Reed Smith LLP's Mardiros Dakessian boasted a productive year of work that saw him claim a watershed decision on legal fee recovery and a steady record of lucrative tax relief for his clients before trial courts, regulators and administrative panels throughout California, earning him a spot among Law360’s Tax MVPs.

Dakessian bowed on last year's inaugural edition of our top tax attorneys due in no small part to his constitutional challenge of California's Qualified Small Business Stock Incentive, so it is fitting that his fight to obtain legal fees for his client in the same dispute paves the way for his repeat appearance.

Shortly after proving that the incentive did not jibe with the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Dakessian and his team moved to reclaim fees under California's Private Attorney General Act. They were rebuffed, which bumped the matter up to the state appeals court, where the team faced the arduous task of proving an abuse of discretion by the trial court as laid out in PAGA.

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