Tax

Deaths

Non-Sequiturs: 11.27.12

* Legendary union leader Marvin Miller died today at the age of 95. This is a guy who lost a huge case at the Supreme Court fighting against Major League Baseball, and still found a way to win. He wasn’t a lawyer, but he mastered the law. [USA Today] * Tax professors weigh in on the fiscal cliff. [Tax Prof Blog] * Jersey Shore residents are suing over sand dune protection from storms. They’re not suing because they’re weren’t protected enough, they’re suing because the new sand dunes block their ocean view. [Asbury Park Press] * Yahoo! and NBA lawyers might need to talk about what, precisely, the NBA is endorsing. [Marc Edelman Blog] * I’m going to go on and vote “no” on the question of whether or not the U.N. should get to “govern” the internet. Wait… I don’t get a “vote” on what the U.N. should do? Well, that sounds like a good reason to go back to not giving a crap about anything the U.N. says. [The Volokh Conspiracy] * Looks like the wheel finally came ’round on InTrade. [Dealbreaker] * The Justice Resource Center, coordinator of the 2013 NYSBA High School Mock Trial Tournament, seeks voluntary attorney-coaches. Help teach young people about the law — and get CLE credit, too! [Justice Resource Center]

Ann Althouse

Non-Sequiturs: 06.25.12

* This is a great article on why the Supreme Court doesn’t leak, while more important institutions, like our national security apparatus, leak like a freaking sieve. [New Republic] * Most law professors think the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. Most law professors think the Supreme Court will overturn the ACA anyway. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? [Bloomberg] * And now for some SCOTUS thoughts from the amazingly amorphous Mitt Romney. Look at his works in equivocation, ye mighty, and despair. [Washington Post] * You know, I don’t know how they afford this stuff, but having an inalienable right to “paid vacation” really feels like the kind of European invention we should be emulating. Good ideas can come from anywhere, folks. [Legal Blog Watch] * Letting students sit for the bar exam after their second year but then making them come back to school for an even more obviously useless third year is a great way to make somebody have a total mental dissociative break. Just imagine calculating how much money you’re being forced to waste while you sit there in a 3L seminar called “Law and Ceramics.” [Faculty Lounge] * Oh, I like this. The little Democrat in me can’t help but like this: a “global” financial transaction tax. Mmm… there’s nothing like the smell of global redistributive fairness. [Overlawyered] * Jonathan Turley seems hurt that Ann Althouse and other conservative academics acted in a way that shows “we have lost the tradition of civil discourse in this country.” Yeah, umm, Professor Turley, perhaps you didn’t read the footnotes, but here on the internet we don’t have a tradition of civil discourse. We do have a tradition of ad hominem attacks, hyperbole, and pictures of cats. [Jonathan Turley]

7th Circuit

Non-Sequiturs: 06.14.12

* Some law schools are thinking about reducing class sizes, but others are not. Said one dean, “People want to go to our school, and why should we say no?” [The Faculty Lounge] * The fun coming out of the Seventh Circuit just doesn’t stop. Do you know what an “interrobang” is? [Volokh Conspiracy] * Speaking of the “What What (In the Butt)” opinion, here’s some analysis from Professor Ann Althouse. [Althouse] * Yeah, we know, we’re not supposed to give tax advice. So think of this as housing advice: if you earn $1 million or more, avoid living in a blue state. [TaxProf Blog] * Free Winona Eggs Benedict! A New York City Council bill seeks to remove “unnecessary obstacles” to getting Sunday brunch. [City Room / New York Times] * An Australian journalist’s thoughts on how to reform the Anglo-American legal system. [The Atlantic] * Hmm…. should I look into buying the domain name david.lat? [Legal Blog Watch] * How Dewey go through $43 million in six weeks? Is this like Brewster’s Millions or something? Discussion in this video....

4th Circuit

Non-Sequiturs: 02.22.12

* How can you tout your achievements in a cover letter without sounding like a tool? Here are some pointers from Professor Eugene Volokh. [Volokh Conspiracy] * The “unbundling” of legal services is a big buzzword when talking about the direction of the profession. But, as Jordan Furlong posits, should lawyers and law firms start thinking about “rebundling”? [Law21.ca] * Benchslap of earlier this month: the Fourth Circuit smacks around some saucy AUSAs. [Legal Blog Watch] * “[P]ublic drunkenness is not illegal in NYC.” (Elie will be glad to hear this.) [Gothamist] * How will SCOTUS rule on the Stolen Valor Act? Mike Sacks reads the oral argument tea leaves. [Huffington Post] * Chris Christie to Warren Buffett: if you want to pay more taxes, “just write a check and shut up.” [Dealbreaker] * A Harvard Law School student, Matthew Schoenfeld, stands up for a good cause. [Harvard Law School News]

Election 2012

Mitt Romney’s Taxes Aren’t ‘Complicated’ to His Tax Lawyers

If you are a wealthy American who pays the top regular income tax rate of 35%, you have terrible, awful lawyers. Mitt Romney does not have terrible lawyers. The news of the day is that GOP frontrunner Romney released the previous two years of his tax returns. Romney's 2010 adjusted gross income was $21,661,344. His estimated AGI for 2011 is $20,901,075. But Romney is trying to spin his tax returns as an example of how "complicated" that tax code is....

Biglaw

Former S&C Partner Gets Sentenced for Tax Offenses

Last August, John J. O'Brien, who was once a highly regarded and well-liked partner in the celebrated M&A practice of Sullivan & Cromwell, pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor tax offenses. In the end, he pleaded guilty to failing to file taxes relating to $9.2 million in partnership income, for tax years 2003 to 2008. Earlier this week, O'Brien was sentenced. So is O'Brien trading Biglaw for the Big House? And if so, how long a sentence did he receive?