Event Title: Confidential Settlements Under TheTax Code In The #Me Too Environment
Event Type: Society Session
Location:
Richard Collier’s office
Cooper, White & Cooper LLP
201 California Street, 17th Floor
San Francisco, CA
Presenter: Alan R. Berkowitz
Date: Thursday, June 14, 2018
Time: Noon to 1:30pm
Please provide your own lunch.
Presentation materials will be distributed by email to registered attendants prior to the event.
Description:
Mediator Alan R. Berkowitz (Judicate West) will lead a discussion of a new section of the Internal Revenue Code (which some are calling the “Weinstein tax”). Title 26 U. S. C. § 162 (q) states that “No deduction shall be allowed under this chapter for [] any settlement or payment related to sexual harassment or sexual abuse if such settlement or payment is subject to a nondisclosure agreement, or (2) attorney’s fees related to such a settlement or payment.” What new problems are presented for mediators in cases of this nature? What is a “nondisclosure agreement”? What about cases involving multiple claims including one based on sexual harassment or abuse? Does the new rule make it more difficult for defendants to consider resolving these claims in a mediation? What are the other consequences (intended or not) presented by this provision?
After 40 years as a leading domestic and international labor and employment litigator and part-time mediator, Alan Berkowitz retired as a partner from Bingham McCutchen to become a full-time Mediator. As a practicing labor and employment lawyer he tried over 50 cases in State and Federal courts and administrative agencies both on behalf of Defendants and Plaintiffs. As a mediator for the past 25 years Mr. Berkowitz has successfully resolved hundreds of cases involving all type of employment matters including discrimination, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, wage & hour class-actions (many of which were “seven to eight figure” settlements), PAGA and whistleblower cases. He has been profiled in by the Daily Journal as both a litigator (Death of a Salesmen’s Case, Verdicts and Settlements, Jan. 2001),and mediator ( Evaporating Emotions, Verdicts & Settlements, Jan. 24, 2014) and by the Recorder ( Bingham Partner Mixes representation with Mediation, Court Watch July 31, 2007).
Mr. Berkowitz is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has been listed as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” and a “Leading Labor and Employment Lawyer” by Chambers USA. In addition, he is listed as a Northern California “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics and San Francisco magazines and as one of the “Top Lawyers of Northern California” and one of “America’s Most Honored Professionals.” He has been nominated by his peers and selected as one of the world’s leading practitioners of international labor and employment law and has been listed in the international Who’s Who of Management, Labour and Employment Lawyers.
Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Berkowitz worked at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the Office of the General Counsel, Regional Advice Branch in Washington, D.C. and as a trial specialist and supervisory attorney in the NLRB’s Regional Office in San Francisco. He was appointed Regional Attorney of the Oakland Regional Office of the NLRB where, as the chief legal officer, he was responsible for managing a staff of 15-20 attorneys and a litigation calendar averaging 120 cases.
Before joining Bingham McCutchen (formerly McCutchen, Doyle Brown and Enerson) Mr. Berkowitz was a partner and managing partner in Schachter, Kristoff, Orenstein and Berkowitz, a leading labor and employment firm with offices in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Sacramento.