The Recorder:  Ninth Circuit Says Lawyer Can't Keep Tax Records from IRS:

An Oakland lawyer facing federal tax evasion charges will have to
turn over her tax records, even though they're in the possession of her
lawyers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled
Tuesday that divorce lawyer Mary Nolan's 2007 and 2008 tax records are
not shielded by attorney-client privilege because her tax preparer can
describe them with particularity, rendering their existence a foregone
conclusion. …

Tuesday's decision in U.S. v. Sideman & Bancroft is as interesting because of who's involved than for the legal principle established. Nolan was indicted in September
— a week after arguments before the Ninth Circuit — both for tax
evasion and for allegedly conspiring with a disgraced private
investigator to eavesdrop on her clients' spouses. Nolan was represented before the Ninth Circuit
by Sideman partner Jay Weill, the longtime tax chief for the U.S.
attorney's office in San Francisco, though Berkeley's Cooper Arguedas
& Cassman took over after the indictment was handed up.

The fight over the tax records
began two years ago when the IRS issued a lengthy
subpoena. It covered four banker boxes and three accordion files
containing check ledgers, client billings, credit card statements and
day planners, among other things, that Nolan had supplied to her
accountant to prepare her tax return. The same day the IRS executed a
search of Nolan's home and office, the accountant gave the documents —
contained in the four banker boxes and three accordion folders — to
Nolan's civil tax attorney, who in turn provided them to Sideman &
Bancroft.