The Taxation Section has 1929 members (as of June 30 2011) and operates primarily through its ten Committees: Corporation Tax; Employee Benefits; Estate Planning, Exempt Organizations; Financial Products; International Tax; New Tax Practitioners; Pass–Throughs and Real Estate; State and Local Taxes; and Tax Audits and Litigation. The Steering Committee meets on a monthly basis. The Committee Chairs and Vice Chairs of all Committees attend every other Steering Committee meeting.
Consistent with past years, each Taxation Section Committee has continued to sponsor timely and informative educational programs for its respective membership. Each Committee has between 5 and 9 scheduled meetings each year. In total, the Taxation Section Committees expect to host approximately 64 luncheon programs during the 2011–2012 year on matters of current interest to tax practitioners. In addition, special luncheon programs may be scheduled to address important new developments.
The featured speakers at the programs are typically high–level government officials responsible for formulating federal and local tax policy. For that reason, the Section’s programs are regularly covered in the national tax press. Special admission rates are available for luncheon series subscribers in every category (e.g., non–Section members, Section members), for Government and nonprofit employees, and for law students. To increase participation by Government attorneys, the Taxation Section also has a no–charge “brown bag” option for Government employees. This affords our members greater access to Government attorneys and policy makers. A list of the dates of each Committee’s planned programs and details of a sample program for each is provided in Part I of Appendix A to this Report.
To assist our Committee Chairs and Cochairs in providing the best service to their members, the Steering Committee has developed a list of “Best Practices” that Committee Chairs and Vice–Chairs are asked to adopt. For example, all Committee Chairs are asked to make early program decisions, have written handouts prepared for each program, write thank–you letters or e–mails to speakers, give caveats if needed for government speakers, alert the tax press of important programs, and distribute flyers of upcoming events. In addition, Committee Chairs are asked to maintain separate e–mail lists for their respective Committee members so that program information can be sent to all Committee members on an expedited basis as necessary. This list is reviewed and updated as necessary.
An important Committee of the Taxation Section is our New Practitioners Committee. Last year, the New Practitioners Committee, as it had for several years, partnered with other substantive tax Committees to sponsor “back–to–basic” programs that focused on the basic rules of the particular tax specialty. In the spring of 2011, one program was in partnership with the Financial Products Committee and another was in partnership with the State and Local Taxes Committee, both of which were well attended. This year the Committee is partnering with the Law Practice Management Committee to sponsor a program on “Finding Jobs in Tax Law.” The program is intended to assist tax practitioners in their job searches, with advice keyed to several different career stages.
The Section held a lunch on June 7, 2011 at which Nina Olson, the IRS Taxpayer Advocate, spoke. The program was designed to appeal to tax practitioners generally and was a nice event for summer associates interested in tax. It was very well attended.
The Steering Committee is currently developing plans to host some type of membership reception as a thank you and networking event targeted for the spring of 2012, and also is considering other activities for the benefit of existing Section members and to attract new members to the Section.
The Taxation Section held three CLE programs in August and October of 2011 that are described in Part II of Appendix A to this Report. In addition, we continue to cosponsor a number of regularly recurring CLE classes with other Sections, and throughout the year we cosponsor various non–Taxation Section programs that might be relevant to our members’ practices in order to broaden the types of programs made available to our members.
The Taxation Section has an active community outreach component. As an ongoing activity, we help staff the Pro Bono Program’s monthly Advice and Referral Clinic with a tax lawyer. Our Section will participate as a cosponsor of the annual Youth Law Fair in the spring, and also supports the Community Economic Development Project of the Bar.
