Tax Alliance Conference 2013
Speakers*
*Subject to change.
Dan Baucum advises businesses and their owners in business planning, tax and estate planning. He also represents taxpayers in audits, IRS appeals, and in court. From 1988 until 1997 he served as a Special Assistant in the IRS Chief Counsel's Office in Washington, DC and Director of IRS Practice for Coopers & Lybrand, LLP, also in Washington. Mr. Baucum taught in the Graduate Tax law Program at Georgetown University's School of Law and currently teaches business and tax law at the Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Mr. Baucum speaks at continuing professional educations programs on business entities, tax planning and practice issues. Recent speaking engagements include the State Bar of Texas Advanced Tax Law Course, the Texas Society of CPAs, and the Dallas Bar Association's Tax Section. Mr. Baucum was selected one of five Go-To Lawyers in the tax law by the "Texas Lawyer" legal publication; an award, given only once every five years in 18 practice categories. He has been named by D Magazine as one of the best tax lawyers in Dallas and is rated "AV" Preeminent (5.0 out of 5.0) by Martindale Hubbell Legal Directory. He focuses his practice on business transactions and tax planning using limited liability companies, partnerships and other pass-through entities, estate and succession planning, and IRS controversies. Under the Taxes Disciplinary rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys he does not claim a specialty.
Bill Beckham has been employed with the Internal Revenue Service for 26 years. He began his career as a Revenue Officer in the Collection Division. In 2000, he became a Special Agent with Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. In 2012, he added a collateral duty as an Identity Theft Coordinator for the Dallas Field Office. He has worked several types of investigations while employed with the IRS including tax evasion, money laundering and identity theft. He is a 1986 graduate from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration.
Blaise C. Bender is a nationally recognized speaker on various tax, legal and accounting topics. A native of San Antonio, Blaise was a college professor for over twenty years. He received his BBA in Accounting and a Master's of Science in Finance from Texas A & M University. He also received a MPA in Taxation from UTSA and his Juris Doctor in Law from St. Mary's University. Professor Bender is a member of the State Bar of Texas and a licensed CPA. He also possesses over six years experience in public accounting working for three of the formerly "Big Six" accounting firms, Arthur Andersen & Co., Deloitte Touche, and Ernest and Young. Professor Bender was also a Controller, CFO and CEO in private industry. Blaise has been a licensed attorney since 1990 and a licensed CPA since 1992. Blaise was the President of the San Antonio Chapter of CPA's in 2006-2007 and past chairman of the Board of Providence High School in San Antonio. He is currently a member of the Texas Society of CPAs Legislative Advisory Committee which monitors Texas tax legislation. Blaise is also on the Supervisory Committee of San Antonio Federal Credit Union.
LG Brooks is an enrolled agent, the Senior Consultant of The Tax Practice, Inc., located in Dallas, Texas. LG has been in the field of taxation for more than 25 years and has been in practice full time since 1990. His areas of practice include Tax Representation, Tax Consulting, and Pre-Tax Court Litigation Support Services. LG continues to provide tax presentations for numerous tax & accounting societies and has made presentations at several Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Annual Tax Forums. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bishop College at Dallas, Texas in 1977, is a Fellow of the National Tax Practice Institute (NTPI) and is currently a faculty member of the National Tax Practice Institute (NTPI). LG is extremely proud and honored to be an Enrolled Agent. He may be reached at 972.223.4000.
Elizabeth A. Copeland - Elizabeth works on all matters pertaining to Federal and State income taxation, both planning and tax controversies. She has expertise in dealing with the Internal Revenue Service at the administrative appeals level and in litigation. Elizabeth focuses on assisting businesses in determining the types of entities that best suit their needs, from the perspectives of tax savings and operational efficiency. She also assists taxpayers with foreign account disclosures, employment tax issues and with criminal tax matters.
Elizabeth's representative experience includes securing the taxpayer victory in a major clothing company case; representing an individual in the U.S. Tax Court against the IRS Commissioner, winning government concessions after trial; representing a livestock company against the Commissioner securing a taxpayer victory and settling numerous U.S. Tax Court cases in favor of the taxpayer. Elizabeth has written many articles and made many presentations.
Laurel Cummings is the Director, Compliance Strategy & Policy, of the Internal Revenue Service Affordable Care Act office. She has over 35 years of experience across numerous leadership positions, including Local Taxpayer Advocate and Director of Immediate Intervention within the Office of Systemic Advocacy. In her current position, Laurel is responsible for Compliance Strategy development for various provisions of the ACA legislation.
C. Clinton Davis, Jr. practices law in the Dallas, Texas law firm of Krage & Janvey, L.L.P. He was licensed in Texas in 1982, has been Board Certified in Tax Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1988 and is a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas. He has also been licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in Texas since 1980 and as an attorney in Florida since 1980. Mr. Davis attended law school at Southern Methodist University and received his Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, in 1980. At SMU, Mr. Davis was selected to membership in the Order of the Coif, an honor society limited to graduates in the top 10% of the graduating class. Mr. Davis received his bachelor of science degree in accounting from Northwestern State University of Louisiana where he graduated first in his class. Mr. Davis is a frequent speaker at CPE programs and conferences. He is the author of the TSCPA programs Principles of LLC and Partnership Taxation: An Introduction to Subchapter K, Navigating the LLC and Partnership Allocation and Basis Minefield, and LLC and Partnership Taxation for the Sophisticated Practitioner. He is also a frequent speaker and moderator for the Accountants' Continuing Professional Education Network (sponsored by the TSCPA and other state CPA societies) on various topics including tax planning, choice of entity and partnerships. He has also been a speaker and moderator for CLE Options, a Network for CLE (sponsored by the State Bar of Texas) on partnership and LLC topics and has recorded an audio CLE course on understanding Section 704(b) for the State Bar of Texas Tax Section.
Tina R. Green is an attorney practicing in Texarkana, Texas. She is board certified in Estate Planning and Probate, Tax Law and Elder Law. Ms Green is a member of the counsel of Real Estate Probate and Trust Law; Texas Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; the Tax Section, State Bar of Texas Continuing Legal Education Committee; State Bar of Texas; State Bar of Arkansas; College of the State Bar; and Texas Academy of Probate and Trust Lawyers. She has served as the Secretary of the Texarkana Bar Association, Secretary and Treasurer of the Tax Section, State Bar of Texas and Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee as well as being Editor of the Texas Tax Lawyer. Along with her professional activities, she serves at the Director, Arkansas Community Foundation Board, Chair-Elect of the Executive Committee of the Economic Development Council for the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, and member of the First Baptist Church of Texarkana; Friends of the Foundation of Christus St. Michael and the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce. Tina has written a number of articles related to estate planning, probate, and estate taxes and has spoken at numerous continuing legal education programs.
Karen L. Hawkins is the Director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility. Prior to taking his position in April 2009, Hawkins was in private practice at the Oakland, California law firm of Taggart & Hawkins where she specialized in civil and criminal tax controversy cases for nearly 30 years. She has been a frequent speaker and writer on a variety of diverse tax law topics including; Innocent Spouse Relief, Attorney's Fees Awards; Collection Due Process; Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties; Tax Court Litigation; International Tax issues and Ethics in Tax Practice. Hawkins has a number of reported precedent-setting tax cases to her credit in the US Tax Court and ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hawkins earned her J.D. and MBA - Taxation degrees at Golden Gate university in San Francisco. She also holds a M.ED. from the University of California, Davis. Among her many honors and awards are: V. Judson Kelin Award from the California Bar's Taxation Section and the National Pro Bono Award from the ABA's Taxation Section.
Ira B. Shepard was a professor at the University of Houston Law Center from 1975 to 2011, where he is now an emeritus professor of law. Before that, he taught at the University of Georgia School of Law (1971-75); he was a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina Law School, 1980 - 81.
He received his baccalaureate degree from Harvard College in 1958 and his law degree from Harvard University in 1964, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He practiced in New York City with the firm of Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison from 1965 to 1971.
He was the Special Advisor to the Southern Federal Tax Institute from 1974 to 2010. He has chaired the Continuing Legal Education and Research Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section and the planning committee for the University of Texas Tax Conference, and has been president of the Wednesday Tax Forum and the council of the Houston Bar Association Tax Section. He is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.
He regularly speaks on recent tax developments at numerous tax institutes, including the University of Denver Tax Institute, the University of Texas Tax Conference, University of North Carolina Tax Institute, the American Institute on Federal Taxation, the Tax Alliance Conference, the Southern Federal Tax Institute, the Tennessee Federal Tax Institute, the Tulane Tax Institute, the Maryland Tax Institute, and the William and Mary Tax Conference. He also speaks regularly at programs sponsored by Tax Executives Institute, The American Petroleum Institute, the Houston Bar Association Tax Section, the Dallas Bar Association Tax Section, the State Bar of Texas, the Austin Tax Forum, the Austin Chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs, and the Wednesday Tax Forum. He has also lectured at the Virginia Tax Conference, the Great Lakes Federal Tax Institute, the University of Houston Law Foundation, the State Bar of Michigan Tax Section, the New Mexico Tax Conference, the New Mexico Tax Institute, the New Mexico Tax Symposium, the Alabama Tax Conference, the Kentucky Tax Institute, the Lewis & Clark Tax Institute, the Ohio [AICPA] Tax Institute, the Columbus (Ohio) Tax Institute, the NYU Tax Institute, and the Hawaii Tax Institute, as well as on programs sponsored by ALI-ABA, Practicing Law Institute, the IRS and the Federal Bar Association.
Jim Smith, CPA serves as Managing Director of Smith, Jackson, Boyer & Bovard PLLC, a Dallas based, full service Certified Public Accounting firm. In his forty-three years of professional experience, he has been engaged extensively in tax and financial planning consultations for closely held businesses and their owners and has worked with all forms of business organization. His experience has included mergers and acquisitions, capital sourcing, financial reporting and litigation services.
He has conducted seminars on tax and financial planning for the Dallas Chapter of the TSCPA and stock brokerage firms and life insurance companies, and on marketing and practice management for the TSCPA, the North Caroline Association of CPAs, the Arkansas Society of CPAs, the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs. He has conducted presentations on analyzing financial statements for the reporting staffs of the Dallas Morning News, Dallas business Journal, Wall Street Journal and San Antonio Express.
Mr. Smith is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a BBA in Accounting and Exonomics. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Texas and is a licensed Registered Investment Advisor.
Pat Sykes, EA in her 30th year with H&R Block and her 18th year as Director of the North Dallas H&R Block Premium office. She is a Certified Master Instructor for Block and speaks at various conferences and conventions. Pat is a graduate of Dallas Baptist University and serves as Treasurer of the Tax Alliance Conference of North Texas. She is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Brookhaven College School of Management.
Pat became an Enrolled Agent in 1993 and is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents, Texas Society of Enrolled Agents and Plano Area Enrolled Agents. She is a past recipient of the Charles R. Goodnight Memorial Award awarded by the Texas Society of Enrolled Agents.
Brooke Tetzlaff is a Special Agent with IRS Criminal Investigation (CI), in the Dallas Field Office located in Farmers Branch, TX. Tetzlaff became a Special Agent with IRS-CI in January 2006, and she currently serves as an ID Theft Coordinator for the field Office.
Tetzlaff is working on her second year as the ID Theft Coordinator for the field office. In this endeavor, she works with another coordinator on giving educational presentations throughout the year, tracks the leads which come in directly to the field office, tracks the progression of field office ID theft cases, assists on seizure projects for ID theft related monies which are still available for forfeiture, and investigates ID theft crimes. Previously she has taken on the collateral duty of Fraud Referral Coordinator for the Dallas field office. Prior to joining IRS-CI in 2006, Tetzlaff worked as a cost analyst in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. She obtained her Masters in Business Administration from Purdue University, and her undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Oklahoma State University.
Josh Ungerman specializes in tax controversies in addition to tax, business, estate and charitable planning. He has been involved with both domestic and international tax disputes in the United States Tax Court, the United States District Courts and the United States Circuit Courts. The tax matters in which Mr. Ungerman is involved are typically very complex from both a factual and legal perspective. These matters often require legal and accounting skills. Josh is also a CPA.
Mr. Ungerman has been quoted on tax and estate matters in Forbes, bloomberg, The BNA Daily Tax Report, and Tax Analysts - Tax Notes. The Chambers USA Guide describes Josh as "incredibly dedicated; He lives and breathes his client's problems." and futher reports, "If I knew somebody in a difficult position with the IRS, I'd definitely call Josh."
Prior to joining Meadows, Collier, Reed, Cousins, Crouch and Ungerman, LLP, Josh was a civil prosecutor for the Internal Revenue Service, Dallas District Counsel office.