Shawn O'Brien discusses conservation easement litigation trends in Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Law recently featured Shawn O’Brien’s insights on why conservation easement lawyers see reason for optimism even after taxpayers lost seven straight cases in federal courts, and on the IRS’s decision to establish a new office devoted solely to these disputes while abandoning its bulk settlement strategy.

Shawn said the IRS’s shift toward a new, dedicated office likely reflects the agency’s own read on the results of its prior settlement offers, noting the IRS probably wasn’t seeing the acceptance levels it expected. He also cautioned against reading too much into the government’s recent winning streak, explaining that the IRS tends to push cases with favorable facts toward a decision first, then use the resulting case law against other taxpayers still litigating their own disputes.