Michelle Lee Pickett

Ms. Pickett is a Shareholder in Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s
Santa Barbara office and a member of the firm’s Corporate & Business
Department. She also serves on the firm’s Inclusiveness & Diversity
Committee and Professional Development Committee. Her practice
concentrates on providing outside general counsel services to clients
in the areas of general corporate and business matters, mergers and
acquisitions, and federal income and California tax matters.

Ms. Pickett's private business and public agency clients are engaged in
a variety of fields including software technology, defense contracting,
emerging technology, manufacturing, film and entertainment, and water.
Ms. Pickett combines her business, accounting and legal skills to structure
and implement strategies that maximize the goals of the client. Her practice
focuses primarily on privately-held businesses in all stages of the business
cycle.

Ms. Pickett actively counsels the nonprofit community as she uses her
knowledge and experience with both federal and California rules and
regulations to assist public charities and private foundations. Ms. Pickett
serves as general counsel to numerous nonprofit organizations, including
an internationally-renowned public charity dedicated to improving the
health of people in need through the provision of essential medical material
resources. Ms. Pickett also serves as a volunteer director and/or officer for
various public charities.

Recent tax-focused transactions include structuring a tax-free
reorganization between a privately-held corporation and a public company;
formulating tax strategies for the transfer of water rights involving a mutual
water company; formulating and implementing multiple, complex Section
1031 tax-deferred exchanges; structuring the tax-free transfer of water-
related assets from a private mutual water company to a public agency;
and negotiating with the IRS to obtain a private letter ruling allowing for the
tax-free reinvestment of proceeds following the condemnation of privately-
held securities into publicly-traded securities.