"Trial Skills: What to Say and How to Say It" by Robert J. Perry

Trial Skills: What to Say and How to Say It is a new book written by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry.  The book is 175 pages long, broken down into 28 easily-digested chapters.  Explained Judge Perry, “this book is short; because most trial lawyers are too busy to read a lengthy …

Fiduciary Personally Responsible for Tax Debt

A fiduciary’s liabilities can sometimes arise in unexpected contexts.  A recent decision involving an estate tax liability held that a fiduciary was personally liable for unpaid estate taxes. In Carroll v. United States, 2009-2 USTC ¶ 60,577 (N.D. Ala. 2009), the taxpayer was denied a bankruptcy discharge for unpaid estate taxes arising from the estate …

Contractual Basis for Fiduciary Duties

Some commentators view fiduciary duties through a contractual framework.  Judge Frank Easterbrook and Professor Fischel state, “The fiduciary principle is fundamentally a standard term in the contract.  Fiduciary duties are not special duties; they have no moral footing; they are the same sort of obligations, derived and enforced in the same way, as other contractual …

Mary Szto – Historical Review of Fiduciary Duties in an LLC – Part 3

This is the third part of a review of Mary Szto’s article, “Limited Liability Company Morality: Fiduciary Duties in Historical Context,” 23 Quinnipiac Law Review 61 (2004-2005).  This week we get to the heart of the matter – the case law summary. The author starts by explaining that, “In the Anglo-American tradition, principals of a …