Geoffrey Weg Speaks on 2012 Income Tax Updates at Beverly Hills Bar Association

Tax attorney Geoffrey A. Weg, who was recently appointed for the third year as Vice Chair of the State Bar’s Taxation Section Executive Committee, will speak on recent income tax developments, including new laws and noted Tax Court opinions, at the Beverly Hills Bar Association luncheon on Thursday, August 23 at the Association's offices in Beverly Hills.

The presentation has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California.

For more information and to register Logon

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Autumn Ronda Speaks to the California Society of CPAs, Estate Planning Committee

Tax and Estate Planning attorney Autumn Ronda, spoke to the California Society of CPAs, Estate Planning Committee at an August 8, 2012 panel titled "Wealth Transfer Strategies in Low-Interest Rate Environment." 

The program detailed those advanced estate planning strategies that are specifically helped by the recent historically low interest rates, including Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Charitable Lead Annuity Trusts, Sales to Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts and Intra Family Loans.

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Attorney Mayer Nazarian Joins Valensi Rose

We are pleased to announce the addition of tax attorney Mayer Nazarian to our Tax and Wealth Planning practice group. 

 

Mayer Nazarian is a transactional tax attorney distinctively trained within top regional and national tax firms. Mayer capitalizes on his depth and breadth of business and taxation expertise when advising and advocating for his clients and providing planning, research and consultation services. Mayer has successfully represented his clients and negotiated on their behalf before the Internal Revenue Service, the California Franchise Tax Board, the California State Board of Equalization and other taxing authorities.

In addition to his law degree, Mayer earned a Master of Business Taxation degree from the University of Southern California. He established a practical foundation as a tax professional with the accounting firm of Holthouse, Carlin and Van Trigt, LLP and then as a tax manager with Deloitte Tax, LLP.  Mayer went on to become the founder and managing principal of a law firm in Los Angeles, the Nazarian Law and Tax Group, Inc.

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Gary Torrell to Speak on Tax Law and Bankruptcy at the Beverly Hills Bar Association

Attorney Gary F. Torrell of Valensi Rose PLC will speak on “How Tax Law Affects Bankruptcy” at the Beverly Hills Bar Association luncheon on July 25 at the Association’s office in Beverly Hills, California. Mr. Torrell is a partner at Valensi Rose and has over twenty-five years of legal and business experience working with high-net worth individuals and sophisticated companies.

                                                                         

The  luncheon program is designed to provide a brief overview of the three most common types of bankruptcy cases filed by individuals and businesses, Chapters 7, 11 and 13.  Mr. Torrell is joined by co-speaker David M. Agler of Crowe Horwath LLP.  They will cover certain tax and related issues that arise frequently in bankruptcy cases, and tax planning  associated with bankruptcy.

Mr. Torrell’s expertise includes managing complex, nationwide commercial real-estate restructurings and bankruptcies for institutional lenders and private equity firms.  He has handled a wide spectrum of properties including hotels, office buildings, apartments, condominiums, resorts, residential developments and other properties.  

Mr. Torrell is a  Bankruptcy Court mediator and  represents secured and unsecured creditors, including major banks and landlords, in various bankruptcy cases throughout the United States.  

The Beverly Hills Bar Association is located at 9420 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California.  The event provides two hours of Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California.

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Philip S. Magaram to Speak in Jewish Community Foundation Speaker Series

Senior Tax and & Wealth Planning partner, Philip S. Magaram, will be a featured speaker at the upcoming seminar series presented by the Jewish Community Foundation, Los Angeles.  The series will focus on Tax Planning and Charitable Giving and provide attendees with information on various topics, including benefit corporations, charitable trusts, charitable gifts, ethical challenges of estate planning and administration and recent developments in these practice areas.

Mr. Magaram’s presentation, entitled “Portability or Exemption Trust – Which is Better?,” will take place on June 13, 2012 in Beverly Hills and June 20, 2012 in Woodland Hills.  Both presentations are from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.  For more information on the series or to register, visit the Jewish Community Foundation website at www.jewishfoundationla.org/2012PASS.

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Michael R. Morris to Moderate at 2012 Entertainment Industry Conference

Michael Morris will moderate the 2012 California Entertainment Industry Conference’s “Music Industry Updates” portion of the daylong event. The Conference will highlight the path to fraud prevention, sports and sports media rights, trends in new media, music industry updates, copyright terminations, entertainment tax and current trends in film. The annual Entertainment Industry Conference is presented by the California CPA Education Foundation and will be held on June 13, 2012 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.

 
“The purpose of the Music Industry Updates presentation is to keep CPAs and other financial and business professionals in the entertainment industry apprised of the present state of the music industry.  This includes current trends in recording and music publishing agreements, artist branding and related revenue streams, and developments in concert promotion and touring,” said Mr. Morris.  “There have been important business and legal developments that music industry representatives must be aware of to better serve their clients.”

For more information or to register, click here.

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The Rule 26 Amendments: One Year Later

John Keith

Louis Kempinsky

by Louis E. Kempinsky 
and John C. Keith

Originally published by the American Bar Association, April 30, 2012

On December  1, 2010, several amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 took effect.  The primary thrust of the 2010 amendments was to address the “undesirable  effects” of the 1993 amendments to Rule 26, which had provided for “routine  discovery into attorney-expert communications and draft reports.” 2010 amends.,  advisory committee’s notes. The four main changes were

• generally  narrowing the subject-matter of a testifying expert’s disclosure, Fed. R. Civ.  P. 26(a)(2)(B);
• extending  work-product protection to draft expert reports, Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(4)(B);
• providing  new work-product protection to attorney-expert communications, Fed. R. Civ. P.  26(b)(4)(C); and
• clarifying  which testifying experts are required to provide written reports, Fed. R. Civ.  P. 26(a)(2)(B) and (C).

The 2010  amendments have been in effect for just over a year, and they have not been  applied in all cases. The 2010 amendments apply to cases pending as of December  1, 2010, only “when just and practicable.” Order Amending Federal Rules of  Civil Procedure, Apr. 28, 2010. As is not surprising in light of the standard,  cases examining whether it would be “just and practicable” to apply the new  version of the rule are highly fact-driven and have come down on both sides. Case  law interpreting the amendments is still in an early stage of development.  Nonetheless, a number of potentially significant issues have already emerged.

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