Robert R. Gunning

Robert R. Gunning is a partner in the firm’s Denver office. He received his B.A. degree, with high honors, in 1990 from the College of William & Mary. In 1993, he received his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). While at Boalt Hall, Mr. Gunning won the national Roscoe Hogan environmental law essay competition and served as an executive editor of Ecology Law Quarterly.

Mr. Gunning joined Silverstein & Pomerantz LLP in April 2004. Prior to joining the firm, he worked as an associate attorney for Downey, Brand, Seymour & Rohwer in Sacramento, California, and for Victor F. Boog & Associates in Lakewood, Colorado. From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Gunning served as an assistant county attorney for Boulder County, Colorado, where he specialized in property tax litigation.

Mr. Gunning’s practice currently concentrates on property tax and transaction tax (e.g., sales/use tax and telecommunications tax) litigation. He has made numerous appearances before the Colorado Board of Assessment Appeals, the Colorado Executive Director of Revenue, and Colorado trial and appellate courts. In addition to trying a large number of cases at the administrative level, Mr. Gunning has been involved in appellate cases involving significant legal issues, including the taxation of possessory interests, the application of the cost approach in the valuation of business personal property, procedural issues related to Colorado’s abatement process, highest and best use, and the taxation of the end-user common line charge.

Mr. Gunning has lectured and written on a variety of legal matters, with a focus on state and local tax issues. He has presented lectures and papers for the International Association of Assessing Officers, the Colorado County Attorneys Association, CLE International, the Tax Executives Institute, and the Colorado Bar Association. Mr. Gunning is the author of “Into and Out of the Bog: the Intergovernmental Tax Immunity Doctrine,” 41 Willamette L. Rev. 151 (2005); “Property Tax Litigation Before the Colorado Board of Assessment Appeals,” Colorado Lawyer (August 2006), and co-author of “Water Marketing in California Revisited: the Legacy of the 1987-92 California Drought,” 25 Pacific L.J. 1053 (1994).

Mr. Gunning is a member of the bar of the States of California and Colorado.