Leonard Bickwit

Practice Areas

Leonard Bickwit, Jr. joined the firm in April 2023 after a long and productive relationship with another law and lobbying firm. With both firms, Len has practiced in the areas of federal legislation and federal government regulation. His practice has focused largely on tax policy issues, although his experience extends to a significant degree to other substantive areas in which the firm specializes—including energy and environmental regulation, federal appropriations legislation, and international trade and tariffs. In connection with the first of these areas, Len served as General Counsel to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the period of the Three Mile Island accident and several years beyond it. Len has consistently received outstanding recognition from Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and The Best Lawyers in America® for his experience in both government relations and tax law. Chambers quotes one of his clients as noting that "he has great experience and understanding of Congress and the way to approach issues" and is "highly connected at the federal level."

Len also has long been involved, as a major part of his professional activity, in the causes and political objectives of the national Democratic party (though he is described in Chambers as "highly respected by members of both political parties"). Early in his career, he served in senior staff positions for two highly regarded Democratic senators over the course of a nine-year period on Capitol Hill. Since leaving those positions, he has continued to provide frequent policy and political advice to Democratic candidates for federal office and to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He has been widely regarded for many years by Senate Democrats as one of the committee’s most active supporters.

Representative legislative and regulatory tax policy engagements over the years have included the following subjects: the taxation of employer sponsored health insurance benefits; alternative approaches to corporate tax rate reduction; energy tax policy; like-kind exchange taxation; bonus depreciation; excess business loss policy; LIFO accounting; the percentage of completion accounting method; maritime tax policy; the taxation of US possessions; agricultural cooperative taxation; taxation of the franchise industry; state taxation of remote sellers; the federal excise tax drawback program; Alaska Native settlement trust taxation; and overall domestic and international tax reform policies. More specifically, Len served as General Counsel to a coalition of most of the nation’s major telecommunications companies in their efforts to oppose significant state-level tax increases on those companies. He also served as chief US tax counsel to the Government of Puerto Rico’s Treasury Department for most of the time in office of Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

Career

Before joining Miller & Chevalier in 1983, served as General Counsel to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Earlier, served as Legislative Director to Senator John Glenn and as Counsel to Senator Philip Hart's Subcommittee on Environment.

Professional Memberships

General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 1979-1983

Legislative Director, Senator John Glenn, 1975-1979

Personal

JD, Harvard Law School; MA, Oxford University; BA, Yale, magna cum laude.

Education