Jeffrey Trossman
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Jeffrey Trossman is a Partner in the Blakes Tax Group. His practice focuses on all aspects of income tax planning, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, corporate financing transactions, private equity, international taxation and the taxation of income trusts, mutual funds and other investment vehicles.
Jeffrey has acted for a wide variety of public and private companies. He also has experience representing taxpayers at all levels in the tax appeal process under federal and provincial taxation statutes.
Jeffrey has written and spoken widely in the tax area. He has authored articles published by the Canadian Tax Foundation, Osgoode Hall Law School and in the International Tax Review. He is an active member of the International Fiscal Association and the Canadian Tax Foundation. He is a member of the faculty for the 2007 and 2008 Institutes on Tax Aspects of Mergers & Acquisitions and is also a country reporter for Canada at the 2008 Congress of the International Fiscal Association to be held in Brussels. He is also a member of the Committee on Taxation of Business Entities of the New York City Bar.
Jeffrey has been recognized as a leading tax practitioner in Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World's Leading Tax Advisers 2007, PLC Cross-border Tax on Corporate Transactions Handbook 2007, Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2008 and The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2008.
John Merrick
Internal Revenue Service
John J. Merrick is currently associate to the chief counsel (international) for the Internal Revenue Service in its Washington, D.C. office.
Mr. Merrick earned his J.D from Loyola University and a B.B.A. from Loyola University.
Peter Blessing
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Practice
Mr. Blessing’s practice focuses on tax aspects of (i) mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, restructurings, and joint ventures, (ii) investment funds and REITs, (iii) financings and derivatives and (iv) transfer pricing and global tax minimization strategies. In addition to his tax planning practice, Mr. Blessing represents clients on ruling matters and in tax controversies. Mr. Blessing became a partner of the firm in 1986.
Recent Experience
Representative Clients:
Merrill Lynch, The Thomson Corporation, Eaton Vance, Daimler, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, CIT, Lehman, Deutsche Bank, Vivendi, ABB, Lazard, Husky Energy, Citigroup and Caxton
Representative Transactions:
Daimler in its disposition of Chrysler (2007), Saudi Basic Industries in its acquisition of GE’s Plastics Division (2007), Citigroup in its acquisition of the Old Lane Hedge Fund (2007), Thomson in the sales of its Learning Unit (2007) and Net G subsidiary (2007) and combination with Reuters (2007-2008) and Tata in the sale of its 30% interest in Glaceau to Coca-Cola (2007)
Selected Professional & Business Activities
- Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel; Secretary of the New York State Bar Association Tax Section and member of its Executive Committee; Executive Committee member of the USA Branch of the International Fiscal Association; Council member of the American Bar Association Tax Section (liaison for Affiliated Taxpayers and Corporate Committees) and member, Committee on Foreign Activities of US Taxpayers (chair, 2004-2006) and Committee on Government Submissions; Vice Chair–Programs, Taxation Committee of the International Bar Association; Adjunct Professor, Columbia Law School (JD program); Board member, International Tax Institute, Inc. (president, 2003-2005); member, Tax Forum; member, International Tax Group; and Board member, BNA Tax Management Advisory Board
- Frequent lecturer on various aspects of taxation and cross-border taxation at seminars sponsored by IFA, IBA, ABA, NYSBA and various commercial organizations
Publications
Authored a treatise, Income Tax Treaties of the United States (Warren Gorham & Lamont), and two volumes in the BNA Tax Management Portfolio series: The Branch Profits Tax (co-author) and Source of Income. Numerous articles published in various professional journals
Education
New York University School of Law, LL.M. in Taxation, 1981
Columbia University School of Law, J.D., 1977
Princeton University, B.A., 1973
Bar Admissions/Qualifications
New York