Cooley is a hugely exciting place to be. The London office opened at the beginning of the year with a significant number of lawyers and it has continued to grow since then. Cooley’s unique culture of creativity and collaboration (driven by its San Francisco Bay Area roots) is apparent in London and in interactions with the global offices. There is a focus on teamwork and working across practice groups and geographies, in order to provide the clients with the best possible service.
What’s in your in-tray?
I have been at Cooley only a short time but I already have a healthy mix of domestic and cross-border M&A, venture capital transactions, equity capital markets related work and international tax planning in my in-tray. My focus will be on building up the tax practice in the London office of Cooley, exploiting opportunities and working with colleagues in our global offices to provide integrated tax advice to clients.
What caught your eye in the Autumn Statement?
The announcement that the government will consider bringing forward legislation to amend the changes made by the Finance Act 2015 to entrepreneurs’ relief (which restricted entrepreneurs’ relief on associated disposals and on joint ventures and partnerships), ‘in order to support businesses by ensuring that the relief is available on certain genuine commercial transactions’. There are too many changes made to tax law with a stated intention but which go much further than that intention in the enacted form, often because there has been no prior consultation and no time to properly scrutinise the draft legislation through the parliamentary process to ensure there are no unintended consequences.
If you could make one change to UK tax law or practice, what would it be?
Publication of HMRC clearance letters (in redacted form) which reflect HMRC’s interpretation of legislation or its practice. Such interpretation and practice will often not make their way into the manuals or another published form for a long time and this can result in an uneven playing field for taxpayers.
Looking back on your career to date, what key lesson have you learned?
Before answering a question from a client or colleague or providing advice, make sure you have a full understanding of the facts and commercial drivers. Don’t allow yourself to be rushed into giving the answer or advice where time is required due to the complexity. Be practical.
Aside from your immediate colleagues, whom in tax do you most admire?
Philip Baker QC. He lectured my LLM international tax module at the University of London. He occupies a unique position in the world of international tax.
What are your thoughts on the proposed taxation of performance linked rewards paid to asset managers?
I understand that the government is likely to adopt ‘option 2’ to determine whether the activities of the fund are investment or trading, so the test will be an objective test based on the average holding period of fund investments. Although this approach may be preferable to ‘option 1’, it is a very blunt instrument and is conceptually hard to accept for a seasoned tax lawyer. Funds will often intend to hold investments for the long term but market conditions dictate a change of approach part way through the holding period; now this may result in income treatment for fund managers. A further concern is that HMRC will seek to use this test in other circumstances.
Tell us a secret.
The day I qualified as a solicitor my father sent a singagram to the office. It was a mortifying experience at the time but a fun story to tell now!
Cooley is a hugely exciting place to be. The London office opened at the beginning of the year with a significant number of lawyers and it has continued to grow since then. Cooley’s unique culture of creativity and collaboration (driven by its San Francisco Bay Area roots) is apparent in London and in interactions with the global offices. There is a focus on teamwork and working across practice groups and geographies, in order to provide the clients with the best possible service.
What’s in your in-tray?
I have been at Cooley only a short time but I already have a healthy mix of domestic and cross-border M&A, venture capital transactions, equity capital markets related work and international tax planning in my in-tray. My focus will be on building up the tax practice in the London office of Cooley, exploiting opportunities and working with colleagues in our global offices to provide integrated tax advice to clients.
What caught your eye in the Autumn Statement?
The announcement that the government will consider bringing forward legislation to amend the changes made by the Finance Act 2015 to entrepreneurs’ relief (which restricted entrepreneurs’ relief on associated disposals and on joint ventures and partnerships), ‘in order to support businesses by ensuring that the relief is available on certain genuine commercial transactions’. There are too many changes made to tax law with a stated intention but which go much further than that intention in the enacted form, often because there has been no prior consultation and no time to properly scrutinise the draft legislation through the parliamentary process to ensure there are no unintended consequences.
If you could make one change to UK tax law or practice, what would it be?
Publication of HMRC clearance letters (in redacted form) which reflect HMRC’s interpretation of legislation or its practice. Such interpretation and practice will often not make their way into the manuals or another published form for a long time and this can result in an uneven playing field for taxpayers.
Looking back on your career to date, what key lesson have you learned?
Before answering a question from a client or colleague or providing advice, make sure you have a full understanding of the facts and commercial drivers. Don’t allow yourself to be rushed into giving the answer or advice where time is required due to the complexity. Be practical.
Aside from your immediate colleagues, whom in tax do you most admire?
Philip Baker QC. He lectured my LLM international tax module at the University of London. He occupies a unique position in the world of international tax.
What are your thoughts on the proposed taxation of performance linked rewards paid to asset managers?
I understand that the government is likely to adopt ‘option 2’ to determine whether the activities of the fund are investment or trading, so the test will be an objective test based on the average holding period of fund investments. Although this approach may be preferable to ‘option 1’, it is a very blunt instrument and is conceptually hard to accept for a seasoned tax lawyer. Funds will often intend to hold investments for the long term but market conditions dictate a change of approach part way through the holding period; now this may result in income treatment for fund managers. A further concern is that HMRC will seek to use this test in other circumstances.
Tell us a secret.
The day I qualified as a solicitor my father sent a singagram to the office. It was a mortifying experience at the time but a fun story to tell now!
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