The American Lawyer Names Caplin & Drysdale Global Legal Award Recipient for Swiss Tax Investigations

Caplin & Drysdale is pleased to announce that the firm was named a recipient of The American Lawyer's Global Legal Award for Global Dispute of the Year: Investigations, Swiss Tax Settlements.  "We are pleased to assist a number of Swiss banks in complying with the Department of Justice Swiss Bank Program, acting as lead U.S. counsel in each case," said Mark E. Matthews, a member of the firm's Tax Controversy team, "and in working with a small group of other U.S. law firms to resolve various Program-wide issues with the Justice Department that emerged in the process."  During these representations, Caplin & Drysdale worked with prominent Swiss law firms, Big 4 audit teams, and other professionals.  The firm also had several attorneys "on the ground" in Switzerland throughout the last two years. 

"In addition to addressing the issues relating to each bank's non-prosecution agreements, so much of the Program involved international tax matters, some of them quite technical," said Scott D. Michel, also of the Tax Controversy group and active in these representations.  "We were able to handle these issues by relying on the legal services offered by our colleagues in the firm's International Tax and Private Client groups in both our Washington, D.C., and New York City offices."   Caplin & Drysdale represents six separate Swiss financial institutions in the Department of Justice's program for Swiss banks announced on August 29, 2013.  The Program requires participating Swiss banks to provide detailed information about their business practices, U.S.-related accounts, and related matters to the DOJ's Tax Division in the context of negotiating a Non-Prosecution Agreement.  Bank clients include a listed public company's Swiss banking affiliate, a large Cantonal bank, and both large and small Swiss private banks. 

Matthews added, "We are privileged to receive this recognition from The American Lawyer for our substantial work in this area of the law."  The aim of the third annual Global Legal Awards is to honor law firms that played a substantial role in the most distinguished international work performed between January 1, 2014 and April 15, 2015.  Honorees will be recognized at the Global Legal Awards dinner on September 28, 2015 at Gotham Hall in New York City.

Caplin & Drysdale also represents hundreds of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom live all over the world, in compliance issues arising from unreported foreign bank accounts, foreign trusts, and foreign businesses.  The aggregate amounts of assets at issue in these cases exceed a billion dollars.