Kent E. Eichstadt, J.D., LL.M., Taxation

Shareholder, McCurdy & Eichstadt, P.C.

Jurisdictions Licensed to Practice

  • U.S. Supreme Court, since 2008
  • Supreme Court (and all other courts) of South Dakota, since 1982
  • Federal District of South Dakota, since 1982
  • Supreme Court (and all other courts) of Colorado, since 1983
  • Federal District of Colorado, since 1983
  • U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, since 1983
  • Supreme Court (and all other courts) of Washington, since 1987
  • U.S. Tax Court, since 2000

Memberships and Organizations

  • Colorado Bar Association
  • South Dakota Bar Association
  • Washington State Bar Association
  • Arapahoe County Bar Association
  • Plaintiff Employment Lawyers Association
  • Labor and Employment Law Forum Committee, Colorado Bar Association
  • Taxation, Trusts and Estates Sections, Colorado Bar Association
  • Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council

Education

1985-1986 University of Denver, College of Law and Business Administration, Denver, Colorado. Mr. Eichstadt received his Master of Laws in Taxation degree. His advanced studies included individual taxation problems; property transactions; tax accounting; corporate taxation; partnership taxation; estate and gift taxation; fiduciary income taxation; IRS practice and procedure; qualified plans; and non-qualified deferred compensation.

1979-1982 University of South Dakota, School of Law, Vermillion, South Dakota. Mr. Eichstadt received his Juris Doctorate degree. He was selected for Dean’s List. Mr. Eichstadt was also bestowed the American Jurisprudence Award (insurance law) and U.S. Law Week Award (academic achievement).

1978-1979 University of South Dakota, College of Arts and Sciences, Vermillion, South Dakota. Mr. Eichstadt received his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Political Science and minors in Economics and Chemistry. Mr. Eichstadt was selected for Dean’s List.

1975-1978 South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota. Mr. Eichstadt attended SDSU during his first 3 years of undergraduate study. Mr. Eichstadt was selected for Dean’s List.

Professional Experience

Mr. Eichstadt joined with Mr. McCurdy in May 2000 to form McCurdy & Eichstadt, P.C.

During 1999-2000, Mr. Eichstadt worked as an attorney with a six-member firm in the Denver DTC area. His practice included litigation of federal EEOC and state employment law claims. He also provided technical expertise to the firm’s small business, estate planning, probate, trust and taxation practices.

Prior to that, Mr. Eichstadt worked as an attorney with a five-member law firm in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The firm’s practice was concentrated in real estate and mining law; water law; probate; estates and trusts. Mr. Eichstadt’s practice emphasis included judicial and non-judicial foreclosures and debtor-creditor litigation; private and public construction contract disputes and litigation; real estate transactions and title examination; quiet title actions; probate and estate planning; small business entity formation and operations; and taxation law.

Mr. Eichstadt has served as a hearing examiner with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Employment and Training, Denver, Colorado. He presided over evidentiary hearings for unemployment compensation claims and drafted memorandum opinions.

Mr. Eichstadt also worked in the legal department of a global employment benefits consulting firm. He drafted plan documents and tax amendments to defined benefit and defined contribution plans and tax sheltered annuities for governmental and corporate employers and church plans. He also worked as a consultant on tax and labor issues related to qualified retirement plans, including the IRS Voluntary Compliance Resolution program and governmental plan domestic relations orders under Colorado law. Mr. Eichstadt also provided tax and other consulting services to fire, police, hospital and local governmental entity pension plans in the metropolitan Denver area and throughout Colorado. He drafted tax and compliance opinions and worked closely with benefits consultants and actuaries to implement benefit enhancements to retirement plans, cost of living adjustments and deferred retirement option plan benefit options.

Mr. Eichstadt also worked for several years as a trust officer for the Corporate Trust Department of a large Denver bank. He was responsible for legal and financial trust compliance for municipal and corporate bond indentures, leveraged lease and debenture transactions, stand-by trusts and escrows. He negotiated and structured municipal and corporate bond issues with nationally renowned bond and disclosure counsel, accounting firms, feasibility consultants, underwriting firms, governmental and private sector clients, letter of credit providers, bond insurers and rating agencies.

While a trust officer, Mr. Eichstadt closed at least 150 bond issues. Mr. Eichstadt’s clients included Colorado Housing and Finance Authority; Colorado Health Facilities Authority; Colorado Student Obligation Bond Authority; P/SL Healthcare System, Inc.; Rose Medical Center; Bonneville Power Administration; and Westinghouse Credit Corporation.

Mr. Eichstadt also worked for several years as Assistant Vice President for the Corporate Trust Department of another large Denver bank. Mr. Eichstadt served as a Team Leader and supervised four Trust Department employees. Mr. Eichstadt’s team negotiated and structured tax-exempt financings for housing and health care facilities and administered the department’s entire portfolio of Nevada gaming industry bonds and debentures. Mr. Eichstadt also administered defaulted bond issues and successfully settled a multi-million dollar bondholder suit. During his tenure there, Mr. Eichstadt closed at least 150 bond issues. His clients included Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, Colorado Health Facilities Authority, Colorado Water Resource and Power Development Authority; State of Montana; City of Henderson, Nevada; Safeway Stores; Fitzgerald’s Casino; and Circus Circus Hotels.

Following his graduation from the University of South Dakota, School of Law, Mr. Eichstadt served as trial court law clerk to the Presiding Circuit Court Judge, Pierre, South Dakota. As law clerk, Mr. Eichstadt assisted the Court with civil and criminal bench and jury trials and drafted memorandum opinions. Mr. Eichstadt also assisted the Court in judicial review of final decisions of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, including applications for multi-million dollar rate increases and a request for regulatory approval to construct a proposed $540 million Mandan Project power line that would span from Nebraska to Canada.

Personal Profile

Mr. Eichstadt was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where his parents worked in the home construction industry. The family then moved to South Dakota, where Mr. Eichstadt spent his formative years working on a family farm. The Eichstadt family still maintains a successful farming operation in South Dakota today.

Mr. Eichstadt’s interests include skiing, snowshoeing and hunting. He also enjoys classical music and art.

Mr. Eichstadt’s daughter, Shaundra L. Eichstadt, M.D., is a June 2010 graduate of Stanford Medical School. Dr. Eichstadt completed her residency training in Dermatology at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, in June 2022.  She began a fellowship in Dermatology Surgery at the University of San Diego, California, in July 2022.  She plans on joining a Dermatology practice after she completes her fellowship.