Chad D. Cummings, CPA, Esq., M.S.T., LL.M., CMA, CRMA, CFE, CISA, FCPA, CIA
Founding Attorney and Chief Executive Officer
Chad D. Cummings is an attorney, CPA, and advisor serving small- and medium-sized ventures and their entrepreneurial owners. He helps people start, grow, manage, and exit their creations. In addition to his law practice, he also teaches Business Law to undergraduates at Florida Gulf Coast University. He has served in operations and finance with the world’s largest accounting firm, airline, and bank. He chose to pivot from his career in finance to pursue law as his next profession. He is now admitted to The Florida Bar and the State Bar of Texas. He completed his Juris Doctor on full-tuition merit scholarship. While in law school, he served on the Law Review Editorial Board where his monograph— Transhumanism: Morality and Law at the Frontier of the Human Condition—was selected for publication in the school’s law journal. He passed the July 2022 administration of the Florida Bar Examination and the February 2023 administration of the Texas Bar Examination. Following the completion of his J.D., with honors, in Naples, Florida, he joined and graduated from the advanced post-graduate Real Property Development LL.M. program at the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, Florida. He holds active CPA licensure in Florida and Texas and undergraduate and graduate degrees in accounting and taxation from the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Previously, he supported capital investment decision-making and financial reporting for the commercial real estate and legal divisions at American Airlines at their headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to that, he co-founded Food on the Fly, a data mining and logistics start-up leveraging mobile connectivity and transactional analytics to deliver premium meals in-terminal to transiting, time-constrained air passengers. His work on this and other ventures is ongoing. Before making the jump to the entrepreneurial realm, he started his career in the private equity and financial services tax compliance and consulting practice (“SALT-FS”) at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Dallas office where he engineered technical solutions to more effectively serve VC/PE clients including Texas Pacific Group, Goldman Sachs, First Reserve, HGGC, and others with a particular focus on complex multi-state corporate and pass-through entity many-tiered investment structures across myriad industrial verticals (e.g., consumer goods, energy, transportation, banking, entertainment, education, FIG, CRE, distressed assets) managed through AIVs, funds-of-funds, and SPVs. He also holds the Forensic Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Information Systems Auditor, Certified in Risk Management Assurance, and Certified Fraud Examiner credentials. He maintains professional memberships with the Institute of Management Accountants, Institute of Internal Auditors, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Society of Forensic Certified Public Accountants, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, state CPA societies, the State Bar of Texas, and The Florida Bar, among others. In his spare time, he researches and explores the taxation and valuation of virtual assets and novel applications thereof. He also serves as a mentor and coach for university-age small business creators. He lives and works in sunny South Florida and serve clients throughout Florida and Texas.
Bar Admissions
/Federal, State, and Local
Federal
United States Tax Court, Washington, D.C. United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, Atlanta, Georgia United States Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida, Orlando, Florida United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Orlando, Florida
State and Local
Florida Supreme Court, Tallahassee, Florida Supreme Court of Texas, Austin, Texas Collier County Bar, Naples, Florida Miami-Dade Bar, Miami, Florida
Credentials
/Licensure & Education
State Bar of Texas
Certified Public Accountant Florida Division of Certified Public Accounting Texas State Board of Public Accountancy
Forensic Certified Public Accountant Society of Forensic Certified Public Accountants USA
Certified Management Accountant Institute of Management Accountants
Certified Internal Auditor Institute of Internal Auditors
Certified Fraud Examiner Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
Certified Information Systems Auditor Information Systems Audit and Control Association
Certification in Risk Management Assurance Institute of Internal Auditors
LL.M., Real Property Development University of Miami School of Law Coral Gables, Florida
Juris Doctor, cum laude Ave Maria School of Law Naples, Florida
M.S., Taxation Southern Methodist University, Cox School of Business Dallas, Texas
B.B.A., Accounting, with departmental honors Southern Methodist University, Cox School of Business Dallas, Texas
Selected Publications
/Recent Writings
How the Feds Could Regulate Crypto (and Why All Is Not Lost for Investors) Entrepreneur Magazine
Transhumanism: Morality and Law at the Frontier of the Human Condition Ave Maria Law Review; also available on Amazon
Non-Fungible Tokens: A New Way to Securitize Digital (and Real-World) Assets Entrepreneur Magazine
Finally, the Feds Are Cutting Startups Some Slack: Why the New Tax Law Is a Game-Changer Entrepreneur Magazine
Cryptotax is Here to Stay: Understanding Tax Implications for Bitcoin Miners and Traders Tech Bullion
Year End Tax Planning for Crypto Traders LinkedIn (self-published)