IRS Would Furlough Two-Thirds Of Staff During Shutdown

By David van den Berg and Anna Scott Farrell

The Internal Revenue Service would furlough two-thirds of its staff if Congress can't reach an agreement to avoid a shutdown of the federal government, under a contingency plan released Thursday.

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IRS Chief Counsel Pick Pledges To Work With Whistleblowers

By Asha Glover

President Joe Biden's pick for the Internal Revenue Service's chief counsel committed to working with whistleblowers, both internally and those who report corporate tax noncompliance, during a hearing with the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.

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Wealthy Nonfilers Owe $66B, Sen. Finance Chair Wyden Says

By Anna Scott Farrell

The Internal Revenue Service should do more to crack down on wealthy people who fail to file tax returns, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said Thursday, citing data from an investigation showing that more than 1.4 million high-earning nonfilers owe nearly $66 billion.

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Houston Truck Sales Co. Ruled Not Liable For $2M Excise Tax

By Anna Scott Farrell

A Houston truck sales company doesn't owe the nearly $2 million in excise taxes it was assessed by the IRS because it is not an importer of tires that it bought from a Chinese manufacturer, merely a purchaser, a Texas federal judge ruled Thursday.

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House Tax Panel Advances HSA Expansion Bills

By David van den Berg

The House Ways and Means Committee advanced two measures Thursday that would expand health savings accounts by increasing eligibility for the accounts and boosting allowable contributions to them.

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IRS' Presidential Tax Review Guidelines Lacking, TIGTA Says

By Jared Serre

Guidelines on the Internal Revenue Service's examinations of presidential tax returns are incomplete, though the agency has been "generally compliant" with them, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report published Thursday.

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IRS Erroneously Issued More Than 10K Levies, TIGTA Says

By Jared Serre

More than 10,000 taxpayers are estimated to have been issued erroneous levies from the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report published Thursday.

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IRS Skipping Steps in Awarding Certain Contracts, TIGTA Says

By Jared Serre

The Internal Revenue Service did not meet all internal and federal acquisition regulation policies when awarding expert witness contracts, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report published Thursday.

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IRS Won't Treat Some Hawaii Aid Donations As Compensation

By Jared Serre

The Internal Revenue Service will not treat certain charitable contributions to aid victims of Hawaii wildfires as compensation, the agency announced Thursday.

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Analysis

Trump To Face NY AG As 'Fraud' At Trial, His Empire At Stake

By Frank G. Runyeon

After three years of investigation, litigation and ceaseless appeals, the New York attorney general is set to bring former President Donald Trump to trial Monday as she seeks to put him out of the real estate business for good and claw back $250 million in allegedly ill-gotten gains.

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Deutsche Bank ESG Fine May Be Preview Of SEC Climate Rule

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's $19 million settlement with a Deutsche Bank unit over its controls related to environmental, social and governance goals may be a sign of what's to come for public companies if and when the regulator's planned climate disclosure rule is finalized, experts say.

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Podcast

Pro Say: A Cheat Sheet For The New Supreme Court Term

The U.S. Supreme Court justices return to the bench on Monday for a new term sure to have an impact, with issues ranging from gun ownership rights in domestic violence cases to the legality of administrative courts and the First Amendment implications of public officials blocking critics on social media.

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Immigration Law Scammer To Pay $230K, Wash. AG Says

By Rachel Riley

A Seattle business accused of scamming Brazilian immigrants in need of legal services out of thousands of dollars will now have to pay up to nearly $230,000 in restitution and fines under a Washington Superior Court judge's order, according to the state attorney general's office.

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Analysis

Wait For New Judges Frustrates Mass. Lawyers

By Julie Manganis

The 40 vacant judgeships in Massachusetts state courts are contributing to litigation delays and causing tension — especially in criminal cases, product liability and medical malpractice matters, where getting to trial as quickly as possible can be crucial, attorneys say.

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Trailblazing Sen. Feinstein Dies At 90

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a trailblazing woman in the Senate, died at age 90 on Thursday night, her office announced Friday morning.

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Justices To Review Circuit Split Over Corp. Disclosure Duty

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to address a circuit split over the types of disclosures companies are required to make under a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule if they hope to avoid private litigation, taking up a challenge to a Second Circuit ruling allowing an investor lawsuit against Macquarie Group affiliates to proceed. 

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5 Supreme Court Cases To Watch This Fall

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will tackle a variety of questions in the first half of its 2023 term that will have a broad impact on federal regulators' power and the authority of courts to intercede in major aspects of American life.

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Texas Justices Reinstate Whistleblower Suit Against Paxton

By Catherine Marfin

The Texas Supreme Court has reinstated a retaliation lawsuit brought by four of Attorney General Ken Paxton's former senior-aides-turned-whistleblowers.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Tabitha Burbidge

The past week in London has seen Lenovo and Motorola bring a wireless tech patent spat with InterDigital to the U.K., litigation funder Therium and a Cayman Islands fund hit with a claim from a real estate sponsor, and the former deputy registrar of the University of Leicester sue three production companies for libel over his depiction in a film about the discovery of King Richard III’s remains. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Analysis

'Administrative State' Attacks Soar To High Court Crescendo

By Jeff Overley

After methodically amassing U.S. Supreme Court victories against agency enforcers and regulators, a legal crusade against "administrative state" powers is poised to parlay piecemeal wins into a climactic conquest during the high court's new term, which is already teeming with anti-agency cases.

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Attorneys Will Now Have Remote Access To Pa. Appeals Briefs

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has greenlighted a pilot program that would save lawyers a trip to the courthouse by allowing them to access images of briefs filed to the state's appellate courts, something previously unavailable.

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Texas Bar Nixes DEI From Committee Name Amid Skepticism

By Lynn LaRowe

The State Bar of Texas board signed off Friday on changing the name of its diversity, equity and inclusion committee to the outreach and engagement committee, a move designed to provide clarity about the committee's work but one that still attracted skepticism among some bar officials.

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Chancery Blocks Failed SPAC's Folding After Atty Fee Claim

By Jeff Montgomery

A special-purpose acquisition company can't liquidate until it pays a more than $1.9 million bill owed to Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP after its troubled, $2.6 billion deal for a casino in the Philippines was scuttled by a Delaware court ruling.

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Longtime SDNY Judge Scheindlin Joins Boies Schiller

By Matt Perez

Boies Schiller Flexner LLP on Friday announced the hiring of a longtime former Southern District of New York judge who has spent the past seven years as of counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The EEOC issued draft enforcement guidance on workplace harassment, and the EPA's enforcement arm said it will begin focusing more intently on climate change by increasing oversight of oil and gas facilities and landfills. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Public Justice, All Rise Trial & Appellate and Hunter Humphrey & Yavitz PLC lead this week's list of Law360 Legal Lions after the full Ninth Circuit handed a significant Title IX victory to a University of Arizona student who said a university football team member physically assaulted her.

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Mich. Panel Trims Ex-Prosecutor's Whistleblower Suit

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Michigan appellate panel significantly pared a former assistant county prosecutor's wrongful termination lawsuit Thursday but said the attorney could proceed on a single claim that she experienced retaliation for reporting what she believed to be an illegal plea deal.

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Eastman Not 'Special,' Judge Says In Expert Witness Flap

By Craig Clough

A California State Bar judge lectured John Eastman's attorney on Friday for attempting again to have a witness deemed an expert despite previous rejections, telling the attorney it's a basic rule being broken and Eastman won't get "special treatment" at his disbarment trial.

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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.

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