Ray Stewart Bio

Ray Stewart is the consummate deal lawyer with a passion not only for providing legal, financial, tax and capital formation services, but for getting to know his clients personally. Ray has more than 25 years of experience helping clients—often owners of start-up and middle-market companies in the services, technology, manufacturing, IT, government contracting and franchising industries—plan and execute their growth strategies. He helps them develop business plans and financial structures and negotiate a complete range of transactions, including M&As, public offerings, private placements, debt restructurings, contracts, leases and joint ventures. Ray’s clients, many of whom he has worked with for decades, turn to him for help identifying acquisition targets and investment sources, and even for help filling critical C-suite management roles. Finance and tax drive deals, Ray says. And his ability to make sense of the financials and structure transactions for both growth and income tax advantage makes him invaluable to his clients. As a CPA, Ray began his career in public accounting with a global firm where he became a Tax Partner, specializing in international taxation. He also taught U.S. taxation of international operations for many years in Georgetown University’s Masters of Tax Program. Thus, Ray is highly experienced with international tax and adept at helping both U.S. and international companies structure cross-border deals and financings that are tax-advantaged. He has worked with both U.S. companies expanding outbound into foreign markets and foreign companies seeking to do business in the U.S. As an attorney in D.C., Ray also assists a wide variety of clients with complex federal government contracts and helps 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) nonprofits structure transactions without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. Overall, Ray prides himself on his ability to counsel his clients on almost any business goal they have or issue they encounter.