Eyes wide shut: Surveying erosion in the professionalism of the tax bar

Voicing concerns shared by many lawyers, a number of commentators have lamented what they perceive as an erosion of the legal "profession" into the legal "business." Despite a generalized feeling among lawyers that the practice of law has been undergoing a change for the worse, it has been relatively easy for skeptics to dismiss as unsubstantiated the recurring claims that the legal "profession" is slowly becoming the legal "business." However, by providing concrete evidence of an erosion in the professionalism of the tax bar, the stories of the corporate inversion and life insurance techniques demonstrate that this feeling may, in fact, be grounded in reality. This essay draws attention to this erosion in professionalism by documenting the most recent events in which it has manifested itself and by considering its implications for the tax bar and for the legal profession as a whole.