Case Results

John J. Pembroke Case Results

A successful litigator must be able to predict, without knowing all the facts and evidence a trial might produce, what the likely result will be if a legal matter will be. Attorney John Pembroke has been able to do this, time and time again, through his 32 year career.

His successful cases include:

• An IRS tax appeal of a $10 million issue on foreign currency and price adjustments
• The purchase of a business for $8 million after John assisted in litigating a TRO and preliminary injunction
• A damage claim against a major financial planner, the award of which, two weeks after taking the case, John calculated would be $475,000, which proved close to the mark years later when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals awarded $482,000
• The sale of a business interest following litigation, where John initially assessed the client's sale income would range from $1.25 million to $1.5 million; a near bull's-eye, the case settled following a successful but unusual motion for summary judgment of $1.175 million.

When still at Schuyler, Roche and Zwirner (SRZ), John had the opportunity to participate in several significant cases, one of which—Oddi v. Ayco—made new law in Illinois. It was among the earliest cases nationwide in which a law firm, in this case SRZ, succeeded in persuading a court that adverse tax consequences resulting from a financial planner's bad advice are recoverable. After the Seventh Circuit Court published its opinion favoring our client, the Wall Street Journal announced the win on its front page.

John also contributed to a case reported on the front page of the Daily Tax Reporter of the Bureau of National Affairs. In George F. Harding Museum v. United States of America, SRZ defeated a $30 million jeopardy assessment the IRS had made against the assets of the museum. In a related case—People of the State of Illinois ex rel. William J. Scott v. Herman Silverstein—then the longest open case on the docket of the Illinois Attorney General—the AG's office was on the verge of settling when the IRS intervened with a novel use of its power to make jeopardy assessments in an attempt to seize a charity's assets for its own benefit and to short-circuit the settlement. The judge in the state case, the Honorable Albert Green, then hired SRZ to defend against the jeopardy assessment, which SRZ succeeded in doing. For several years thereafter, attorneys from across the nation telephoned John seeking guidance; theretofore in criminal drug cases, the IRS commonly employed the remedy of a jeopardy assessment, which defense counsel rarely defeated.

We invite you to contact attorney John Pembroke to schedule a consultation.