Special Counsel is a different kind of engagement. Here another attorney already leads the matter — a matrimonial litigator, a probate or trust litigator, a business-dispute lawyer, a trial attorney — and Donovan Legal is brought in for the subject-matter expertise the lead does not carry: tax, real estate, valuation, and the financial analysis that sits between them. The firm does not replace lead counsel, and it does not replace the forensic accountant. It fills the gap between them — the place where the tax, real estate, and valuation questions that quietly move a settlement too often go unexamined.
The firm’s combination of credentials is what makes the role possible: an attorney who is also a Certified Public Accountant, a licensed real estate broker, and a construction manager can read the numbers, the documents, and the law at once. Engagements are structured to support — not disturb — the existing attorney-client relationship, typically under a separate engagement that defines the firm’s limited, expert role.
In high-net-worth divorce, the matrimonial litigator runs the case and a forensic accountant builds the asset schedule — but tax sits in the gap between them, and it is routinely treated as an afterthought. It is not the forensic accountant’s role to opine on it and not the litigator’s competence, yet it can move the settlement materially. The firm steps in between the two to make tax a settlement variable rather than a surprise: the § 1041 treatment of interspousal transfers, the basis and built-in gain embedded in each asset, the genuine after-tax value of the marital residence versus a retirement account versus a closely-held business interest, the tax treatment of support, filing-status and dependency questions, and the tax consequences of dividing retirement assets. Where valuation is contested, the firm analyzes it from a tax-and-real-estate perspective alongside the forensic accountant.
Will and trust contests and fiduciary litigation are, beneath the procedural fight, disputes about valuation and tax. The firm serves as special counsel to probate and trust litigators on estate-tax exposure, the income taxation of estates and trusts, basis step-up, and the discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability that drive the value of closely-held and real-property interests in the estate. These are precisely the questions probate litigators are least equipped to carry alone, and they often determine what the parties are actually fighting over.
Partnership and shareholder disputes — buyouts, dissolutions, and oppression claims — settle on a number, and that number is a tax-and-valuation number. The firm advises litigation counsel on the after-tax value of each side’s position: the differing consequences of a redemption versus a cross-purchase, the partnership allocation rules of § 704(b) and § 704(c), built-in gain, and the allocation of entity debt. Understanding the real after-tax economics of the competing structures is frequently what unlocks a resolution.
In personal injury, wrongful death, employment, and commercial matters, trial counsel argues liability and damages — but the taxability and allocation of a recovery determine the client’s actual net, and that analysis is usually outside trial counsel’s focus. The firm advises on the tax treatment of settlements and judgments: the § 104 exclusions and the origin-of-the-claim doctrine that govern what is taxable, the allocation of a settlement among claims, the use of § 468B qualified settlement funds, structured-settlement taxation, and the treatment of attorney’s fees. Brought in before a settlement is finalized, the firm can materially improve the after-tax result.
Special Counsel engagements are structured to support existing lead counsel under a separate, limited engagement. To discuss bringing the firm in on a matter, use the contact page. The firm’s underlying capabilities are described under Tax and Real Estate.