Paul Joseph Dostart
Partner
Paul Dostart enjoys a broad legal practice centered on qualification, operation, and governance of tax-exempt organizations. He also leads Dostart Hannink LLP’s internal investigations and whistleblower practice, advises closely held businesses on matters of corporate governance and structure, and maintains an active but limited tax controversy practice. Several of Mr. Dostart’s clients have appeared on the Inc. magazine list of America’s 500 most rapidly growing closely held businesses. Mr. Dostart has attended the University of California, San Diego Extension (biotechnology, global nuclear deterrence); San Diego State University Extension (corporate governance); University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management (executive MBA program); and Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business (accounting theory). He holds degrees from Iowa State University Ivy College of Business (BS, Distinguished Alumnus Citation of Achievement 2015); University of Houston Law Center (J.D.); and New York University School of Law (LL.M. in Taxation). Mr. Dostart has served as a classroom instructor at three universities. He was a teaching fellow in the Department of Accounting of the University of Houston Bauer College of Business while attending law school. While enrolled at the UH Law Center, Mr. Dostart was elected an editor of the law review, and president of the honorary legal fraternity. Following recognition as a Lasker Scholar by NYU School of Law, he was named an adjunct professor in the graduate tax program of the University of San Diego School of Law. Mr. Dostart taught as an adjunct professor in the USD SOL graduate tax program over a quarter-century span, and served two terms on that law school’s Board of Visitors. In the 1980s, he co-taught the ERISA and Pension Plans course for paralegals at UCSD Extension. Mr. Dostart is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, and a Fellow of the American Board of Forensic Accounting. He serves as an independent trustee and on the audit committee of a mutual fund (MUNDX), and on the investment committee of his church. In 2018, Mr. Dostart was appointed to the Audit Committee of the $1.2-billion (annual budget) San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). In 2021, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors appointed him to the nine-member board that oversees the $17-billion county employees’ retirement fund; from July 2023, Mr. Dostart served as vice-chair of that board (SDCERA). Mr. Dostart co-founded two San Diego biotech companies (Q3DM, Vala Sciences), serving as vice-chair and executive vice-president of both. He is a co-inventor of US Patent 5,582,128. Mr. Dostart is registered as a Certified Public Accountant in Illinois (239.025898), and is a member of the state bars of Texas (06022400) and California (81841).
