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IRS says Fedex owes $319 mln in back taxes
Lawyer News |
2007/12/22 15:06
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| Fedex Corp said on Friday that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service found that its FedEx Ground independent contractors should be reclassified as employees for tax purposes and that the company faced related taxes and penalties of more than $319 million for 2002. The IRS is auditing similar issues for 2004 through 2006, the package delivery company said in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Given the preliminary status of this matter, we cannot yet determine the amount or a reasonable range of potential loss. However, we do not believe that any loss is probable," Fedex said in the filing. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has asserted FedEx Ground workers are in fact employees and which is campaigning to unionize FedEx Ground drivers, welcomed the IRS decision. "It's game over for FedEx's independent contractor scam," union President Jim Hoffa said in a statement. The union said penalties against FedEx could eventually top $1 billion, since the current penalty only covers the year 2002. FedEx said that it has "strong defenses to the IRS's tentative assessment and will vigorously defend" its position that FedEx Ground's owner-operators are independent contractors. The filing came a day after Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx warned that it faces "increase regulatory and legal uncertainty" over the independent contractor model it uses at FedEx Ground, which could result in higher costs.. FedEx Ground uses 15,000 drivers who are paid as independent contractors. Under this system, FedEx Ground drivers can own multiple routes, employing other drivers to deliver packages. Investors like the model because it helps FedEx save money and compete against main rival United Parcel Service Inc and its unionized work force. |
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Bisnar Chase Makes Christmas Merry for Less Fortunate
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 19:05
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In spite of the busy holidays, the staff of personal injury law firm Bisnar Chase finds time to support two charity organizations in Orange County, Share Ourselves (SOS) and The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. SOS helps families who are homeless, the working poor or living at or near the poverty level. Toys for Tots provides new, unwrapped toys for children who come from disadvantaged families.
For SOS, staff members have adopted three nine-member families and have purchased holiday gifts for all. Then a few days before SOS needs the donations, the staff had a gift-wrapping party during their work day.
Bisnar Chase staff also manage the collection boxes for the Toys for Tots drive in their building, with the Orange County Bar Association serving as local coordinator for the Marines. The staff place three 55-gallon boxes throughout their office building and invite the other tenants of their building to donate new, unwrapped toys.
"My colleagues and I really enjoy making the holidays brighter for those less fortunate," says Danielle Olson, executive assistant at Bisnar Chase. "Supporting charity organizations like Share Ourselves and Toys for Tots by buying holiday gifts makes the holidays meaningful. And working at a place where we, ourselves, feel appreciated and respected, it's easy to give back."
Supporting a charity during the holidays is entirely a staff-driven effort, reflecting well on the firm's motto, "People over profits." They have been doing this for five years.
About SOS
For more than 35 years SOS has provided a safety net to those needing emergency assistance, for the homeless, working poor and those living at or near the poverty level.
About Toys for Tots
The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program collects new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distributes those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.
About Bisnar Chase
Bisnar Chase, LLP, is a California personal injury law firm that represents people who suffered catastrophic injuries that are mostly traffic-related. They specialize in auto defect cases against automobile makers such as Ford and General Motors. Bisnar Chase obtains millions of dollars annually in settlements and judgments for its clients. For more information, visit: www.auto-defect-attorneys.com, www.bisnar-chse.com and www.californiainjuryblog.com |
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Thompson Hine Grows Business Litigation Practice
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 17:59
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Russell Rogers has joined the Atlanta office of the law firm Thompson Hine LLP as a partner in the firm’s Business Litigation practice group. Prior to joining Thompson Hine, Mr. Rogers was a partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
Mr. Rogers’ practice will focus on product liability defense, commercial litigation—specifically insurance coverage litigation and litigation for financial institutions—and environmental law.
“We are pleased to have Russ as part of our growing Business Litigation practice,” says Jim Robenalt, Thompson Hine’s Business Litigation practice group leader. “His extensive experience will be a significant asset to the firm and its clients.”
“Russ’ addition to Thompson Hine’s Atlanta office allows us to continue to expand the breadth and depth of our services in the Atlanta market,” adds Walt Linscott, partner-in-charge of the Atlanta office.
Mr. Rogers received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Louisville. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.
About Thompson Hine LLP: Established in 1911, Thompson Hine is a business law firm dedicated to providing superior client service. For the last several years, the firm has been named one of the Best Corporate Law Firms in America (in an annual survey of corporate directors conducted by Corporate Board Member magazine). With more than 400 lawyers, Thompson Hine serves premier businesses worldwide. The firm has offices in Atlanta, Brussels, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, New York and Washington, D.C. For more information, go to www.ThompsonHine.com. |
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Pro-Life Law Firm Sues Oakland
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 17:55
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A pro-life law firm has filed suit against the city of Oakland for approving an expanded bubble zone that would keep abortion protesters and sidewalk counselors further away from abortion businesses. The Life Legal Defense Foundation filed suit on behalf of pro-life advocate Walter B. Hoye II to keep the city from enforcing the law.
The city council approved the 8-foot zone around the entrances to abortion facilities on Tuesday.
The new ordinance makes it unlawful, and punishable by up to one year in jail, to go within that distance of an abortion business unless heading there for an abortion. It applies to protesters as well as sidewalk counselors who help women with alternatives.
LLDF's suit maintains that the ordinance is a content and viewpoint-based restriction of speech and is unconstitutional.
Hoye regularly engages in pro-life counseling and leafleting at the Family Planning Specialists abortion center in Oakland. Two elderly women from his church often join him.
Hoye told the Oakland City Council that "We are not a threat to public safety and these women aren't even capable of harassing clinic clients."
Their activities include handing out leaflets, education about abortion and holding signs with a pro-life message. All of these activities occur on the public sidewalk.
Local attorney Mike Millen, who filed the lawsuit in conjunction with LLDF, talked about it in a statement sent to LifeNews.com.
"Rather than helping women, this ordinance prevents them from receiving valuable information about their developing baby and options which would let that baby live," he said.
Millen added, "It is sad that city leaders are spending time and money on laws that maximize revenue for the abortion industry at the expense of the health of women and babies."
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order blocking the ordinance.
City Attorney John Russo told the San Francisco Chronicle he thinks the lawsuit will fail and claimed it is about stopping harassment, not First Amendment rights.
"They can distribute literature in City Hall Plaza and on just about any street corner," Russo said. "What they cannot do is harass or intimidate women who are exercising their right to choose and right to privacy." |
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Chinese Law Firms Opening In The US
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 17:37
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For many years, U.S. law firms have been rushing into China, investing people and resources to help clients on the ground there.
Now, a Chinese firm is mimicking their strategy -- opening a representative office in the United States. This year, Guangzhou-based Alpha & Leader, with more than 60 lawyers, planted its flag in Los Angeles.
The firm is among a handful from China that have set up shop here -- such as King & Wood in Silicon Valley and Jun He in New York City -- likely harbingers as Chinese law firms mature and expand internationally.
"I think we're going to see more Chinese firms here -- they want to have a footprint here," said Robert Allan, the managing partner of Alpha & Leader's Los Angeles office.
For now, the advantages for Alpha of having its five-lawyer office here are mostly practical, he said. They also mirror what American firms say about opening in Asia: It's helpful to have someone based in the distant time zone, who literally speaks the client's language.
Allan is a Canadian-trained lawyer who has been a solo practitioner in the U.S. since 1985. In 2003, a client suggested that Allan meet one of the client's Chinese lawyers. Through an interpreter, he connected with Wesley Pan, now the senior partner in Alpha & Leader's China office. The two started working together under a loose alliance called the USA China Law Group. This summer, they formalized the relationship under the Alpha & Leader name, and Allan now devotes most of his time to the firm because, he says, the name says it all.
"We're first and first. You can't beat that."
He and Pan formed an alliance that resulted this summer in the L.A. representative office.
The firm targets much of its practice on a specialized niche: the purchase and sale of non-performing loans -- loans that are in or near default. As the Chinese government has transferred NPLs from state-owned banks to asset management companies over the past decade, it opened the door for foreign investors. Those foreign investors were looking to invest in China's development, but were limited by the Chinese government's currency restrictions and rules governing foreign ownership of property, Allan explained.
The legal work includes locating a loan, doing the due diligence on it, and handling the actual transaction. The firm's clients include Chinese banks and asset management companies as well as purchasers such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.
Allan said it was Pan who realized that a firm could find a lot of work in that specific area.
"Wesley's theory really struck me -- I thought it was an astute observation," Allan said.
Alpha & Leader has been involved in some aspect of more than 50 percent of the transactions involving non-performing loans in China, Allan said. Its competitors are other Chinese firms and American-trained lawyers such as Howard Chao, the head of O'Melveny & Myers' Asia practice.
But Chao said he wasn't familiar with Alpha, and dismissed the importance of a non-performing-loan practice for firms like his.
"The NPL practice in China has not blossomed the way some people thought it would," he said "The market for those deals has been decidedly smaller and local, domestic. There haven't been large-sized transactions anymore."
Chao attributes that, in part, to the policy of the Chinese government that encourages smaller, domestic bidders. There's so much liquidity in the Chinese domestic market that they don't need foreign investors in that sector, he said.
But, within China, Alpha & Leader is known as the go-to counsel on NPL portfolios, said Jinshu "John" Zhang, the head of the China practice at Greenberg Traurig, a firm that has sponsored Alpha attorneys to work in its L.A. office for a summer.
"In connection with the sale of NPL portfolios, they have worked with quite a few major I-banking houses," Zhang added. |
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Law Firm to Investigate MN Bridge Collapse
Lawyer Blog News |
2007/12/21 17:23
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The state legislature has hired a Minneapolis law firm to help in an investigation of the 35W bridge collapse, according to media reports.
The members of a joint bipartisan bridge investigation committee retained Minneapolis-based Gray Plant Mooty to serve as special counsel. The firm, which is being paid $500,000 to conduct its review, plans to issue a report of its finding in March.
Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, told Minnesota Pulic Radio Wednesday that the investigation aims to uncover why the bridge collapsed, and also how to prevent future transportation problems.
In addition to this and the official investigation from the The National Transportation Safety Board, a private firm is also examining the state's bridge inspection program, and the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor is scrutinizing MnDOT and its expenses. There are also several law firms that have launched similar investigations, MPR reported.
MnDOT is paying a Chicago-based firm that is working with the NTSB's probe $2 million to look into the collapse. Gov. Pawlenty has said that the firm would provide another set of eyes on the investigation.
However, the Star Tribune quoted state Sen. Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, who serves as Minority Leader, as saying the legislature's move would duplicate other investigations. |
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