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Top 5 Tax boutiques Barsalou Lawson (Montreal) The firm was founded in 1994 by former Canadian Tax Foundation governor Pierre Barsalou, and tax lawyer Geoffrey Lawson, and now has 12 lawyers servic- ing the needs of clientele from Canada, the U.S., and Europe with transfer pricing and litigation issues. Barsalou's background is in tax litigation, having worked for the federal departments of Justice and Finance in the 1980s before switching to private practice, while Lawson's focus is dispute resolution and tax planning for corporations. "Their practices complement each other well. I can't think of any- one better in Quebec," says a tax lawyer at a full-service firm. Sébastien Rheault joined the partnership in 1997, and is currently the president of the Canadian Bar Association's tax section in Quebec. Couzin Taylor LLP (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal) Ernst & Young ally Couzin Taylor LLP has 38 lawyers in fi ve offi ces across Canada, and deals in all areas of tax law, including tax litigation and tax controversy, corporate tax, human capital, international tax, transaction tax, and sales, customs, and indirect tax. Founded in 2002 by tax law heavyweights Robert Couzin and Roger Taylor, the fi rm acts for a wide array of clients that include indi- viduals, tax planners, and public and private companies. Canadian Tire, Dow Chemical, Hudson's Bay Co., and Standard Life Assurance Co. of Canada are among those the fi rm has advised. In a recent Tax Court of Canada case, Sommerer v. Th e Queen, the fi rm won an appeal on behalf of the taxpayer over the application of the Canada- Austria Tax Convention. Th at decision is currently on appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal. Felesky Flynn LLP (Edmonton, Calgary) This Alberta boutique was founded in 1978 after Calgary tax lawyer Brian Felesky and Edmonton's Gordon Flynn hatched the idea during a flight of launch- ing a regional tax boutique, but their rep- utation stretches far beyond the province. "They have a lot of very bright people there, and historically, they've had a real range of people, too," says one Bay Street tax lawyer. Last year, the firm appeared for the City of Calgary at the Supreme Court of Canada in a battle over tax cred- its related to the construction of a transit system. Recently, the firm has carved an even finer niche for itself in butterfly transactions, where large companies are broken up into smaller pieces, leading the tax planning for clients in two of the larg- est such deals in Canadian history. Flynn is one of a number of the firm's 32 lawyers who double as professional accountants. KPI_CL_Apr_12.indd 1 www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com A PRIL 2012 43 12-03-15 2:13 PM Top TAX 5 BOUTIQUES felesky.com barsalou.ca couzintaylor .com