Maura Whelan is Senior Counsel in the Firm’s Exempt Organizations Practice. Maura provides philanthropists and philanthropic organizations of all types comprehensive and specialized advice honed from years of experience. Maura’s practice focuses on representing tax-exempt organizations, high net worth individuals, family offices, major corporations, and novel philanthropic structures in carrying out their philanthropic endeavors. She advises clients on a wide variety of structural and operational issues, including formation, governance, succession planning and compliance with applicable tax rules. Maura has particular experience working with private foundations and other grantmaking organizations to structure and implement complex grantmaking programs. She regularly counsels donors of major gifts, including gifts of art and other complex assets. Maura represents charitable and social welfare organizations making social impact and mission- and program-related investments, and endowments, foundations and other institutional investors making alternative investments.
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Work Highlights
- A private foundation in connection with transformative grants to domestic and international universities
- A philanthropist in connection with an historic gift to Hunter College to enhance its nurse practitioner master’s degree program and catalyze a new level of high-quality health care in underserved communities across New York City
- One of the world’s largest private foundations in connection with governance and succession planning
- A private foundation in connection with the establishment and operation of a highly-selective fellowship program hosted at a premier Chinese university
- A major collector in connection with a promised gift of Cubist art and a monetary gift to fund a new research center at a New York museum
- A private foundation in connection with the transformation of an historic pier on Manhattan’s west side into a public park offering an immersive experience with nature and art
- Various tax-exempt organizations in connection with the establishment and implementation of “mission-related” investment policies and programs
- Several significant private foundations in connection with program-related investments and loans
- Several public charities and private foundations in comprehensive governance reviews and audits
- Several endowed institutions in connection with secondary sales of interests in their investment portfolios
Education
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Harvard Law School, 2010 J.D.
cum laude
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Georgetown University, 2005 A.B.
magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa
Associations
- American Bar Association Section of Taxation, Member and Former Secretary, Exempt Organizations Committee
- New York City Bar Association, Non-Profit Organizations Committee
Admissions
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District of Columbia 2025
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New York 2011
Maura Whelan is Senior Counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she practices in the Exempt Organizations Practice. Maura provides philanthropists and philanthropic organizations of all types comprehensive and specialized advice honed from years of experience. Maura’s practice focuses on representing tax-exempt organizations, high net worth individuals, family offices, major corporations, and novel philanthropic structures in carrying out their philanthropic endeavors. Maura advises private foundations, public charities, social welfare organizations, and trade associations on a wide variety of structural and operational issues, including formation, governance, succession planning, and ongoing compliance with the tax rules applicable to tax-exempt organizations. Maura has particular experience working with grantmaking organizations – including private foundations, sponsoring organizations of donor advised funds, “American friends of” organizations and social welfare organizations – to structure and implement complex domestic and international grantmaking programs. She regularly counsels donors of major gifts, including gifts of art and other complex assets. Maura represents charitable and social welfare organizations in connection with social impact and mission- and program-related investments. Maura also represents endowed universities, foundations, hospitals, cultural institutions and other institutional investors, including family offices, in the review and negotiation of alternative investments.
Maura is recognized as a thought leader and is regularly featured as a speaker and writer at symposia and conferences of exempt organizations and their advisors. Maura has presented at the New York City Bar Association, American Bar Association Section of Taxation Exempt Organizations Committee, Georgetown University Law Center’s Representing and Managing Tax-Exempt Organizations Conference, University of Texas School of Law’s Nonprofit Organizations Institute, New York University's Annual Conference on Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing and Appraisers Association of America Art Law Day. She has also spoken at programs sponsored by the TEGE Exempt Organizations Council, New York State Council on the Arts, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, among others.
Maura is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation’s Exempt Organizations Committee and previously served as Secretary of that Committee. The Committee is considered the nation’s leading exempt organizations practitioners group. Maura also is a member of the New York City Bar Association Non-Profit Organizations Committee.
Maura earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude. She earned her A.B. from Georgetown University, where she graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.