Tuesday, January 16, 2018

TOP NEWS

Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year

Law360 congratulates the winners of its 2017 Practice Group of the Year awards, which honor the law firms behind the litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry in the past year. Read more »

The Firms That Dominated In 2017

Law360’s Firms of the Year rose above the competition with a combined 24 Practice Group of the Year awards after helping their clients win game-changing judgments and close record-breaking deals in 2017. Here’s a closer look at how they landed at the top. Read more »

Analysis

Justices Likely To Set New Tax Standard For Remote Vendors

The U.S. Supreme Court shocked the tax bar Friday by accepting South Dakota’s direct challenge to the court’s 1992 ruling that retailers must have a physical presence within a state to be liable for collection and remittance of use taxes, signaling the court’s willingness to rethink that precedent in the age of internet sales. Read more »

High Court To Consider Internet Retail Taxes' Reach

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear South Dakota’s challenge to Quill v. North Dakota, setting the stage for the high court to decide whether states may compel retailers that do not have a physical presence within their borders to collect and remit use tax. Read more »

Justices Will Review Rail Stock-Options Tax Case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it will review a Seventh Circuit decision that found income from $13.3 million in stock options given to employees of a Canadian railroad company was taxable compensation. Read more »

No Major Changes Needed For Tax Bill, Speaker Ryan Says

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., acknowledged in an interview that aired Friday that Congress likely will need to make technical corrections to the $1.5 trillion tax bill passed by Congress at the end of last year but added that any changes made likely would be small. Read more »

FEDERAL

Treasury Lowballed Wind Farm Grants, Fed. Circ. Hears

The U.S. Department of the Treasury should include a wind farm's tax benefits in its fair market value for the purposes of calculating its Section 1603 energy cash grants, just as mortgage deductions are accounted for in the sales price of a house, an attorney for Alta Wind Energy Center told the Federal Circuit on Friday. Read more »

Mueller's Team Seeks May Trial Date For Manafort, Gates

Paul Manafort, the indicted former campaign manager to President Donald Trump, may face trial as soon as May, according to a filing Friday by the special counsel spearheading an investigation into the Trump campaign that also outlined plans for future evidence exchange. Read more »

7th Circ. Upholds CEO's Conviction In Biodiesel Tax Plot

The Seventh Circuit on Friday upheld the conviction of the former CEO of an Indiana petroleum company charged in a tax fraud scheme based on the sale of biodiesel, saying prosecutors had more than enough evidence to prove he knew what was going on. Read more »

Kansas Men Cop To Illegal Sports Betting, Dodging Taxes

Two Wichita, Kansas, men on Friday admitted to running an illegal sports gambling ring and together dodging more than $400,000 in taxes on their winnings. Read more »

STATE & LOCAL

Analysis

States Grapple With Tax Reform Revenue Issues, Uncertainty

January, when most states open their legislative sessions, is one of the busiest months of the year for state governments under normal circumstances. But with last month’s passage of the huge federal tax reform bill, these are not normal circumstances, and states will likely face a "big headache" complying with the new law. Read more »

Mnuchin Calls Attempts To Skirt SALT Cap 'Ridiculous'

U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday called efforts by states such as California, New York and New Jersey to limit the scaling back of state and local tax deductions "ridiculous." Read more »

Oregon Beach Town Rejects Airbnb Voluntary Tax Agreement

Coastal Oregon city Cannon Beach has decided against entering a voluntary tax agreement with online vacation rental behemoth Airbnb Inc., with officials saying it would not have benefited the city due to auditing restrictions required by the contract and contrasting definitions of gross rents. Read more »

INTERNATIONAL

First Parts Of 'Urgent' Swiss Tax Plan Slotted For 2019

The Swiss government has announced that the first measures of its tax reform plan could roll out by the start of 2019, citing the “urgent” need to keep Switzerland competitive in the wake of a global trend to lower corporate rates. Read more »

PEOPLE

Taxation With Representation: Davis, Skadden, Simpson

In this week’s Taxation With Representation, SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. bought DST Systems Inc. for $5.4 billion, the Blackstone Group LP purchased Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust for $3.05 billion and a Riverstone-Goldman Sachs joint venture snapped up Lucid Energy Group II for $1.6 billion. Read more »

Winston & Strawn Adds Ex-McDermott Tax Pro

Months after nabbing a dozen employee benefits and expert compensation pros from McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Winston & Strawn LLP has added a tax specialist to its growing EBEC practice and reunited her with her former team. Read more »

EXPERT ANALYSIS

The Public Finance Industry Dodged A Tax Reform Bullet

The passage of the tax bill brought an end to a nearly two-month rollercoaster ride that had the public finance industry white-knuckled and a little green in the face. The final bill belied initial assurances that tax reform “won’t touch tax-exempt bonds,” but the end result could have been a lot worse, say Victoria Ozimek and Brian Teaff of Bracewell LLP. Read more »

How Tax Reform Will Change FCA Settlements

Little attention has been paid to a provision of the new tax law that requires federal agencies to specify, at the time of settlement of government claims, the portion of the settlement that may be deductible as a business expense. This is sure to impact False Claims Act and other settlements involving the government going forward, say attorneys with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP. Read more »

The Latest From IRS On Section 409A Relief

Taxpayers required to include the value of their 457A plan benefit in income before receiving a distribution may find they have an unexpected tax hit without a plan distribution to cover the tax liability. But a notice recently issued by the IRS allows for distribution of funds from 457A plans without incurring additional penalties under Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code, say Marc Fosse and Yatindra Pandya of Trucker Huss APC. Read more »

LEGAL INDUSTRY

New Group To Probe Workplace Harassment In Federal Courts

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has launched a working group to examine the policies in place to protect employees of the federal judiciary from workplace harassment, the office announced on Friday. Read more »

High Court Vet Joins Quinn Emanuel From Kirkland

U.S. Supreme Court heavy hitter Chris Landau is moving to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP after 25 years at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, joining a growing appellate group formed by his former Harvard law professor Kathleen Sullivan. Read more »

Final Dewey Cooperator Gets No Jail Time

The final cooperator in the Manhattan district attorney's criminal case against former executives at the once prominent law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP was sentenced to unconditional release on Friday, presumably ending the saga that absorbed the legal industry. Read more »

Up Next At High Court: Betraying A Client, Appellate Rules

A lawyer’s courtroom betrayal of his client in a Louisiana murder trial is likely the juiciest item on the Supreme Court’s oral argument calendar this week, but other cases involving the right of appeal in consolidated cases and a controversial question under the Fair Labor Standards Act could have major implications for the appellate and employment bars. Here's what to expect. Read more »

Legal Tech Download: Acquisition Fever

The world of legal technology is quickly evolving, with new products coming to market in rapid succession. Here, Law360 takes a look at seven major recent developments. Read more »

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

The head of a conservative think tank slammed attacks against the Federal Communications Commission's Republican chairman over the agency's vote to repeal net neutrality, federal immigration officials inspected almost 100 7-Eleven stores across the country, and lawmakers in various states proposed legislation to quell workplace sexual harassment. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week. Read more »

Podcast

Law360's Pro Say: When To Walk Away From A Dangerous Client

On the latest episode of Law360's Pro Say podcast, the team discusses how to know when it is time to ditch a dangerous client like Martin Shkreli, the latest developments over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program, a case striking down partisan gerrymandering, and a bizarre 5-bite diet. Read more »

In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week. Read more »

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LAW FIRMS

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Davis Wright Tremaine

Norton Rose Fulbright

Steptoe & Johnson LLP

COMPANIES

American Bar Association

Apple Inc.

Association of Corporate Counsel

Avalara Inc.

Avvo Inc.

BNSF Railway

Bank of America Corporation

Bayer AG

Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network

Canadian National Railway Company

DST Systems Inc.

DXC Technology Co.

Duke Energy Corporation

Econ One Research Inc.

Ernst & Young

Exxon Mobil Corporation

Facebook

Global Infrastructure Partners

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Google Inc.

Hubbell Inc.

Internet Brands, Inc.

JLL Partners

Jefferies Group Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Kirkland's, Inc.

Lexmark International, Inc.

McDonald's Corporation

Mercedes-Benz

National Collegiate Athletic Association

National Conference of State Legislatures

Retail Litigation Center Inc.

Riverstone Holdings LLC

SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc.

The Blackstone Group L.P.

The Renco Group

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

UnitedLex Corp.

Washington Post Co.

Wayfair LLC

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Department of Commerce

European Union

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Judicial Center

Internal Revenue Service

Montana Department of Revenue

National Labor Relations Board

National Security Agency

Office of Foreign Assets Control

Securities and Exchange Commission

South Dakota Department of Revenue

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

World Trade Organization

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