Chasing the Dream: Sorting Fact and Myth Is Biggest Obstacle to Immigration Reform

May 1, 2012 9:50 AM CDT

Federal Jury Convicts Attorney and His Mom of Lying in Law Office Tax Case Launched By His Ex-Wife

After a five-week trial and two days of deliberation, a federal jury in Columbus has found an Ohio attorney and his mother guilty of lying to a grand jury in a law office tax case launched by his now ex-wife during a bitter divorce. Aristotle R. Matsa, 55, also was…

Apr 20, 2012 6:11 PM CDT

Federal Lawmakers Could Eliminate Tax Breaks on Retirement Savings in Effort to Balance Budget

Lawmakers looking to reduce the tax rate for upper-income Americans without breaking the federal budget are eying once-sacrosanct tax breaks on individual retirement savings as a possible cost-saving option. The topic was put on the table for the first time in a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Tuesday,…

Apr 18, 2012 7:44 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein a Guest on ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’

‘Can he make it?’ Nova Southeastern University School of Law professor James B. Levy is rooting for a young lawyer who started blogging as “hangshingles” at I Just Want to Practice Law … a few weeks ago. “He’s got $130K in educational debt and $3,500 in savings,” Levy wrote at…

Apr 6, 2012 1:35 PM CDT

Lawyer Forced to Represent Himself at Jury Trial in Tax Evasion Case Wins a Reversal on Appeal

The Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of a suspended Louisville attorney in a tax evasion case Friday and granted him a new trial because he had been forced to represent himself in his first trial. William Otto Ayers had handled his own defense in the Jefferson Circuit Court…

Mar 30, 2012 6:11 PM CDT

Attorney Witness in Obstruction Case Testifies He Pretended Friend’s Law Firm Was His Own

Although he had worked for his friend, Aristotle R. Matsa, in the past, George Pappas now admits he didn’t even have a key to the Matsa law office until 2004. But, to protect Matsa from losing the law in a divorce from his second wife, Pappas told the feds he…

Mar 29, 2012 8:00 PM CDT

2nd Lawyer Takes Plea in NJ Tax-Lien Bid-Rigging Case; Federal Probe Is Ongoing

A second lawyer has taken a plea in a federal case over alleged collusive bidding in sales of tax liens in New Jersey. Robert E. Rothman, 59, a lawyer and owner of Rothman Realty Corp. in Englewood, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Newark to bid-rigging at auctions between…

Mar 27, 2012 10:02 PM CDT

Day Two of Health Law Arguments: Focus Is on Congress’ Commerce Clause and Taxing Power

The U.S. Supreme Court will hold two hours of arguments today on the constitutional questions in the health care case. The issue is whether Congress had the authority to require most Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, according to the New York Times, ABAJournal.com and the Washington…

Mar 27, 2012 12:01 PM CDT

Justices Appear Likely to Decide Health Care Case Now Rather than Later

U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared likely to move on to the constitutional issues in the challenge to the Obama administration’s health care law as they considered arguments this morning that the case was brought too soon. An appointed lawyer, Robert Long of Covington & Burling, had argued that the case…

Mar 26, 2012 7:19 PM CDT

Where Do Lawyers Prepare for Health Care ‘Endurance Contest’? A Law School and Possibly a Lunchroom

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. will be squaring off against Paul Clement in health care arguments this week for the second time on health issues since November 2003, when Clement was deputy solicitor general. How are they preparing this time around? In the 2003 case, Verrilli, then a lawyer at…

Mar 26, 2012 1:14 PM CDT

Day One of Health Arguments Is ‘Boring Jurisdictional Stuff’; Which Justices Are in Play?

The U.S. Supreme Court begins three days of arguments today on the Obama administration’s health care law by considering whether the case was brought too soon. The law requires Americans to have health insurance by 2014 or to pay a penalty on April 2015 tax returns. The question for the…

Mar 26, 2012 12:33 PM CDT

Line for Health Care Arguments Started Friday Morning; Pouring Rain Adds to Ordeal

Waiting in line to view the U.S. Supreme Court’s health care arguments became more of an ordeal early Sunday when the rain began to pour. More than two dozen people who were lined up had to take shelter under ponchos and tarps because of a rule that bans tents. The…

Mar 26, 2012 11:46 AM CDT

Restaurateurs Who Pleaded Guilty in Tax Case Can Be Deported, Supreme Court Rules

A Japanese couple who ran a restaurant in California can be deported because of guilty pleas in a tax case involving underreported corporate income, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. Akio Kawashima and his wife, Fusako Kawashima, were ordered deported after Akio pleaded guilty to making a false tax return…

Feb 21, 2012 4:52 PM CST

Suspended Lawyer Is Hauled into Court, Admits She Lied About Legal Past to Get on Jury

A suspended lawyer who served on a jury that convicted a Jenkens & Gilchrist partner in a tax fraud case admitted on Wednesday that she hid her legal past.. Catherine Conrad testified after she was arrested, hauled into court and promised limited immunity, report the Wall Street Journal Law Blog…

Feb 16, 2012 1:32 PM CST

Ex-Juror in Tax Fraud Trial Is Arrested After Failing to Show Up for Hearing into Hidden Legal Past

A suspended lawyer who served on a Manhattan jury that convicted four tax-shelter fraud defendants was ordered arrested when she failed to show up today for a hearing into her alleged failure to disclose information during voir dire. One of the convicted defendants is lawyer Paul Daugerdas, who once headed…

Feb 15, 2012 7:42 PM CST