Anita S. Lichtblau
Partner
Phone
Anita S. Lichtblau provides comprehensive legal advice to a wide variety of nonprofits and tax exempt organizations and businesses and individuals involved in nonprofit matters.
Anita served for fifteen years as both the General Counsel for Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), a large nonprofit human services organization and Community Action Agency (CAA) that provides Head Start and other services to low-income people, and Executive Director of Community Action Program Legal Services (CAPLAW), a nonprofit providing legal training and technical assistance to the approximately 1000 CAAs across the country. In those positions, she advised, provided training, and wrote numerous articles and publications on many issues including those described above. She presented hundreds of in-person workshops and webinars across the national Community Action network.
Prior to holding those positions, she was a senior trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice handling white collar criminal cases in federal courts in New England and practiced with the Boston firm Hill & Barlow and the Washington D.C. firm Steptoe & Johnson.
Honors & Awards
Boston Magazine, "Top Lawyers" - Nonprofit Organizations, 2022-2024
The Best Lawyers in America - Nonprofit / Charities Law, 2021-2025
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, “Top Women of Law,” 2018
- Massachusetts
JD, cum laude, Harvard Law School
BA, cum laude, Cornell University
Nonprofit Corporations, Charitable Trusts, Tax Exemption, and Governance
- Forming new nonprofit organizations and related entities of existing nonprofits
- Seeking Attorney General and court approval of changes in use or transfer of charitable assets
- Obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status
- Donor Advised Funds
- Drafting and updating bylaws and governance policies
- Complying with fundraising and charitable organization rules and reporting requirements, including IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF and Massachusetts Form PC
- Roles and responsibilities of effective nonprofit boards
- Lobbying and political activity rules
- Unrelated Business Income issues
- Corporate restructuring, including mergers, acquisitions, and other affiliations
- Dissolution
- Grantmaking rules and other requirements applicable to private foundations
- Property tax exemptions
- Vendor contract drafting and review
Grants and Contracts
- Contracts and grants with, and monitoring and audits by, federal, state, and local government agencies and private foundations
- Creating and reviewing subcontracts for government-funded organizations
- Compliance with federal and state grant program rules, such as Head Start and the Community Services Block Grant Act (CSBG)
- Compliance with general federal and state grant and contract rules, such as the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance on administrative grant requirements and cost principles and the Massachusetts human services procurement and contracting rules
- Early education and care regulation
Employment
- Internal investigations, discrimination, leave, employment and severance agreements, and wage and hour issues
- Review of personnel policies
- Co-chair, Boston Bar Association, Chapter 180 Working Group
- Member, Board of Directors, Rebecca Pomroy Foundation
- Former member and co-chair, Tax-Exempt Organization Section, Boston Bar Association
Publications
- Co-author, “A Wage And Hour Compliance Reminder For Nonprofit Boards,” Law360, 2020
- Contributing author, “Chapter 4: Preparing IRS Forms 1023, 1023-EZ, and1024,” MCLE’s Massachusetts Nonprofit Organizations guide, 2016
Seminars
- Co-presenter, "Legal and Financial Update and Best Practices," Providers' Council's Annual Expo, 2024
- Co-presenter, "Choice of Entity," MCLE's 25th Annual Nonprofit Law Conference, 2024
- Co-chair & presenter, MCLE's 24th Annual Nonprofit Law Conference, 2023
- Co-presenter, “Using Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Strategic Alliances to Share Services and Programs,” Providers’ Council’s 47th Annual Convention & Expo, 2022
- Co-chair & presenter, MCLE's 23rd Annual Nonprofit Law Conference, 2022
- Co-presenter, “Legal and FInancial Update and Best Practices,” virtual Providers’ Council’s 46th Annual Convention & Expo, 2021
- Presenter, RSM Annual Nonprofit Summit Series: Updates and Insights on Important Issues Affecting Nonprofits, 2019
- Presenter, “Fiscal Sponsorship: Making the Right Connections,” and “Advanced Governance: Navigating Executive Transitions,” Community Action Program Legal Services (CAPLAW) National Training Conference, 2018
- Presenter, “Nonprofit Executive Compensation from The Legal Perspective,” Massachusetts Society of CPAs’ Annual Nonprofit Conference, 2017
- Presenter, “It's Election Season: The Rules of the Road on Political Activity of Tax- Exempt Organizations”, Boston Bar Association, 2016
- Co-presenter, Closing the Doors: Strategies for Community Action Agencies Unable to Survive, Community Action Program Legal Services, Inc. Webinar, 2015
- Co-presenter, CLE Presentation: Strategies for Advising Nonprofits in Financial Distress, Boston Bar Association, 2015
- Moderator & presenter, Community Action Program Legal Services, Inc. National Training Conference, 2015
- Client Alert: Updated Guide for Board Members of Charitable Organizations
- Client Alert: Volunteers on Nonprofit Boards May Be Personally Liable for Unpaid Wages, Despite SJC Ruling That Broadly Interprets Federal and State Volunteer Immunity Statutes
- Client Alert: Endowment Fund Guidance, Deadline Extension and Other Relief for Massachusetts Charities and Non-Profit Organizations
- Client Alert: COVID-19 Relief for Nonprofit Governing Boards
- Client Alert: Employers Will Be Working Overtime to Implement Final Rule
