jim Lokey is the practice group leader of King & Spalding’s Tax Practice Group, which includes the firm’s income tax and employee benefits and executive compensation practices. Over his more than 30-year career, Mr. Lokey has advised clients on a wide variety of tax, business, and strategic matters.
Mr. Lokey is best known for his work in structuring complex private equity investment funds, real estate capital markets transactions, private equity investments, and corporate joint ventures. He also has significant experience in tax planning for tax-exempt health care and other Section 501(c)(3) organizations, debt restructurings, cross-border finance transactions, corporate acquisitions and reorganizations, and investments by non-U.S. persons (including government sovereign wealth funds) in the United States. In his practice, Mr. Lokey works closely with lawyers in the firm’s corporate, private equity, real estate, health care, and global transactions practice groups.
Professional Memberships and Activities
Mr. Lokey is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta Bar Association, the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association, the American Health Lawyers Association, and the Atlanta Tax Forum. He is a Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Georgia, a member of the Advisory Board of an Atlanta bank and a Trustee Emeritus of The Galloway School. He has spoken at numerous institutes and seminars, including the following:
- Atlanta Tax Forum (Atlanta)
- Healthcare Tax Law Institute (Arlington, Virginia)
- IMN Summit on Real Estate M&A (New York)
- National Institute of Tax Professionals, “Section 704(b) Regulations” (1-day panel in each of Chicago and New York)
- NYU Tax Institute (New York)
- Practicing Law Institute: “Partnership Taxation: An Advanced Program” (New York)
- Section of Taxation of The Federal Bar Association, Annual Tax Law Conference (Washington, D.C.)
- Southern Federal Tax Institute (Atlanta)
- Tax Executives Institute (Scottsdale)
- Tulane Law School, Tulane Tax Institute (New Orleans)
- University of Colorado, Colorado Tax Institute (Colorado Springs)
- University of Texas School of Law, Annual Taxation Conference (Austin)
- William & Mary Tax Conference (Williamsburg)
From 1983 to 1986, Mr. Lokey served first as Attorney-Advisor and then as Associate Tax Legislative Counsel in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Legislative Counsel. In those positions he assisted in the development of tax regulations, rulings, and other tax policy matters and participated in the development of the Treasury Department’s recommendations for Federal tax legislation, including the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. He was one of the principal authors of Treasury regulations concerning partnership allocations under Section 704(b) and participated in a number of other income tax regulation projects involving partnerships and other areas of federal income tax.
Mr. Lokey earned his B.S. degree, magna cum laude (Economic Theory), from David Lipscomb University in 1974. He received his J.D. in 1978 from the Vanderbilt University Law School where he received the Founder’s Medal for First Honors (awarded to the student ranked first in the graduating class), was elected to the Order of the Coif, and served as Student Writing Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Mr. Lokey is a native of Nashville, Tennessee.
