Amy L. Silverstein

Amy L. Silverstein is a partner in the firm’s San Francisco office. She received her B.S. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. In 1991, she received her J.D. degree with distinction from Stanford Law School and was elected to the Order of the Coif. While attending law school, Ms. Silverstein received the Hilmer Oehlmann, Jr. award for outstanding legal writing and was a member of the Stanford Law Review. From 1991 to 2003, she practiced at Morrison & Foerster LLP, where she was elected to the partnership in 1999.

Ms. Silverstein specializes in litigating state and local tax cases and in advising clients concerning the state and local tax consequences of business transactions. She has extensive expertise involving income taxes, sales and use taxes, property taxes, gross receipts taxes, insurance taxes, and tobacco taxes, among others. She regularly litigates constitutional issues such as nexus, apportionment and discrimination against interstate commerce; unitary combination issues; issues arising from transactions involving intangible property; and complex statutory issues. She has worked with clients in numerous industries including telecommunications, high technology, banking and finance, manufacturing, entertainment, transportation, energy, and retail.

Ms. Silverstein represents clients throughout the United States in all types of state and local tax controversies, including audits, administrative appeals, and judicial litigation. In California, she has appeared before a number of California taxing agencies at the state and local level, including the Franchise Tax Board, the State Board of Equalization, and the Employment Development Department, and has handled cases in the California courts at the trial and appellate levels. Ms. Silverstein advises multinational and domestic businesses as well as individuals regarding the nationwide state and local tax implications of mergers, acquisitions, asset dispositions, and other transactions. She also advises clients concerning state and local tax planning opportunities.

Ms. Silverstein frequently writes and lectures on state and local tax issues. She has published articles in the Journal of Taxation and in State Tax Notes, including recently “California’s Tax Shelter Law: A Guide to Disclosure and Penalties for Corporate Taxpayers,” 100 Journal of Taxation 288 (May 2004), with Prentiss Willson, Jr. She co-authored a BNA portfolio entitled “Property Taxes: The Exemption for Intangibles.” She served as the Editor-in-Chief of Morrison & Foerster’s newsletter, State & Local Tax Insights. Ms. Silverstein formerly was the Chair of the Tax Committee of the San Francisco Bar Association’s “Barristers Club.”

Ms. Silverstein is a member of the bar of the State of California and the United States Supreme Court.