Search results for

Canadian firm Torys has hired two tax partners and an associate from the defunct Andersen for its New York office. Gary Gartner and Jeffrey Scheine have joined the firm as partners while Pamela Petree has joined as an associate; all join from Andersen's New York office. Gartner was previously the head of Andersen's international tax practice in New York with responsibility for the northeast region of the US and Canada. He focuses on US federal income tax law affecting both foreign and domestic taxpayers with particular experience in US-Canada cross-border work. Scheine was previously in the transaction advisory services (M&A) group at Andersen while Petree had been working as an international tax manager at Andersen for five years.

White & Case, Feddersen has more than quadrupled its tax practice in the Czech Republic by hiring a team of 10 tax advisers from Andersen. The expansion will give White & Case 12 tax professionals in the Czech Republic, making it the largest department within a law firm in the country. Previously the firm had two associates practising tax.

According to the recent ruling in the Morgan Grenfell case, the UK revenue authorities do not have the power to access legally privileged documents. Mark Kingstone and Dominic Winter, Linklaters, London report on the decision

The European Commission has declared the US exclusions from protectionist steel measures ?manifestly insufficient'. At the time of going to press the European Commission was due to present its recommendations on short-term countermeasures against the US to the general affairs council on July 19 2002. The short list of punitive tariffs amounts to $380 million and was set to be discussed by the council on July 22 2002. The US steel safeguards introduced in June this year, affected E2.3 billion ($2.1 billion) of EU steel exports. The US exclusions only cover some 333,000 tonnes, which the EU estimates, is only around a tenth of exports. The EU claims that the US safeguards are damaging the US economy by creating artificially high prices as well as affecting foreign exporters. It is also fully expecting the WTO to condemn the measures next year.

Scotia Plaza, 40 King Street West

Allen & Overy has lost its head of tax in the US to rival Baker & McKenzie. Robert DeJoy has joined the New York office of Baker & McKenzie as a tax partner focusing on international planning, controversy and transaction work. Dejoy was a senior tax partner in the New York office of Arnold & Porter before joining Allen & Overy two years, ago. He has been approached by Baker & McKenzie several times over the last few years, but decided this year that his practice warranted a more extensive international network than available at Allen & Overy. Serious discussions between Dejoy and Baker & McKenzie were underway for three or four months before Dejoy joined the firm.

90 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Trevor James UK firm Bird & Bird has gone on a recruitment spree, poaching lateral hires in the UK and France. In the UK the firm has lured the former City head of tax at DLA to its London office. Trevor James joined the firm on July 1 after seven years at DLA. His recruitment follows the establishment of a tax team in Paris in June with a group of Andersen Legal lawyers, and earlier this year the firm also set up a tax practice in the Hague with another Andersen team. There is also a new office in Germany staffed with ex-Andersen employees, and it is likely that there will be further expansion of the tax practice.

Until recently, the Mexican income tax law permitted a transfer of shares during the restructuring of companies belonging to the same interest group at a value other than the value that would be used by independent parties in comparable operations. This rule applied as long as the price was not below the tax cost of the shares, and it was necessary to comply with certain requirements and secure approval from the tax authorities prior to carrying out such a restructuring.

Werksmans, the South African law firm, is strengthening its tax group with two lateral hires, including the former national chairman of Grant Thornton