Tax Law

Morning Docket: 04.21.11

By

* BP has its granny panties in a bunch over Transocean’s liability for the oil spill. So they’re suing. [Bloomberg]

* Major League Baseball sought to take over the Dodgers from Frank McCourt yesterday. Your move, Wilpon. [Los Angeles Times]

* Tax Lady Roni DEUTCH may be thrown in jail. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in this video, but definitely wait for the thrown dog. [ABA Journal]

* Juvenile killers are hoping to reach the Supreme Court in an effort to overturn their life sentences. If their cases make it that far, they’ll undoubtedly find a certain justice who only cares about inferior MP3 players and Emilio Estefan. [New York Times]

* Something called the Second Amendment Foundation has sued Massachusetts over their law forbidding legal immigrants from owning handguns. Crocodile Dundee didn’t need a handgun. [Fox News Latino]

8 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 04.18.11

By

Paul Clement (left) and John Boehner (right)

* House Speaker John Boehner and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, now at King & Spalding, have joined forces to fight marriage equality by defending DOMA. Talk about two people who will not be taking their talents to South Beach. [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]

* The tax returns of Barack Obama and Joe Biden have been made public. Notes Professor Paul Caron: “It’s amazing how much more politicians give to charity in years in which they know their tax returns will be released to the public (although Biden still tosses around gifts to charity like manhole covers).” [TaxProf Blog]

* Sorry, Chief Judge Kozinski: Winkelvii non quitum. [Fox News]

* DLA Piper promotes 53 lawyers to partnership. For the blue wedge, name all the offices that are getting new partners. [Am Law Daily; DLA Piper (press release)]

* If you were underwhelmed with OCI at your law school, a new service — JD Match, founded by law-firm consultant and blogger Bruce MacEwen — wants to try to match you up with employers ready to hire. [WSJ Law Blog]

* People keep acting like their law firms are hunting for associates expressing discontent. But law firms aren’t as paranoid as Roger Ailes. [Gawker]

* It’s always nice when our nation’s legal system comes to the defense of punk bands. [Los Angeles Times]

* It’s almost time for the anniversary of the historical basis for Texas thinking it’s better than everybody else. [The Defense Rests via Blawg Review]

* Happy Passover to everyone. Don’t forget your blowtorches. [Wall Street Journal]

29 Comments

Morning Docket: 04.05.11

By

Kaga, L., dissenting

* Did Malcolm Gladwell’s endorsement lead to an increase in Colorado Law applicants? Malcolm Gladwell, a man whose book Blink was described by Richard Posner as “written like a book intended for people who do not read books.” [Law Week Colorado]

* A litany of legal challenges faces the Obama administration now that they’ve backtracked on Khalid Sheikh and the boys. [msnbc.com]

* The Supremes ruled against Arizona taxpayers who claimed a tax credit for religious school donations was unconstitutional. Justice Kagan popped her dissent cherry on this one. [NPR]

* Connecticut looks to “add teeth” to a law that attempts to determine whether racial profiling exists in the state. Sorry, I don’t find anything funny about racism. Unless, of course, we’re talking about the basketball scene in Soul Man. [Hartford Courant]

* Google has bid $900 million on a whole bunch of patents. Meanwhile, the patent to Google Wave is being peddled for two dollars and a box of envelopes. [Financial Times]

* “Police have nabbed the second prepubescent punk wanted for trying to rip off the religious headdress of a Muslim schoolgirl on Staten Island.” [New York Post]

19 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 03.17.11

By

* Is associate hiring bouncing back? Not so fast. [Young Lawyers Blog]

* Tape-recorded trash talk at the Raj Rajaratnam trial. [Dealbreaker]

* Here’s a good response to Mark Herrmann’s request for examples of crappy behavior by partners: “Miss a deadline, and then throw your secretary and associate under the bus when called out for it.” [South Florida Lawyers]

* Our tipster, a Georgetown Law alum, has the credited response: “[T]his must have been a GULC student mad he/she could have gone to Texas, gotten a 3500 sq foot wife and a Lexis, and graduated with the same presTTTige.” [Law Library Feedback Blog]

The Chicago River goes green on St. Patrick's Day.

* Law firms have been supporting Japan relief efforts (see here and here), but Felix Salmon urges you not to give money to Japan (or if you do donate to a relief organization, make sure your donation is unrestricted). [Reuters]

* Tax time is just a month away. What should be America’s top tax rate — 25 percent or 49 percent? [TaxProf Blog]

* This illustration of Justice Thurgood Marshall isn’t racist, is it? [Zoopreme Court]

* A Happy St. Patrick’s Day, from Elie — after the jump….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Non-Sequiturs: 03.17.11″

14 Comments

Non-Sequiturs: 03.01.11

By

Ted Frank

* Dude, you’re not getting a Dell. How about this crappy Compaq, selling for around $300? Well, Ted Frank, previously profiled here as the Class Action Avenger, won’t stand for it. [Point of Law]

* If you’re one of the 1.1 million people who didn’t file a federal income tax return for 2007, the IRS has your refund — but you must file by April 18 to get your money back. [TaxProf Blog]

* Speaking of tax law, don’t try to deduct your visits to a prostitute as “medical expenses.” Shouldn’t a lawyer know better? [CNNMoney.com]

* Stealing money from Alzheimer’s patients can’t be new. Then again, sending people who steal from Alzheimer’s patients straight to hell probably isn’t new either. [Dealbreaker]

Does this guy qualify as a 'pimp' in California?

* Now that the federal government has banned spice, I wonder if the Empire will release all of the political prisoners being held in the spice mines of Kessel. [Constitution Daily]

* California is going to define “pimping” much more clearly. And folks, that’s why we need states like California. [Legal Blog Watch]

* A JFK assassination expert testifies about one effective suicide method. [DNAinfo]

* You think lawyers get a raw deal in movie portrayals? You should check out accountants. [Going Concern]

13 Comments

Better Get an Expert

By

Ed. note: This post is by Will Meyerhofer, a former Sullivan & Cromwell attorney turned psychotherapist. He holds degrees from Harvard, NYU Law, and The Hunter College School of Social Work, and he blogs at The People’s Therapist. His new book, Life is a Brief Opportunity for Joy, is available on Amazon.

I’ve always been awestruck by tax lawyers. They are the dudes.

As a transactional attorney, you can’t make a move without a tax guy. M&A is based on IRS consequences. It’s the tax guy who hands you a chart with boxes and arrows, holding companies and off-shore limited partnerships buying and selling and re-selling and issuing and repurchasing and spinning off. Everything starts there.

Tax lawyers do stuff no one else would attempt. They swagger out the door at 5 pm.

“Don’t start with me. I’m in tax.”

Way back when, I took an advanced tax course in law school – to see if I could roll with the gangstas. I even took it the wrong semester, so instead of JD students, it was tax LLMs snickering at my desperation. I received my lowest grade ever. I also discovered tax law is like higher mathematics: there is no big picture. Tax is not intuitive or guided by overarching principle; it’s a mess of staggering, intimidating complication.

What I’ve come to realize lately, as a therapist working with tax lawyers, is that these seemingly unapproachable superstars are human. And being “the expert” can exact a toll….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Better Get an Expert”

78 Comments

Career Center: Top Tax Practices

By

Obtained your LLM in tax and want to know the best corporate tax firms in the country? Check the firm profiles below and see how associates really feel about working at one of these prominent tax firms. And don’t forget to check out the profiles of other firms on the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link, before you make any employment decisions.

  • Tax law is not the only practice group that this firm is noted for. Associates here get significant work experience early on, and they praise the firm for its support staff; associates also acknowledge, however, that the hours can be grueling and partnership is a long shot. Still, the firm earns a respectable #21 on the most-admired firm list.
  • Besides earning high marks for its tax law practice group, this firm is also the #1 most admired law firm according to Career Center users. This firm sets the standard for legal practice and its associates praise the firm for the exceptional work experience and its “generosity.” However, there is no hand-holding here, and associates are excepted to monitor their own career
    development.

More profiles of top tax shops, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Career Center: Top Tax Practices”

Non-Sequiturs: 12.28.10

By

Does Sarah Palin's home state need a law school? One legislator says: You betcha!

* An impressive collection of legal humor — amusing motions, orders, opinions, and the like. [Law Law Land]

* (Celebrity) Lawyer of the Day: Michael “Mickey” Sherman, a prominent criminal defense lawyer and the husband of a Fox News legal analyst, is going to prison Physician, heal thyself. [TaxProf Blog]

* Elie isn’t feeling well right now — no, it wasn’t all that Kwanzaa cake — but if he were writing today, I suspect he’d have a lot to say about whether Alaska needs its own law school. [Tundra Drums via ABA Journal]

* What does the Ohio Supreme Court have against satellite television? [Consumerist]

* Support staff members at DLA Piper in the U.K. are getting a pretty slim pay raise. [Roll On Friday]

* If you haven’t done so already, check out Mike Sacks’s interesting and elegant analysis of the four youngest Supreme Court justices (which got a well-deserved shout-out from Adam Liptak in the New York Times today). [FIRST ONE @ ONE FIRST]

* Eric Fatla, a law student at GW, passed away from injuries he sustained in a fall at the Union League Club in Chicago. Professor Jonathan Turley remembers his former student. Eric Fatla, R.I.P. [Jonathan Turley; Chicago Breaking News]

10 Comments

Associate Bonus Watch: Linklaters Matches Cravath
(But at least it has the gay gross-up.)

By

Here’s some very belated bonus news. Earlier this month, the New York office of Linklaters announced bonuses that matched the Cravath scale.

As usual at Linklaters, there was no hours requirement. The news was communicated via individual memo.

A Cravath match, especially in a bonus season when some firms are paying significantly more, kinda sucks isn’t that exciting. A Cravath bonus won’t get a Linklaters associate a pad as palatial as that of Linklaters partner Michael Bassett. Heck, $35K — the top of the Cravath scale — probably won’t even cover the cost of Bassett’s wallpaper.

But we’ll point out two nice things about Linklaters, both relating to tax issues….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Linklaters Matches Cravath
(But at least it has the gay gross-up.)”

6 Comments

Estate Tax Compromise Could Save Thousands of Lives (of Millionaires)

By

Late last night, Congress passed a compromise tax bill that will, among other things, cap the estate tax at 35% (with a $5 million exemption). If not for this compromise, the estate tax would have returned in 2011, at rates as high as 55 percent (with a $1 million exemption).

Hallelujah. Anytime you can save wealthy dead people millions of dollars during a time of crushing federal deficits, that’s something you just have to do. Way to go, Obama. When I voted for you in 2008, really I was just trying to vote for four more years of Bush’s ruinous fiscal policies.

Obama isn’t just saving money for all the dauphins eager to get their hands on their inheritances; he could be saving lives. Duke Law professor Richard Schmalbeck apparently thinks that rich old people might have killed themselves in droves over the next two weeks. Schmalbeck suggests that after spending a lifetime working hard and earning money, hundreds “or even a few thousand” of the aging rich might have committed suicide in the waning days of 2010, in order to pass on as much of their money to their children as they can before the estate tax returns in 2011.

I shudder to think that somebody would commodify their own life in such a way. But then again, I’m not rich. Maybe you only get rich in this country by being the kind of person who would gladly kill yourself if the price is right…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Estate Tax Compromise Could Save Thousands of Lives (of Millionaires)”

230 Comments
Page 10 of 121...6789101112