For a Tax Attorney, Sean Neill wrote:

Depends on what the attorney’s role is – planning or litigation?

If litigation, ask for references from local accountants. Based on my experience as a Canadian CA (think CPA but tougher and with more prestige), we generally only recommend tax lawyers who we’ve had some experience in the past and/or who’ve had some reasonable success in court or pre-settlement negotiations with the tax authority.

As far as understanding a strategy, I’ve never encounter any strategy appropriate to my clients (small business owners – sub 20 million in assets) that I couldn’t understand. If you are dealing with a large enough accounting firm to have pure tax specialists (that is all they do), then my own view is that if they can’t understand the strategy, it likely isn’t appropriate for you. My main caveat is that if you are truly in the very wealthy category (>50+ million), then some strategies might be so outre to be incomprehensible yet save you money even after all of the transaction costs and additional risk. This doesn’t represent my client base, so I go with if the seller can’t explain it to me and satisfy me that it works and fits the client’s risk tolerance, I recommend my client not proceed.

Eric Sidebotham wrote:

Chris, there are some really good answers here. The only thing I might add is that lawyers are really good at shopping other lawyers, since they are familar with qualifications, et cetera.

But it is ultimately a personal decision that the client must make. You should be confident in your lawyer’s ability to handle the specific legal issue. There is no guarantee, however, that any one lawyer will be able to win a case. Don’t forget to consider things like the fee–spending $1M to win a $1K case makes bad business sense.

I see that nobody has given you any recommendations. I have referred some very important clients of mine to some excellent tax attorneys (in Bay Area, CA), and also know some that are efficient on smaller matters. Contact me if you would like those referrals (note, if they are in the wrong area, they might be able to suggest some who is in your area). Good luck.

And here’s another cool Tax Attorney discovery resource from Johnson Hor:

Check them out:

1. Martindale.com (they have a peer review system)

2. State Bar Association to see if there were any complaints filed.
3. Talk to lawyers you trust (if you trust any)
4. Have they published articles – if so read them – do they make sense and are they in tune to what you seek.
5. Try to never find out when it’s too late.

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