Publications
One of the challenges facing owners of closely held businesses is how to preserve their business legacy in the event of their death. The federal estate tax, which applies to estates exceeding $13.61 million in 2024, can pose a significant financial burden on the heirs of business owners, especially if the estate (i.e., the taxpayer) […]
What happened? Effective July 23, 2024, all U.S. banks, insurers, SEC broker/dealers, securities or commodities broker/dealers, investment bankers, investment companies, currency exchanges and certain other entities designated as “financial institutions” must report to the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), no later than August 2, 2024 or within 10 days of detection, […]
On July 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued critical new guidance (“the Guidance”) aimed at enhancing due diligence to prevent the diversion of Common High Priority List (“CHPL”) items to Russia. [1] A list of the CHPL items can be found on the BIS website. [2] Most […]
On July 15, 2024, Partner Paul Tuchmann authored the article titled, “‘Fraud in the Inducement’: Is It ‘Right To Control’ by Another Name, Or Is It Wire Fraud?” for the New York Law Journal. In the article, Paul discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to hear an appeal of the Third Circuit’s decision in Kousisis v. […]
In a previous Wiggin and Dana LLP advisory, we addressed what constitutes a “foreign trust” under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).[1] We now explore the tax consequences of a foreign trust, as well as the differences between a foreign grantor trust and a foreign non-grantor trust. There are many benefits of having an individual who […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Like the Court, itself, we’ll close out OT23 with Trump v. United States (No. 23-939), a highly consequential (and arguably consequentialist) decision on presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. As you all know by now, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision authored by the Chief Justice (with important concurring opinions by Justice […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Nine closed out OT23 with their so-called “clean-up conference” last Tuesday, issuing multiple GVRs in cases controlled by recent opinions and granting cert in five new cases for OT24. We’ll attend to some clean-up of our own with this penultimate Update of the term, covering three decisions that were somewhat obscured […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with the nightcap of today’s doubleheader, consisting of summaries of Moody v. NetChoice (No. 22-277), an important First Amendment case that turned into an important case on facial constitutional challenges; City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson (No. 23-175), in which the Court concluded that many western cities’ “camping bans” […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Last fall, if you asked commentators what OT23 was going to be about, chances are they would have said “the administrative state.” But things took a bit of a turn when circumstances in the lower courts conspired to fill out the Court’s docket with high-profile (and practically unavoidable) cases on Trump, abortion, […]
Greetings, Court Fans! In Murthy v. Missouri (No. 23-411) and Moyle v. United States (No. 23-726), Justice Barrett cemented her new role as the leader of a Coalition of the Unwilling (to adjudicate on the merits), joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan (and sometimes Jackson) on the left and the Chief and Justice Kavanaugh on […]
Greetings, Court Fans! This morning, the Court issued the final three decisions of OT23: In Trump v. United States (No. 23-939), a 6-3 Court held that a former President enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority and has at least presumptive immunity for all official acts. That […]
In a recent precedential en banc opinion, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) overruled the existing framework for analyzing obviousness in design patents. See, LKQ Corporation, Keystone Automotive Industries, Inc. v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC, No. 2021-2348 (Fed. Cir., May 21, 2024). The CAFC reasoned that the current framework for evaluating […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Today, on what we now know is the penultimate day of the term, the Court issued three opinions, all of which are both big and split 6-3 on (mostly) ideological lines: In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (No. 22-451), decided along with Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce (No. 22-1219), the Court […]
August 1, 2024 (Update): The following client alert was published in Westlaw Today. To read the publication, click here. Our previous client alert on May 22, 2024, discussed the passage of Public Act No. 24-76, which was signed by Governor Lamont on May 11, 2024. This second advisory addresses the three other public acts that […]
On June 26, 2024, Partner David Hall and Associate Christopher Bailes authored the article titled, “DOJ’s Indictments of Congressional Members Signals Evolving Strategy to Fight Public Corruption” for the Legal Intelligencer. David and Christopher discuss the Department of Justice’s decision to charge two sitting members of Congress with violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued four significant decisions this morning: Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. (No. 23-124), holding (5-4, with an interesting “horseshoe” alignment) that the Bankruptcy Code does not authorize nonconsensual releases of claims against nondebtors, thereby scuttling a bankruptcy plan that would have released claims against the Sackler family in exchange for […]
Greetings, Court Fans! With fourteen cases left to decide as of yesterday (give or take, depending on which, if any, are consolidated), we were expecting quite a few opinion announcements this morning. Instead, we got just two: Murthy v. Missouri (No. 23-411), holding that plaintiffs—individual social-media users and the states of Louisiana and Missouri—lacked standing […]
Greetings, Court Fans! While we await the Court’s issuance of more decisions on Wednesday, we have four recaps of cases decided in the last week or so: Moore v. United States (No. 22-800), in which a 7-2 Court held that a one-time repatriation tax was not an unconstitutional “direct” tax. Diaz v. United States (No. […]
In what undoubtedly is welcome news to trustees of Connecticut irrevocable trusts, effective January 1, 2025, Connecticut will join the growing list of states that specifically authorize “decanting” the assets of an otherwise irrevocable trust into a new trust with improved terms. While most Connecticut practitioners believe that decanting has always been available under Connecticut […]
Greetings, Court Fans! This morning, the Court announced five decisions, all of which are heavily divided, at least as to the analysis: United States v. Rahimi (No. 22-915), an 8-1 decision written by the Chief Justice, holding that the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit a person who has been found to pose a […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re now at the business end of the Supreme Court’s term, with 23 decisions (and the majority of the most-watched cases) to be decided likely by next Friday. The Court made some headway on that today, issuing four opinions: In Moore v. United States (No. 22-800), a 7-2 Court held that a […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Yesterday, the Court announced three opinions, including one that’s already making headlines: In FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (No. 23-235), a unanimous Court held that a group of emergency-room doctors and medical associations lacked standing to challenge the FDA’s expanded approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, thereby vacating a lower-court injunction […]
In a recent opinion, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that life-insurance proceeds from a policy owned by a closely held business on the life of one of its owners must be factored into the valuation of the business for estate tax purposes when the insured owner dies. This ruling has important implications for […]
On June 10, 2024, Law.com published Partner Paul Tuchmann‘s article titled, “Second Circuit Holds No Special Standard for Charging Campaign Contributions As Bribes”. In the article, Paul discusses the Second Circuit’s recent ruling in the bribery case against former New York Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin that there is no heightened quid bro quo standard in […]
On June 10, the Spring 2024 issue of the Franchise Law Journal, Volume 43 Number 2 was published, where Litigation Partner John Doroghazi is Editor-in-Chief. The Franchise Law Journal is published by the American Bar Association Forum of Franchising. In his editorial, John discusses attending the Annual Forum on Franchising and how the event builds relationships within the franchise bar and […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Yesterday, the Court issued three decisions that, while not likely to get a lot of media attention, were closely watched by lawyers in the insurance, bankruptcy, trusts and estates, and Indian law sectors: In Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. (No. 22-1079), a unanimous Court held that an insurer with financial […]
Like individuals, trusts are subject to income tax by the federal government and a majority of states. If a trust is characterized as a “grantor” trust, then its income is reported by the grantor thereof, who is usually the trust creator, and taxed as if earned by the grantor individually. If the trust is characterized […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back to summarize three more of the decisions the Court has issued in the last few weeks: Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP (No. 22-807), A 6-3 decision holding that a three-judge District Court clearly erred in finding that race predominated in South Carolina’s redrawing of the boundaries for […]
Greetings, Court Fans! It’s the First Monday of June, meaning the Court’s about to step on the gas with respect to decisions. Despite the Court’s somewhat lethargic output to date, we’ve still managed to find ourselves buried beneath a pile of decisions. Here’s a quick run-down, beginning with the most recently decided: In Cantero v. […]
On May 24, 2024, Partner Kate Cassidy and Counsel Anjali Dala authored the article titled, “AI Litigation Spotlight: ‘NYT v. OpenAI’” for the New York Law Journal. Kate and Anjali discuss New York Times Co. v. Microsoft, No. 1:23-cv-11195 (S.D.N.Y), one of the strongest copyright case challenging generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to date. Kate and Anjali summarize […]