FOR FAMILY LAW ATTORNEYS

Your engagement letter says the firm does not provide tax advice. That is correct, and it is the right position under the competence rule.

It also means that in a matter where tax may be the largest single variable in the division, nobody on the team is engaged to examine it. The client still lives with the consequence, and the consequence lands on your settlement.

WHAT THE ENGAGEMENT LOOKS LIKE

• Separate engagement, limited scope. The firm is engaged either by you or directly by the client, under a scope defined to the tax questions. Lead counsel is unchanged.
• Behind you, not beside you. The firm does not appear, does not communicate with the other side unless you ask, and does not take any part of the case.
• Early is cheaper. The most useful point is when the asset schedule is first assembled, before offers are exchanged. A review at that stage is a fraction of the cost of unwinding an assumption later.
• Discrete questions are welcome. Not every matter needs a full engagement. Many need one question answered.

WHERE IT USUALLY HELPS

• Repricing the schedule on an after-tax basis so the division is actually equal
• Testing a tax consequence asserted by the other side
• Closely held business interests, partnership basis, and the structure of a buyout
• Foreign trusts, offshore holdings, and non-US pensions
• Retirement and deferred compensation, and reviewing QDRO language before entry
• Joint-return exposure and whether section 6015 relief is realistically available

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

The engagement is structured to support the existing attorney-client relationship rather than disturb it. Conflicts are screened before any work begins. Where the firm is engaged by counsel rather than by the client, communications are structured so that privilege is preserved to the extent the law allows.

The firm does not solicit your client and does not accept the underlying matrimonial matter. That is stated in the engagement.

CREDENTIALS

Paul K. Donovan is an attorney and a Certified Public Accountant, admitted in Florida and Massachusetts, and before the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He is also a licensed Massachusetts real estate broker with a construction management certificate — relevant where the marital estate holds real property.

Further detail on the attorney profile.