On February 25, The Burton Foundation announced the winners of the 2019 Awards for Distinguished Legal Writing, which recognizes law firm partners for “clear, concise, and comprehensive legal writing”. This year, Jeff Hochberg was honored for his article, “The Section 871(m) Qualified Index Rules”, which was published in the Fall 2018 issue of The Tax Lawyer, and addresses the application of the Section 871(m) withholding tax rules to foreign investors in derivatives that reference equity indices. In particular, the paper considers the circumstances under which such a derivative should be treated for Section 871(m) purposes as referencing a notional index that is independent of its components and when it should be treated as referencing the equities that comprise the index. Jeff was among just 30 authors selected for this honor from over 1,000 submissions by attorneys in private practice.
This is Jeff’s second Burton Award. He previously won in 2014 for “What Looks the Same May Not Be the Same: The Tax Treatment of Securities Reopenings,” which he co-authored with Michael Orchowski. The article was published in the Fall 2013 edition of The Tax Lawyer.
2019 marks the eighteenth consecutive year that an S&C lawyer has been honored by The Burton Awards, a national non-profit program run in association with the Library of Congress. The Burton Awards are presented by lead sponsor Law360, and co-sponsored by the American Bar Association. The 20th anniversary awards ceremony will take place on May 20 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.