EXPERIENCED TAX DEFENSE ATTORNEYS
Mac MacPherson – "The Courtroom Commando" – has been practicing law for over 34 years and is the only attorney in the country board certified by a state bar as a specialist in both tax law and criminal law. And for good reason. He has tried over 55 criminal tax cases in 25 states. Trial of a criminal tax case requires knowledge of and experience with criminal law, trials and appeals, and tax law. As evidenced by the firm's practice areas, Mac has extensive experience in the areas of civil and criminal tax controversies of all types, ranging from audits and criminal investigations, many of which were dropped, to appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Because of his extensive litigation experience, together with his strong military background and West Point, Airborne, Ranger, Infantry, Jumpmaster, Special Forces "take no prisoners" attitude, it should not be surprising that, despite the small size of his firm, he was called upon to represent two governors, three state senators, CIA operatives, and a major U.S. airline. In fact, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously agreed that his client, constitutionalist and former governor Evan Mecham, could run again for governor, despite his impeachment conviction. Ingram v. Shumway, 794 P.2d 147 (Ariz. 1990). And the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was not shy to emphatically state that MacPherson's client, Jean C. Hylton, had exercised her First Amendment right to petition her government for redress of grievances "in its most pristine form," where Mrs. Hylton had filed criminal complaints in county court against IRS special agents who had trespassed upon her Texas property. Thus, acquittal was ordered for charges of intentional interference with IRS agents. U.S. v. Hylton, 558 F.Supp. 872 (S.D. Tex. 1982), aff'd, 710 F.2d 1106 (5th Cir. 1983). Simply put, with extensive experience, Mac brings to bear well-honed skills. In the military tradition, we call this "full metal jacket."
Mac's view of the world is through the paradigm of what he has coined "The West Point Systems Engineering Approach;" but far more simplified than actual systems engineering. A + B = C. If you know the quantity A and the quantity B, you can solve for the quantity C. Simple math. Simple logic. Or, if C requires both elements A and B, then with either A or B missing, you cannot have C. Or, the syllogism. Major premise; minor premise; conclusion. All persons with X have Y. Kramer has X; therefore, Kramer has Y. After all, engineering is applied math, and math is "the perfect science." Unfortunately for the legal system, and society as a whole, many attorneys, and therefore judges, are schooled not in math and engineering, but in political science. Subjective analysis, not objective. As Batiat said in The Law, "The law perverted!" Those in control have the power to pervert the law; and will do so, unless we are able to hold them to their constitutional oath, including due process, and cause them to view the law as it should be viewed, objectively, not subjectively: A + B = C.
In 1983, Mac wrote and self-published his first book, April 15th: The Most Pernicious Attack Upon English Liberties, with the sub-title "A History of Individual Rights vs. Tax Investigators From 1754 Boston to 1988 Iran-Contra." The dedication reads: "For our three sons, Scott, Ryan, and Nathan, that they may grow in the knowledge of ‘Freeborn Englishmen.' And for ‘The Patriots,' and their ‘Sons of Liberty.'" CLICK HERE FOR BOOK INFORMATION.
Mac's military experience includes: weapons platoon leader, famed 82nd Airborne Division; platoon leader and company commander, 18 months combat, Vietnam, I Corps, 1968-69, famed 173rd Airborne Division (Separate); Professor of Military Science, University of Cincinnati; A- Team commander (SCUBA), Army Special Forces (famed Green Berets), Utah National Guard; instructor, First Special Forces, U.S. Army Reserves. His decorations include: Combat Infantryman Badge; several Air Medals, several Bronze Star Medals, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star.
Mac, nicknamed "Sandy," as a child, was born and raised in Cincinnati, the son of Malcolm Douglas and Patricia Vockell MacPherson, with older brother and sister Douglas and Margo. Malcolm, nicknamed "Mac," died when Mac was but two, and when Mac was in the first grade, the children were placed in Catholic boarding schools run by nuns, the boys in St. Aloysius Military Institute in Ohio for two years, until the school shut down. Mac and Douglas then attended for two years Millersburg Military Institute in Kentucky. Thus, Mac first wore the military uniform at age six. From first grade it was his dream and desire to attend a service academy. He won a Congressional appointment to West Point directly from public high school in Cincinnati, where he swam and played football.
When Mac was in his first summer at West Point, known as "Beast Barracks," in 1963, on his first military hike, of the Army branch options – ranging from Corps of Engineers to Finance Corps, he emphatically chose to "march to the sound of the guns" in a "combat arms branch" – Airborne, Ranger, Infantry, and Special Forces; and senior year he chose Airborne Infantry. During his second summer at West Point, when Mac was 19, he met Barbara Joanne Hubsch of Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. Barbara was 16. When Mac returned from 18 months of combat in Vietnam in December of 1969, he flew to see Barbara; the following September they were married. They have three sons, Scott, Ryan (Phd., Notre Dame, college professor), and Nathan, plus 8 grandchildren, and two dogs, a golden retriever, Bagel, and golden-border collie mix, Doggie. Mac's interests are: grandchildren, walking Bagel and Doggie, flying, sailing, swimming, hiking, biking, plus reading and writing. The couple has homes in both Glendale, Arizona, and San Diego.
Nathan MacPherson is admitted to practice law on two continents, has lived and worked on three, and represents clients on and has travelled to four continents. Nathan is fluent in German, conversant in Brazilian Portuguese (wife and children are native speakers), and knows some Spanish. Nathan is a United States citizen with German permanent residency and eligibility for permanent European Union and Brazilian residency. Nathan brings to the table a strong finance and real estate background, having completed his B.B.A. in Finance summa cum laude (including an internship in the Executive Reporting Department of the Financial Services Division of DaimlerChrysler Services at its global headquarters in Berlin, Germany), passed the California Real Estate Salesperson Exam and Arizona Loan Officer Training, and worked in the real estate industry on three continents. Nathan studied law in the United States, Augsburg, Germany, Vienna, Austria, Budapest, Hungary, Prague, Czech Republic, and Oxford, England.
Nathan furthered his international experience and gained inside information into the world of international banking by spending over three years as an associate at the world's second-largest law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (FBD), in its Frankfurt and London offices, representing major banks in cross-border real estate financing, factoring, and securitization, including an in-house assignment with the OTC-derivatives department of banking giant Goldman Sachs. While at FBD, Nathan completely redrafted the firm's standard form contracts for both cross-border real estate lending and cross-border, ECB-eligible, loan and lease agreement securitization, including "CDO Squared." Nathan was also involved in the drafting and negotiation of the contracts used by German federal and state finance ministries to bail out German banks that had invested in U.S. sub-prime Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities, representing both the finance ministries and the banks, depending upon the transaction. Nathan drafted and negotiated factoring contracts and amendments to problematic securitization and derivatives contracts, including an amendment to a $70 billion custom derivatives contract which, without the amendment, could have resulted in the failure of one of the largest banks in the world.
Nathan's civil and criminal experience includes litigation in both state and federal courts as well as appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Nathan's practice includes a mix of civil and criminal, transactional and litigation, work. Nathan appears regularly on national radio, regularly co-authors articles with his father, and is known as an expert in foreclosure defense. Nathan is a California Attorney and Counselor at Law and a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. He met his wife, a native of Brazil, when they were in language school in Cologne, Germany. Their two sons were born in Frankfurt, Germany. Nathan's interests include travel (he has travelled to 41 states and the District of Columbia and 24 countries on 4 continents, his wife 23 states and 20 countries on 4 continents, and their 3-year-old son 5 states and 14 countries on 3 continents. Their one-year-old has already travelled to 5 states and 4 countries on 3 continents.), hiking, and sailing, as well as taking his family to the beach.
Scott MacPherson, an attorney and independent contractor living in Redondo Beach, California, was with the firm in Phoenix until 2007, where he had over five years of experience defending clients against civil and criminal tax attacks by state and federal revenuers. His experience includes audits, appeals, CDP hearings, and Tax Court litigation. One of Scott's primary duties was preparation of "tax/bankruptcy evaluations," by which Scott would review all of the facts of the case and, under our "West Point Systems Engineering Approach," develop for the client a bankruptcy strategy by which the client would, at the proper time, as determined by the bankruptcy tax discharge timing rules and other rules, "pull the trigger" – file bankruptcy and discharge huge amounts of tax debt, especially for the firms typical client – a non-filer for ten or twenty years.
Scott also has ten years of experience representing dozens of clients in court-appointed cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in appeals ranging from tax charges to conspiracy and murder. In one case, a state habeas case, our client was set free from what would have likely been a life sentence in the "Ash Can" – the state mental hospital, because our client's habeas petition was filed late. The petition was late under a new federal law, but the state prison law library did not provide the information, instead opting for a paralegal program to assist inmates, which program was wrought with fraud, leading to the state indictment of the contractor. The federal district court dismissed the petition; and we were then appointed to represent the client on appeal before the 9th Circuit, where the court reversed and remanded, requiring the State of Arizona to prove to the federal district court that the library resources were adequate. The State was unable to do so, and our client was set free. (See U.S. V. VAN HOLT.) In 2012, Scott is assisting with two major appointed cases on appeal before the 9th Circuit – kidnapping and murder on an Arizona Indian Reservation, in which our client received two life sentences, and drug conspiracy with use of firearms, in which our client received a sentence of fifteen years.
Scott is married to Merrilee and they have three children. His interests include: martial arts (especially escrima and aikido); Cub Scouting, for which he is Pack Trainer and a Den Leader in his son's Pack; philosophy of religion; celtic (Scottish) culture; and writing. Scott has published his first two Kindle books, Elevator and Head and Heart.
