Ben Geslison

Practice Areas

Litigation: Civil Trial and Appellate

Litigation: State and Local Tax

Litigation: Oil, Gas & Energy

Tax: State and Local

Career

After spending several years as a trial and appellate litigator on a wide variety of civil matters in state and federal courts, Ben Geslison now focuses on representing businesses in resisting and challenging overzealous taxation by state and local governments. In that capacity, Mr. Geslison has represented many clients in arbitrations, trials, and appellate proceedings, helping taxpayers save and recover substantial amounts of state and local taxes held to have been wrongly assessed.

Mr. Geslison also regularly advises taxpayers on developments in the law; helps them prepare for and successfully navigate state and local tax audits and refund claims; negotiates with taxing agencies on taxpayers’ behalf to settle disputed matters; represents taxpayers in protesting adverse audit results and tax assessments; and represents taxpayers in administrative appeals.

Mr. Geslison is an active participant in several state-tax working groups that advise state taxing agencies as they evaluate, propose, and promulgate new state-tax regulations. He has provided substantive testimony, both oral and written, before state agencies and legislatures on important tax policy matters. He also regularly authors and co-authors briefs for amici curiae in appellate matters involving important legal issues and recently presented oral argument as amicus in the Texas Supreme Court, where he appears regularly on behalf of parties.

Mr. Geslison has published articles on a variety of topics in several publications including the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Texas Review on Law & Politics, Defense Counsel Journal, Tax Management Real Estate Journal, Law360, and others.

Mr. Geslison practices in the Houston, Texas office of Baker Botts L.L.P. He is licensed to practice in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Wyoming, and is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fifth, and District of Columbia Circuits, and the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of Texas; the District of Colorado; and the Western District of Oklahoma.

Before receiving his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, Mr. Geslison worked for several years as a business consultant for Accenture, advising several Silicon Valley tech giants as they optimized their business processes and information systems.

Professional Memberships

State Bar of Texas

Louisiana State Bar

Oklahoma State Bar

Wyoming State Bar

Houston Bar Association

Texas Taxpayers and Research Association

State Bar of Texas Pro Bono College

Federalist Society

Publications

• Treaties, Execution and Originalism in Medellín v. Texas, 128 S. Ct. 1346 (2008), HARVARD JOURNAL OF LAW & PUBLIC POLICY, Vol. 32, Issue 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 767-84

• The Court Will Clean it Up: Confronting the Specter of Political Branch Dereliction of Duty, TEXAS REVIEW OF LAW & POLITICS, Vol. 15, Issue 1 (Fall 2010), pp. 165-98

• What Were They Thinking? Examining the Intellectual Inspirations of the Framers and Opponents of the United States Constitution, TEXAS REVIEW OF LAW & POLITICS, Vol. 17, Issue 1 (Fall 2012), pp. 185-200

• Teeing Up for Texas Tort Reform, LAW360 (Aug. 4, 2011), https://www.law360.com/articles/262111

• The Collateral Source Rule and Future Medical Expenses: Anticipated Effects of the Affordable Care Act and Recent State Case Law on Damages in Personal Injury Lawsuits, Defense Counsel Journal, Volume 80 (July 2013), pp. 239.

• Maximizing Benefits under Texas’s Most Valuable (and Complex) Tax Incentive Program, TAX MANAGEMENT REAL ESTATE JOURNAL, Vol. 34, (July 4, 2018), p. 134.

• Texas Tax Talk: Exemption Win Signals Taxpayer Opportunity, LAW360 (Dec. 8, 2021), https://www.law360.com/articles/1446842

• Texas Tax Talk: Alarming Redefinition of Nontaxable Services, LAW360 (Sep. 21, 2021), https://www.law360.com/articles/1423060

• Texas Tax Talk: Ruling May Erode Pro-Taxpayer Presumption, LAW360 (Aug. 8, 2022), https://www.law360.com/articles/1518116

• Texas Tax Talk: Comptroller Appeals May Fuel Litigation, Law360 (Feb. 14, 2022), https://www.law360.com/articles/1464542

Personal

J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School 2010

B.S., magna cum laude, Biology, Brigham Young University 1999