Tax Litigator, Leslie Allen, joins DLA Piper’s Tax Investigation Team

DLA Piper yesterday announced that it has appointed leading tax litigation expert, Leslie Allen, to its Litigation and Regulatory group. Leslie specialises in indirect tax litigation and will be a huge asset to DLA Piper’s Tax Investigations and Disputes team within the group, a market leader in handling HMRC investigations and tax disputes.

Leslie joins DLA Piper from Dorsey and Witney, where he specialised in VAT litigation. Leslie has over 20 years of experience in indirect tax litigation. He spent five years in the Customs & Excise solicitor’s office and went on to work for KPMG and later EY, where he spent 10 years before joining Dorsey and Witney in 2003. Leslie, a qualified barrister, has extensive experience advising US and UK companies and multinationals, and will significantly add to DLA Piper’s contentious tax team in the UK. The contentious team, which includes specialist litigation lawyers and former senior Revenue investigators, has worked on the largest and most complex investigations undertaken by HMRC. Leslie will work across the group in order to develop DLA Piper’s offering in this area across the UK.

Jonathan Pickworth, Head of the Litigation and Regulatory group in London, said: “We are delighted that Les has chosen to join us. His skills and huge reputation as one of the UK’s top VAT litigators can only further enhance the team’s widely acknowledged position as one of the dominant firms for contentious tax work.”