Preface

• Author: David W. Chodikoff/James L. Horvath
• Pages: 11-13

Preface

This book has been in the making for four years. In 2000, I commenced a

tax litigation lunchtime speakers series at the Department of Justice,

Ontario Regional Office in Toronto. The idea was pretty simple. I invited

interesting and prominent people to visit at lunch and speak to the lawyers

and staff of the Tax Law section. The guest, or sometimes guests, would be

asked in advance to speak about an area of interest. The subject range was

quite broad — the talk could be about advocacy before the Courts or on a

topic related to tax law. The approach to the lunchtime engagement was

determined by the speaker. Some events were formal — the speaker gave a

speech typically followed by a question and answer session. Other events

were less formal including roundtable discussions. However, there were

two things that all of our guests had in common: first, each individual is a

recognized leader in his or her chosen field; and second, each guest’s work

has some relationship to either advocacy and/or the field of taxation.

Over the course of two years, we had 16 speakers. In fact, it was at one

of these events that Jim Horvath and I met. Subsequently, Jim appeared as

a valuations expert in a tax case where I acted as lead trial counsel for the

Minister of National Revenue.

At the end of 2002, I was getting ready for an assignment to the Fed-

eral Prosecution Service. Since I ran the speakers series, I knew that as a

consequence of my departure the lunchtime speakers series would in all

likelihood come to an end. I was discussing the program’s fate with my

friend and colleague, Harry Erlichman. I said to Harry that it was too bad

we did not collect the wonderful thoughts and ideas conveyed at each of

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