Wendy Abkin

Experience

Wendy represents clients facing both routine and highly complex tax disputes with the IRS, California tax agencies, county Assessors and Assessment Appeals Boards, and city tax agencies. Her clients include individuals, trusts and estates, business entities (partnerships, LLCs, corporations) and non-profits.

Wendy has more than 35 years of experience as a tax lawyer, specializing in tax audits, administrative appeals and litigating tax disputes. She has worked both in private practice with small, mid-size and large law firms as well as in government service. Wendy began her career as a law clerk to the Hon. Charles E. Clapp II of the United States Tax Court. She has substantial trial experience and is a former IRS trial attorney, having worked with the IRS Office of Chief Counsel in San Francisco where she litigated cases for the IRS. For six years prior to joining Abkin Law, Wendy was a partner in the tax practice of a global law firm.

Tax law is complex; Wendy has experience with a wide assortment of issues including tax accounting, employment (payroll) taxes, tax shelters, bad debts, valuation, conservation easements, micro-captive insurance, foreign accounts and other offshore assets, civil and criminal tax issues and penalties and collection of tax debts. She regularly advises clients on California residency disputes and has assisted numerous trusts to understand and manage their exposure to California income tax.

Wendy is an active member of several professional organizations and speaks frequently on topics of tax controversy and tax procedure before legal and accounting professionals, including the California Lawyers Association Taxation Section, the American Bar Association Tax Section, Practicing Law Institute, and the California Society of CPAs (various chapters). She regularly represents pro bono clients, and she previously served as an adjunct professor in both the School of Law and the Master’s in Taxation Program at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Affiliations and Recognitions

State Bar of California (admitted 1985)

California Lawyers Association Taxation Section (previously State Bar of California, Taxation Section) (member and past member and Chair of Executive Committee)

San Francisco Tax Club (member and past Secretary/Treasurer and President)

San Francisco Tax Litigation Club (past Secretary, Vice-President, President)

Fellow, American College of Tax Counsel

American Bar Association, Tax Section (member)

Recipient, V. Judson Klein Award, State Bar of California Taxation Section (2007)

Member, Practice Group of the Year, Tax, Law360 (2017)

Recognized, Best Lawyers in America (2010-2011)

Northern California Super Lawyers (2006-2022)



Education

B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, Magna Cum Laude

M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara

J.D., University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law

LL.M., Taxation, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law