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Houston Business & Tax Law Journal Alumni Newsletter

Note from the EIC

With issue 17.1 in the can and provisional members having just finished their notes and comments, the semester is flying along. The Journal is well on its way through cite checking issue 17.2 and the annual Compliance Database update is on the horizon. We look forward to seeing everyone at the Annual Banquet on March 30 to celebrate another year of success for the Houston Business and Tax Law Journal.

- Chris Vartian Editor-in-Chief Board 17

Volume 17, Issue 3

BOARD 17

Christopher Vartian Simone Bray Editor-in-Chief Assistant Executive Editor Oliver Fankhauser Kyle Miiller Managing Editor Senior Articles Editor Josh Gonzales Pedtro Chavez Executive Editor Compliance Editor Bianca Ybarra Cecilia Alvarez Chief Articles Editor Symposium Editor Elizabeth Gray Chris Hsu Chief Notes & Comments Editor Articles Editor Benjamin Hamel Addison Churay Chief Compliance Editor Notes & Comments Editor Jeremiah Clark Dakoda Fandry Head Senior Articles Editor Notes & Comments Editor Carla Palaez Steven Denman Articles Editor Articles Editor

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VOLUME 17, ISSUE 3

WHAT HAS HBTLJ BEEN UP TO?

ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM v The Journal’s Annual Symposium (pictured left), hosted at

ExxonMobil’s Spring campus was a huge success. There were over 50 students and professionals who attended the event to hear discussions from prominent attorneys in the Energy and Tax Industries, including: Professor Bret

Wells of UHLC, Professor Denney Wright of UHLC,

Richard Phillips of ExxonMobil IP, and Professor Mark

Hoose formerly of Phillips66 Tax Department.

BOWLING NIGHT @ UH STUDENT CENTER Ø Bowling Night @ UH Student Center

(pictured right): Members from Board 17 & Board 18 recently enjoyed a night filled with dinner and bowling at the University of Houston Student Center’s very own bowling alley.

Volume 17.1 – PUBLISHED

ü 17.1 has been published and distributed to our subscribers across the country. It includes five articles, three written by students and two written by professionals. Two of the articles and their brief descriptions are provided below:

In “Make Whole”: The Need for Gross-Ups in Employment Discrimination Cases, Shawn Johnson and Thomas Roney (professionals) explain the adverse tax consequences of lump-sum awards in employment discrimination cases. The Article further provides an overview of federal discrimination statutes and available relief. Johnson and Roney outline the various jurisdictional treatments and argue for wider adoption of the “make whole” doctrine.

Bianca Ybarra (student) explores how the extraterritorial enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in an effort to regulate international corporate bribery provides a powerful motivation for other countries doing business in or with the United States to comply with anti-bribery standards. Territorial Jurisdiction Reach of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act as Applied to the Anti-Bribery Provision concludes that extraterritorial enforcement of the FCPA provides an influential motivation for countries to cooperate in international corruption efforts.

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Drew Barber (’16)

Q: You’re still a young attorney, but have you seen any direct benefits in your career as a result of being a part of the Journal? A: There are many benefits, both tangible and intangible from my experience with HBTLJ that, I think, benefit me on a daily basis. Obviously, the most useful is knowledge of the Bluebook and the ability to edit and cite. On a broader level, the thing I’m most grateful for is the people I got to know in working with the journal, both the personal

relationships with my colleagues and the networking opportunities and access to judges and highly respected practitioners in a variety of practice areas. Q: What’s your favorite memory of the Journal? A: Beyond the obvious reason that I was excited about passing along my obligations and responsibilities, selecting and transitioning the new editorial board. I loved the candid feedback about the work our board had done, and the solutions and improvements the incoming board had to pick up where we left up. Q: What are some of your hobbies? A: I play and watch as much golf as I possibly can, obviously far less than I was able to when I was in law school. Right now, I’m lucky enough to be planning a wedding with my wonderful fiancée. Q: Any advice for the current 3Ls on the Journal who are about to enter the workforce? A: Enjoy your last semester of law school and the time spent preparing for the bar, and (if you’re lucky) the time between your start date and the bar. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very stressful and busy period filled with a lot of uncertainty and anxiety, but you’ll never have such a flexible schedule. Make time to do things that you enjoy.

Q: Where are you from? A: Spring, Texas. Q: Where did you get your undergraduate degree? What did you get your degree in? A: Texas A&M University, B.A. Political Science. Q: What years were you on the Journal? A: 2014-2016 Q: What firm do you currently work for? A: Fiddler & Associates, P.C. Q: What type of law do you practice? A: We primarily represent individuals and small businesses in employment and commercial litigation. Q: Why did you choose to be on HBTLJ instead of another Journal? A: I was in a somewhat unique situation as a transfer student who had to complete the transfer write on process. I didn’t have any preconceived notions about any of the journals. On the surface, HBTLJ covered a very broad area of law that is relevant in virtually every area of practice. I reached out to then-Chief Notes & Comments Editor, Moises Morales to answer some questions I had about the journal, he was gracious enough to meet with me personally and sell me on the benefits of HBTLJ. When I was lucky enough to fill his role the next year, I found that relationship-based method of recruitment to be far more effective than anything else.

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What’s Upcoming?

Spring Banquet – Thursday, March 30, 2017

Board 18 Elections • Board 17 is excited to announce that we have elected

Board 18 to their respective positions on the Board

and will promptly notify members of our decisions early next week. The placement of each individual was thoroughly considered and every decision was difficult, a positive indication of the talent on next year’s Board and the bright future we envision.

• We are confident that the newly elected leadership will build upon the work of the previous Boards to take HBTLJ to new heights in producing quality workmanship and meaningful contributions to not only the Journal but also the University of Houston Law Center as a whole.

Notes & Comments v Board 18 members recently

completed and have submitted their Notes and Comments for review by Board 17.

v We look forward to the difficult decisions we face with regards to which notes and comments will be chosen for publication and have no doubt that Volume 18 will be comprised of diverse and worthy

Compliance Database - Members are currently updating the information contained in our

Compliance Database, which provides the public free searchable

access to current compliance codes for every Fortune 500 company.

- As the only database of its kind, it covers 42 different topics and users can sort the information by subject matter, company, and industry.

- The Database can be found here: http://www.law.uh.edu/compliance/.

o The Houston Business and Tax Law Journal will hold its Annual Spring Banquet on the evening of Thursday, March 30, 2017, at Birraporetti’s Italian Restaurant (500 Louisiana, Houston, 77002).

o A hosted reception will begin at 7:00p.m. and dinner will be served at 7:45 p.m. Please join us for an event-filled evening, including keynote speaker Judge Hughes of the Southern District of Texas, a word from the current Executive Board, and the presentation of our member writing awards.

o See the last page of this newsletter for details on how to purchase tickets.

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Upcoming Articles – Volume 17.2

v Arguing that the standards by which

taxpayers must overcome the presumption of correctness in tax controversy settings is highly problematic, John Gamino and Christina Betanzos (professionals) propose the rule’s dismissive implications for fair dispute resolution denies procedural due process. In “A Power of Enormous Consequence”: The Presumption of Correctness in State Taxation, the authors examine the origin of the rule and the pathways to correction.

v In The Saddle Ridge Gold Coin Discovery:

How the IRS Should Tax U.S. Currency Under the Treasure Trove Regulation, Mark Morris (professional), Christine Cheng (professional), and D. Larry Crumbley (professional) discuss two primary taxation theories upon attaining undisputed possession and investigates several variations that may have different tax consequences under each theory. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the current application of the treasure trove regulation and examines the legal tax issues that arise from the case of an anonymous California couple’s discovery of a 19th Century U.S. gold coin treasure trove.

v In Updates Ready to Install: How

California’s Electronic Communications Privacy Act Provides a Better Framework for Federal Privacy Laws, Jeremiah Clark (student) analyzes the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act and its impact on Fourth Amendment protections with regard to consumer’s digital information

v In Dissecting Texas’s Utility Lending Rules,

Matt Crockett (professional) describes, compares, and analyzes Texas’ lending rules and offers proposed changes to the Texas statutory rules that aim to ease the burden of making public lien filings against utility debtors.

v Dakoda Fandry (student) gives readers a

look into The University of Houston Law Center’s endeavor to make corporate compliance projects accessible to the public. The article introduces the database maintained by the Houston Business & Tax Law Journal that contains corporate codes of conduct for each of the Fortune 500 companies.

v In Publicly Traded Partnerships for

Electricity Generators: Why Amending I.R.C. Section 7704 is Good for the Power Industry, Oliver Fankhauser (student) advocates for the MLP Parity Act, demonstrating how amending the tax code could accelerate the switch to cleaner burning electricity input fuels and potentially lower electricity prices nationwide.

Reminder: HBTLJ Spring Banquet

Don’t forget to purchase your tickets for the Houston Business & Tax Law Journal’s Annual Spring

Banquet. The banquet is a great way to reconnect with former Journal members and celebrate the

current members, editors, and faculty advisors who strive to maintain the success of the Journal that each of you helped establish.

Date: March 30, 2017

Time: 7:00pm – 9:30pm

Location: Birraporetti’s Italian Restaurant - Downtown

Address: 500 Louisiana St., Houston, TX 77002

TICKETS: You can purchase an individual ticket or sponsor a table for the banquet by completing the

form located at http://hbtlj.org/banquet/ and returning it to our Executive Editor Josh Gonzales (jmgonz30@central.uh.edu).

The deadline for purchasing a ticket is March 24th.

We hope to see you there!

VOLUME 17, ISSUE 3 SPRING 2017

Please email hbtlj@hbtlj.org to update the Journal on what you’ve been up to and for a chance to get featured in the next alumni newsletter. Also make sure to visit http://www.hbtlj.org for the latest news regarding the Journal and information on how to give back to HBTLJ.

Thank you!