Marceline B. Tempesta

Primary Focus & Experience

Ms. Tempesta’s practice focuses on the formation and representation of tax-exempt organizations, including public charities, private foundations, and social welfare organizations. Ms. Tempesta regularly advises such organizations with regard to compliance with state and federal tax laws, the structuring of complex philanthropic joint ventures, ongoing administration and best practices, governance, the drafting and negotiation of grant agreements, issues relating to foreign grantmaking and activity, lobbying and issue advocacy, program-related investments and mission related investing, and issues relating to unrelated business income tax and the structuring of taxable and nontaxable subsidiaries. Ms. Tempesta also advises individual and institutional donors with regard to issues relating to charitable giving both in the US and abroad. 

Ms. Tempesta’s practice also includes the representation of individuals and families with respect to complex estate planning (including gift, estate, generation-skipping transfer tax and philanthropic planning). She advises individuals and their families with respect to a variety of domestic and international estate and charitable planning matters and represents owners of closely-held businesses, hedge fund and private equity fund managers, and other wealthy individuals (both domestic and foreign).

Recognition & Accomplishments

Ms. Tempesta is ranked in the 2022 edition of Chambers High Net Worth. Ms. Tempesta is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where she currently serves on the Non-Profit Organizations Committee and served on the Trusts, Estates and Surrogate’s Courts Committee, and the American Bar Association, where she serves on the Exempt Organizations Committee. She is also a frequent lecturer on the New York Nonprofit Revitalization Act of 2013 and has co-authored Chapter Seven, "Miscellaneous Matters Affecting Validity of Wills and Distribution of Assets," of Probate and Administration of New York Estates, Second Edition (2015, revised 2017).

Ms. Tempesta graduated cum laude and with departmental honors from Northwestern University.  She received a J.D. cum laude from Cornell University Law School, where she made the Dean’s List. While at Cornell University Law School, Ms. Tempesta served as the university’s judicial codes counselor and as articles editor of the Cornell Law Review.