Tax Impact of The Inflation Reduction Act

LaVonne D. Lawson is Counsel with Leech Tishman and a member of the firm’s Tax Group as well as the Estates & Trusts Practice Group. LaVonne counsels small businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups, as well as large businesses and established companies, in state, federal, and international tax matters. She focuses her practice on tax reporting and compliance, tax controversy and litigation, and estate planning.

LaVonne previously served as a Senior Attorney with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Office of Chief Counsel, where she counseled revenue agents and revenue officers, represented the IRS in the U.S. Tax Court, and advised Department of Justice Attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorneys in tax cases outside of the Tax Court.

LaVonne regularly counsels clients on numerous statutes and regulations regarding substantive and procedural tax issues. She has significant experience representing clients in a variety of federal and California state tax controversy and litigation matters.

LaVonne also has experience advising clients on international tax reporting and compliance, and assists businesses and individuals in compliance matters involving offshore assets and account reporting.

Prior to joining Leech Tishman, LaVonne was owner of the Law Office of LaVonne Lawson, where she represented businesses and individuals in federal and California state tax matters.

Michele Leichtman Weiss is a Principal at Holtz, Slavett & Drabkin. She has over 20 years of experience in tax controversy and litigation matters. Michele helps her clients resolve their civil and criminal tax matters. She represents her clients in all aspects of tax controversy, in examinations, appeals and collection matters, at the administrative level and in litigation with federal, state and local tax authorities including the IRS, FTB, California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), EDD, Board of Equalization, Office of Tax Appeals (OTA), the County Assessor and LA City Finance Office. Michele has expertise in many substantive and procedural tax issues including tax penalty abatement, conservation easement deductions, offshore disclosure matters, employment tax matters, sales tax audits, research and development credits, collection due process and non-profit matters. Michele handles property tax matters in all California counties including special assessments, escape assessments, change in ownership issues and property tax appeal representation.

Philipp Behrendt is licensed in California as well as in Germany and assists in advising clients in civil and criminal tax controversies as well as international money laundering investigations stemming from tax avoidance structures.  He also focuses on the technical aspects involved in advising voluntary disclosures in connection with DeFis, NFTs, and other crypto assets.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Behrendt worked for more than 5 years for a leading German tax firm, where he focused on representing wealthy individuals and companies in global tax settings, cross-border investigations and audit matters, as well as tax compliance issues arising from internationally functioning matrix structures.  Mr. Behrendt obtained experience in  handling complex voluntary disclosure issues for U.S. and other international companies, representing clients in German tax and criminal courts as well as in international money laundering investigations stemming from tax avoidance structures of the client’s business partners and customers. He has worked with client tax teams throughout Europe, the US as well as in the Arabic region. 

Mr. Behrendt is an LL.M. graduate of the University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law, an LL.M. graduate of the University of Osnabrueck (Germany) as well as holds a law degree from the University of Greifswald (Germany).