JLL Value & Risk Advisory strengthens tax team with four key hires
CHICAGO, Oct. 21, 2025 – JLL’s Value and Risk Advisory platform announced today that it has expanded its tax team with four key hires across the U.S. Kenneth Zdrok and Matthew Gorman join as Senior Directors and Newt Kirk and Joshua Soroka join the team as Executive Directors. All four will report to Dan Leonard and Debra Moore, Executive Directors and co-leads of the Property Tax division.
"We are thrilled to announce the strategic expansion of our Value and Risk Advisory tax team with the addition of four key experts across the U.S.,” said Leonard. “In today’s economic landscape, our clients are navigating increasingly complex property tax regulations and facing greater scrutiny from assessing jurisdictions. This has fueled a significant rise in demand for sophisticated, data-driven tax advisory. By investing in the industry’s top talent, we are proactively scaling our platform to ensure our clients continue to receive the highest level of service and expertise needed to manage their tax burdens effectively and maximize asset value.”
Based in Atlanta, Kenneth Zdrok is an attorney with over 20 years of property tax appeal experience across various industries and property types. Before joining JLL, he was a Principal at McGuire Sponsel and before that a Senior Manager of Property Tax and Business Incentives at PruittHealth. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Emory University School of Law.
Matthew Gorman is based in Miami and joins JLL from EY, where he worked as a Senior Manager. He brings more than 10 years of experience mitigating property tax exposure on transactions, development, and operations - covering tax credits and incentives, tax strategy, valuation, and litigation support. He is an Associate Member of the Appraisal Institute and a member of the Young Professional Group for ULI and CREFC.
Newt Kirk also joins the team from EY, where he was most recently a Senior Manager. With more than 35 years of appraisal experience focusing on the valuation of various investment grade properties including retail, office, industrial, multifamily, hospitality and special purpose properties, he is also a Member of the Appraisal Institute (MAI) and an expert witness in the State Tax Court of New Jersey. He is based in New Jersey, and has more than 25 years of experience in property tax valuation. During the course of his career, he’s also worked for Deloitte, Ryan and Thomson Reuters.
Based in Los Angeles, Joshua Soroka has more than 15 years of experience within the commercial real estate industry providing consulting services on all property types of investment-grade assets nationwide, with a focus on the Western U.S. He joins JLL from a boutique national firm, where he was a Managing Director focused on property tax advisory services for institutional investors and family offices. Josh has also held management roles at EY, Cushman and Wakefield and KPMG, providing an array of services, including financial reporting and feasibility studies and holds the MAI designation through the Appraisal Institute.
JLL Property Tax leverages deep expertise, strategic technologies and global connectivity to uncover meaningful property tax savings at every stage of the real estate cycle and give our clients the best CRE solutions across industries and asset types. We provide customized recommendations that are backed by real-time, state-of-the-art market data, translating into lower operating costs and stronger investment returns. Our team works with private and publicly traded REIT’s, real estate development companies, land developers, private equity funds and publicly traded companies with real estate holdings on all property tax issues including appeal opportunities, tax projections, and budget forecasting. The team has been involved with more than $27 billion of assessed valuation of properties managed in the U.S. in 2024 and has more than 3,400 assets currently under tax management.
JLL Value and Risk Advisory is the essential guide to the changing face of real estate values and risk. Our expert value and risk specialists are here to help investors and lenders identify, mitigate and monitor risk, and optimize real estate values across all sectors and geographies.
More than 2,500 experts in over 35 countries analyze $3 trillion of real estate, delivering actionable risk and value insights, so investors and lenders stay ahead in the market. A global community of sector-based specialists, the team delivers tailored client solutions for your real estate and business asset interests, giving an accurate picture of value and risk across any opportunity.
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About JLL
For over 200 years, JLL (NYSE: JLL), a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company, has helped clients buy, build, occupy, manage and invest in a variety of commercial, industrial, hotel, residential and retail properties. A Fortune 500® company with annual revenue of $23.4 billion and operations in over 80 countries around the world, our more than 112,000 employees bring the power of a global platform combined with local expertise. Driven by our purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world, we help our clients, people and communities SEE A BRIGHTER WAYSM. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.
U.S. property valuation and tax consulting services are performed by JLL Valuation & Advisory Services, LLC, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated.