Donald Lee Katz

Don Katz brings extensive experience and an excellent reputation to the firm’s business practice. Don focuses his practice on a range of specialties including business planning, mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions in the aviation and automotive market sectors, as well as having a solid background in taxation matters. 

As one of the nation’s most highly regarded business aviation attorneys, a niche practice, Don has acted as special counsel in a multitude of transactions for Fortune 100 companies for the complexities involved in business aviation acquisitions, operations and divestitures. While at Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone, Don was ranked nationally for his aviation expertise by Chambers Partners USA: America's leading lawyers for business, a guide designed to present objectively the best practitioners and corporate lawyers throughout the world. 

After leading the Aviation and Transportation Group at Miller Canfield, Don joined client General Dynamics Corporation, where he was Tax Counsel for the $8 billion Combat Systems Group. In addition to his corporate tax expertise, Don also has working knowledge of the capital markets from his years in New York as a Registered Principal and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with several Wall Street firms where he worked on active trading floors. 

One might say that entrepreneurship is in Don’s blood. His family has a long history of starting and operating companies including franchises, imprinted sportswear businesses, restaurants, and gourmet food manufacturing and distribution operations. Growing up, Don was intimately involved in all aspects of the numerous family businesses, including startups, operations, management, and finance as well as buying and, when the time came, selling locations and companies. This experience affords Don's clients his unique perspective on the practice of law when it comes to advising closely held businesses. Don’s business acumen extends beyond the business of practicing law, which Fortune 100 companies and entrepreneur alike have found valuable. 

Don has published law review articles on the topics of taxation, aviation, government contracting, as well as e-commerce. He received his law degree, magna cum laude, from Michigan State University College of Law, and his B.A. in Comparative Literature from Hobart College.