The legal nonprofit community has named the 2025 recipients of the annual “Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer Awards.” The Nonprofit Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association, Business Law Section, recognizes accomplished and civic-minded nonprofit lawyers in the categories of Academic, Attorney, In-House Counsel, and Young Attorney. Additionally, the Committee bestows the Vanguard Award on a leading legal practitioner for their lifetime commitment to the nonprofit field.
2025 Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer Award Recipients Announced
The 2025 recipients are:
Vanguard Award
Robert A. Wexler
Senior Counsel, Adler & Colvin
For distinguished lifetime achievement in the nonprofit sector.
Robert Wexler is a Senior Counsel at the San Francisco law firm of Adler & Colvin, which specializes in the representation of nonprofit organizations and their donors, with an emphasis on tax and corporate matters. Before moving to Senior Counsel, he was a Shareholder of the firm for 30 years, where he also helped manage the firm for 20 years. His practice focuses on private foundation grantmaking, program-related investments, representing social enterprises, representing family offices, unrelated business income tax issues, and online philanthropy, in addition to the full range of other issues affecting public charities and private foundations.
He received his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Brown University in 1982 and received his law degree from Columbia University in 1985. Mr. Wexler is a member of the American Bar Association and an active participant of the Tax Section’s Exempt Organization Committee, where he is a past Chair and a frequent author and participant in comment projects submitted to the Department of Treasury and the IRS. He has also served as editor of the Exempt Organizations Department, Journal of Taxation from 1996-2008 and an advisor to NYU’s National Center of Philanthropy and the Law, and is a member of the American Law Institute and an advisor to the Restatement of the Law, Charitable and Nonprofit Organizations.
Mr. Wexler taught the Law of Nonprofit Organizations for many years at Stanford Law School as well as other law schools in the Bay Area. He has been a co-author on two Bloomberg Tax Management Portfolios: 468 – Private Foundation Tax and Jeopardy Investments, and 486 – Social Enterprise. He has co-authored a chapter in California’s Continuing Education of the Bar book on Advising Nonprofit Corporations. He is a frequent author of articles and a speaker on nonprofit issues, including at the annual conferences hosted by Georgetown Law, Loyola Marymount University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the American Bar Association’s Tax Section.
Mr. Wexler has also served on several nonprofit boards, and for many years, was an active participant in the San Francisco Justice and Diversity Center’s program on Community
Organization Representation, where he was awarded several volunteer service awards over the years.
Outstanding Attorney Award
Kimberly Lowe
Shareholder and Attorney, Avisen Legal
For distinguished service as outside counsel to nonprofit organizations.
For over 25 years, Kimberly Lowe has lawyered from the trenches with a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of how both for-profit and nonprofit enterprises operate. She guides entrepreneurs, boards, executive management teams, boards of directors, multigenerational families, shareholders, and investors through all aspects of the business life cycle: from formation, to operation, to exit.
Ms. Lowe provides legal services to many sectors of the economy. She works with social ventures, private and public companies, limited liability companies and partnerships, nonprofit organizations, and cooperatives. She helps her clients navigate through general business matters, corporate governance, debt and equity financing, purchase and sales, real estate transactions, SEC and IRS compliance, business strategy joint ventures, complex reorganizations, liquidations, and dissolutions.
In the nonprofit sector, she has worked with all types of organizations ranging from local to national public charities and private foundations to trade associations, churches, and religious organizations and has counseled them through every intricacy of the nonprofit business life cycle.
Throughout her career, she has worked alongside organizations—both for-profit and nonprofit—helping them navigate challenging and complex situations. Her approach to crisis management emphasizes objectivity, professionalism, and discretion. She collaborates closely with executive teams and boards of directors to address legal challenges, focusing on maintaining organizational stability and protecting reputations.
Ms. Lowe has guided numerous organizations through a variety of sensitive matters, including governance restructuring, compliance investigations, and high-profile crises. Her work is centered on developing strategies that not only address immediate concerns but also support long-term recovery and resilience.
A significant part of her practice involves helping clients establish and maintain strong governance frameworks that can endure scrutiny. Whether working with a national nonprofit, a public company, or a faith-based organization, she focuses on providing thorough and thoughtful legal solutions that align with the organization’s broader goals.
Ms. Lowe received her law degree from Boston College Law School, and an Honors B.A. in English and Economics, summa cum laude, from the University of Detroit Mercy.
Outstanding In-House Counsel Award
Joshua J. Mintz
Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary, MacArthur Foundation
For distinguished service by a nonprofit in-house counsel.
As Vice President, General Counsel (since 1994), and Secretary of the MacArthur Foundation, Joshua Mintz is responsible for the overall legal affairs of the Foundation worldwide and is a member of the Leadership Advisory Team that advises the President of the Foundation on policy matters and strategic direction. He also coordinates the work of MacArthur Advisory Services, an initiative of the Foundation through which MacArthur staff with appropriate expertise advises other foundations, corporate donors, and individual donors on a range of issues and questions and help connect such donors to other external resources when appropriate. He is an officer and on the board of various affiliates of the Foundation, including current Board Chair of Arc Chicago LLC, the fund established by the Foundation to make investments to further the Benefit Chicago initiative.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Mintz was a partner with the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP, specializing in commercial litigation and business reorganization, including real estate restructurings.
Mr. Mintz has served on a variety of not-for-profit Boards and committees. He was the Chairman of the Board of Security Council Reports, a charitable organization whose mission is to make the work of the Security Council more effective and transparent, from 2014-2017 and remains on the board. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foundations where he was the Chairman of the Audit Committee and member of the Governance Committee from 2011 through 2017. Mr. Mintz was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Donors Forum from 2003-2009, where, during various periods, he served as the Treasurer, the Chair of the Audit/Finance Committee, and the Chairman of the Compensation/Benefits Committee. He was also member of the Legal Framework Work Group of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector convened by Independent Sector. Mr. Mintz is past President and a current member of the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Protective Association, a not-for-profit organization providing counseling and other services to children at risk and their families.
Mr. Mintz received his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law, magna cum laude, in 1981. He teaches a one-week short course on Emerging Forms of Philanthropy and the Role of Private Foundations in Effecting Social Change at the Law School. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in history/education from the University of Colorado.
Outstanding Academic Award
Darryll K. Jones
Professor of Law, Florida A&M University
For distinguished academic achievement in the nonprofit sector.
Darryll Jones teaches and writes about Federal Income Tax, Partnership Tax, Taxation of Exempt Organizations, and Business Organizations. Professor Jones taught at Stetson University College of Law and the University of Pittsburgh prior to his arrival in 2009 at Florida A&M University College of Law. He received his LLM (Tax) and J.D. degrees from the University of Florida.
Professor Jones is co-author of The Taxation of Charities and Other Exempt Organizations, now in its 4th edition. His scholarship has appeared in the Arizona Law Review, New Mexico Law Review, Florida Tax Review, Virginia Tax Review, and several other publications. He is co-editor contributor to the Nonprofit Law Professor Blog and also publishing Jonesing on Nonprofit on the Substack platform. Professor Jones has also testified before about tax law before the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Internal Revenue Service.
Prior to becoming a full-time tax law scholar, Professor Jones served as General Counsel to Columbia College Chicago and Associate General Counsel at the University of Florida. He also served for five years in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corp, during which time he earned the parachutist’s and air assault badges among other awards.
Outstanding Young Lawyer Award
Amanda Reed
Of Counsel, Caplin & Drysdale
For distinguished service by an attorney in the nonprofit sector who is under the age of 35 or has been in practice less than 10 years.
Amanda Reed, Of Counsel in Caplin & Drysdale’s Exempt Organizations practice group, is a trusted advisor and valued for her expertise in the tax law and practical advice in guiding clients through complex legal and operational challenges. Her experience representing exempt organizations encompasses advice on grantmaking and programmatic initiatives, navigating the IRS rules for advocacy, lobbying, and political campaign activities, and structuring affiliated entity relationships and transactions. She also advises organizations on protecting and maintaining their intellectual property, board governance best practices, and crisis management. Ms. Reed is routinely asked by clients to provide training to their program staff and grantees on a variety of topics and has become a regular speaker at industry conferences.
Ms. Reed began her legal career as a federal and international tax associate at Dechert LLP in Philadelphia, PA. While in Philadelphia, she founded the Community Lawyering Clinic pro bono practice group, which partners with community legal services organizations to staff legal clinics representing senior citizens and low-income Philadelphians. She joined Caplin & Drysdale’s exempt organizations practice group in 2018, excited for the opportunity to work more closely with exempt organizations. She rejoined Caplin & Drysdale in 2022 after working as in-house counsel to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation where she provided legal counsel to the foundation on grantmaking, policy and advocacy, contracts, impact investing, and other U.S. and international legal matters.
Ms. Reed’s dedication to the sector extends beyond her professional work. She serves on the Board of Directors of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, which supports and builds power for and alongside Black women, Black queer folks, and Black marginalized communities through leadership development, community care, resourcing, and mutual aid. She was also recently designated a 2024 Fellow to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity and continues her involvement with LCLD as an alumna.
Ms. Reed received her J.D., cum laude, from Temple University Beasley School of Law, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Africana Studies, cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh.