Steptoe LLP

Tax | Tax Controversies & Litigation | White-Collar Defense | International Tax | Congressional Oversight & Investigations | Financial Services

Partner

Larry Hill is a tax partner who heads the firm's tax controversy practice. He is one of the nation's preeminent tax litigators and first-chair trial lawyers who focuses his practice on the resolution of complex domestic and cross-border civil tax disputes through the IRS administrative process and litigation.

The NY Times has called Larry "a leading member of the American Tax Bar" and "a litigator who is known for aggressively defending clients before the IRS over tax matters." The Legal 500 ranks Larry in their Hall of Fame for Contentious Tax and refers to Larry as "a superb lawyer and one of the leaders of the tax controversy bar," Chambers USA praises him as "technically superb and so knowledgeable, he knows all the details and brings a lot of gravitas."

He represents numerous financial institutions, multinational corporations, international accounting firms, partnerships, private foundations, and high net worth individuals in domestic and international tax-related disputes. He also represents clients in high-profile white-collar investigations, criminal cases, and congressional investigations.

Larry has litigated some of the most significant civil and criminal tax cases in U.S. history. Larry was lead counsel for the sponsor/partner in the seminal taxpayer victory in Cross Refined Coal, LLC v. Commissioner, 45 F.4th 150 (D.C. Cir. 2022), where the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found that a tax credit partnership was a bona fide partnership for tax purposes and was imbued with economic substance despite the lack of any pre-tax profit potential. Larry represented the American Tax Policy Institute on its amicus brief to the US Supreme Court, in Moore v. U.S., perhaps the most significant tax case in the last fifty years. Additionally, Larry was counsel for the American College of Tax Counsel on their Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court, in support of Appellant law firm, in the In re Grand Jury case—a landmark attorney-client privilege case.

Prior to joining Steptoe, he served as a senior partner and global head of tax controversy and litigation at several major international law firms, as well as the co-global head of the financial institutions practice at one of those firms. Earlier in his career, Larry was a trial attorney and National Tax Shelter Project Attorney with the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service and a Special Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC. The IRS honored him twice with Special Achievement Awards for his work as a top trial attorney in the country. Larry also previously served as Assistant General Counsel to a "Big Four" accounting firm.

Trustee, American Tax Policy Institute Fellow, American College of Tax Counsel (Member of the Amicus Curiae Committee) Former Chair, Court Procedure and Practice Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association Life Fellow, American Bar Foundation Member, Wall Street Tax Association Member, The Tax Club Editor, Focus on Tax Controversy and Litigation Newsletter Member, Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (LFFA), Tax Working Group Board Member, Law360's 2025 Tax Authority Federal Editorial Board