Jeremy Babener

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I’m a tax lawyer who originally planned to be a trial lawyer. Now I serve as Tax and Settlement Counsel to plaintiff firms, focusing on settlement language and arrangements that plaintiffs use to keep far more of their winnings.

As an aspiring trial lawyer at NYU Law I clerked in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Tort Claims Act Section. Everything changed when NYU cancelled my 2L Evidence Course and I switched to a Tax Policy Course. In it I wrote my Law Review Article on a critical plaintiff tax issue raised during my clerkship: the strategic use of Qualified Settlement Funds. To do so I interviewed plaintiff lawyers and advisors across the country, many of whom later became my clients.

I obtained my Tax LL.M at NYU Law and then served as a Fellow in the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy. While at the Treasury I focused on plaintiff tax issues in addition to transactional, trust, and international taxation, which would later help me vet and build arrangements used at settlement today.

After my time at the Treasury I joined a Northwest Law Firm and focused my practice on plaintiff and plaintiff firm taxation. I now serve on the ABA TIPS Plaintiffs’ Practice Committee and Chair the Society of Settlement Planners’ Legal Committee. I write and speak on the subject in a Forbes Column, for trial lawyer audiences, and on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC.

Through my law firm Structured Legal I advise plaintiffs and plaintiff firms. Through my consulting firm Structured Consulting I build new settlement arrangements with trust companies, insurance companies, and other financial institutions.

Using my past experience advising nonprofits I worked with other plaintiff supporters to build the Plaintiff Fund, a 501(c)(3) charity that allows plaintiffs to raise medical funds from their community without losing government benefits.

Tax & Ethics at Settlement

An extra sentence in the settlement agreement can dramatically increase what a plaintiff keeps. Even in tax-free cases you can save your client from significant taxes – for example, by preserving millions in future medical expenses deductions, or by securing valuable tax subsidies.

This is a presentation for trial lawyers, not financial advisors. How can you issue-spot for tax opportunities (and risks) at settlement? And what steps can you take at engagement to protect you and your client from missing them?

The settlement agreement is your best tax tool. You can force the IRS to bear the burden of proof on audit. You can dramatically reduce the risk of audit. And you can memorialize facts needed to secure tax benefits.

To do so we’ll discuss how to spot potential taxation before signing and flag opportunities to avoid it. We walk through the use of the settlement agreement to effect and protect tax-saving strategies.

We’ll also walk through tax-subsidized and tax-advantaged arrangements. Each “solution” solves a unique problem. What is the “plaintiff double tax”? How can you avoid it? How can you settle while still preserving structured settlement options?

Lastly, we’ll cover the plaintiff firm’s ethical obligations on tax and financial issues. What if you don’t spot these issues? Can you exclude them from your scope of representation? What should you know when referring clients to settlement advisors?

No one expects you to become a tax lawyer. But your team may be in the best position to spot tax opportunities and risks. We’ll walk through what to watch for.