David S. Dunkle
David Dunkle (1945-2018)
David S. Dunkle (Dave) of Homewood, Alabama passed on April 17, 2018. Dave was a graduate of Meadville High School (Meadville, PA) where he lettered in football, basketball, swimming and baseball. He graduated in 1966 from the Virginia Military Institute with honors in English and enrolled in the University of North Carolina School of Law where he served on the Law Review graduating in 1969. In 1970, Dave earned a Juris Doctor in Tax Law from Georgetown University. From 1970-72, Dave served as an officer with the rank of captain in the U.S. Army and then entered private law practice in Charlotte, North Carolina.
From 1980-2018, Dave practiced law in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1984, he wrote the authoritative reference Guide to Pension and Profit Sharing Plans published by McGraw-Hill. Since 1989 till the present David practiced law at Cabaniss, Johnston, Gardner, Dumas and O'Neal where he was a partner.
David was listed in The Best Lawyers In America, Super Lawyers magazine, and had the highest rating assigned by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. He practiced in the tax and related areas of employee benefits and ERISA from 1972. He focused his practice on employee benefits and estate planning. He advised private and public employers, fiduciaries, and third-party administrators regarding all legal and tax aspects of employee benefits. This included their pension, multi-employer pension, 401(k)/profit sharing, tax-sheltered annuity, Section 457, non-qualified deferred compensation, ESOP, cafeteria, and health care plans. David had been in the forefront of self-funded employee benefits since the 1970’s. As a Special Tax Advisor to Tax Management, Inc., he authored VEBAs and Other Self-Insured Arrangements, 395-2nd. He was also the author of the Shepard’s/McGraw-Hill treatise on employee benefit planning entitled Guide to Pension and Profit Sharing Plans. He wrote numerous articles for such tax publications as The Journal of Taxation and Taxes, and he spoke frequently in the area of employee benefits.