Member Highlights

Manila, Philippines

Zambrano and Gruba Law Offices are included in the Tax Directors Handbook 2008, an international publication which analyzes the tax capabilities of law firms worldwide.  The firm is one of only 16 law firms ranked in the Philippines.  Zambrano and Gruba was cited for its core expertise on advising domestic and international clients in tax claims, securing tax refunds and tax structuring of corporate transactions.

São Paulo, Brazil

Lacaz Martins, Halembeck, Pereira Neto, Gurevich & Schoueri was awarded "Tax Litigation Firm of the Year in Brazil", by the magazine International Tax Review. According to International Tax Review, Lacaz Martins, Halembeck, Pereira Neto, Gurevich & Schoueri Advogados" has earned an excellent reputation in tax controversy. Luis Eduardo Schoueri is particularly well known for his advocacy for transfer pricing clients before the Conselho de Contribuintes (special federal administrative tax court) while Ricardo Lacaz Martins, also a name partner, is another well-known contentious tax lawyer at the firm".

Beijing, China

Three partners from RayYin and Partners PRC Lawyers participated in a panel discussion with US Law Practice Management Professional Delegation lead by the previous chair of American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section in Beijing.

The EU Delegation is in the process of formulating a Clean Energy Center in China. Mr. Yi Zhou from RayYin and Partners PRC Lawyers has been engaged as the expert to design the legal framework involved for establishing such a center.

Detroit, Michigan, USA

When can the government give financial aid directly to a church, and avoid violating the First Amendment's requirement that government shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion? This legal issue was the subject of a federal case successfully concluded by Kotz, Sangster, Wysocki and Berg, P.C. in Detroit, Michigan. Summary judgment (with limited exceptions) was achieved on behalf of the City of Detroit Downtown Development Authority (“DDA”) by Rick Berg with the assistance of Jeff Sangster and Kevin Clark, in a case the U.S. District Court agreed was one of first impression.

The DDA contracted to provide façade and parking lot improvement grants to property owners in the downtown district. Three of the 91 successful applicants were churches, and the DDA signed contracts with the churches authorizing reimbursement of up to $150,000 per project (the churches had nine façade and parking projects among them). Projects conformed to strict guidelines, which limited construction to exterior building improvements and parking lots, which needed facelifts prior to baseball's All Star Game hosted in 2005, and the Superbowl hosted in 2006. The American Atheists Society filed suit to challenge the DDA's payment of the reimbursement grants, on the basis that payment violated the Constitution's requirement of separation between church and state. The DDA withheld payment to the churches (who had fully funded the improvements and incurred bank debt in reliance on the DDA grant contracts) until the court ruled.

Central to the debate was the “pervasively sectarian doctrine”, which the U.S. Supreme Court implicitly abandoned in its Mitchell v. Helms decision in 2000. That doctrine holds that some institutions are so religious, no government aid can be provided, however, no U.S. Supreme Court case has applied this doctrine in 20 years. In a published opinion, the district court agreed with the DDA's position that the façade grants were in the nature of neutral government aid, more akin to police protection, or aid to hurricane victims, than it was aid that could “advance religion”. No funds were used for religious purposes, and therefore the grants were constitutional (with exceptions representing 3% of the total grants). As of this writing, the time for filing notice of appeal had not expired, though the Atheists motion for reconsideration has been denied.

New York City, New York, USA

Richard Ciacci of Todtman, Nachamie, Spizz & Johns, P.C. represented the plaintiffs in a case with a significant decision involving attorney-client privilege, which was noted in the New York Law Journal. “A federal judge in Manhattan has cited the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege in ordering a lawyer to testify about work he performed for a group of stock-fraud defendants,” according to the New York Law Journal. The defendants, Defense Technology Services, were found to have misrepresented themselves to their attorney, which provided “probable cause to indicate they were concealing criminal activity through the use of attorney-client privilege.”

Zurich, Switzerland

For the second year in a row, The Legal500, the leading guide to commercial law firms, ranked Grüninger Hunziker & Roth Rechtsanwälte among the top Swiss law firms in the areas of Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate and Commercial Law, Dispute Resolution, Insolvency and Corporate Recovery, Intellectual Property, Mergers and Acquisitions and Tax. The Legal500 states that the partners of the firm “are recommended for their complete dedication, on-spot, and profound knowledge.” The editorial is based on thorough research and the combined opinion of peers and clients.

New to the LAW Family

Bernini, son of Beijing, China LAW members Hao Wang and Yi Zhou

Brendan, son of Darwin, Australia LAW member Leon Loganathan and his wife Cynthia Loganathan