Higgs Fletcher & Mack associates Laura Buckley, AnneElise Goetz and Jason Ross each received the San Diego Daily Transcript’s Young Attorneys award, which annually recognizes the San Diego legal community’s up-and-coming attorneys with seven years of practice experience or less.

Ms. Buckley is a previous nominee for the Daily Transcript’s Young Attorneys award. She practices in all areas of Federal and State taxation, specializing in tax controversy. Ms. Buckley represents individuals and businesses before the Internal Revenue Service and the state taxing agencies, in the United States Tax Court and other federal and state courts. She also advises and represents creditors and debtors in business disputes and insolvency matters, including business reorganizations, Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcies. Before joining the firm, Ms. Buckley was an IRS Chief Counsel attorney and a Special Assistant United States Attorney. She is the Chair of the San Diego County Bar Association’s Taxation Section, and is the Education Chair for the California Bar Association, Young Tax Lawyer’s Committee.

Ms. Goetz practices in the areas of corporate transactional law and tax planning. She serves as outside corporate counsel to companies throughout San Diego representing them in connection with various business transactions including entity selection, real estate acquisitions, buy-sell agreements, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, employment matters and general business counseling. In addition, Ms. Goetz practices extensively in the field of commercial real estate, advising clients on purchase and sale agreements, private financings and lease agreements. In her free time, AnneElise dedicates her efforts to organizations focused on empowering young women to seek leadership roles in the fields of law, government and business.

Mr. Ross is a prior two-time nominee for the Daily Transcript’s Young Attorneys award. He practices in Higgs Fletcher & Mack’s business litigation group, with a focus on labor and employment defense. His current practice centers on defending employers and businesses of all sizes in complex business, employment, trade secret, class action and real estate litigation, although Mr. Ross prides himself on his versatility and has successfully handled a wide variety of litigation in his career. A sampling of Mr. Ross’ recent successes include obtaining a $3.45 million settlement for his client as part of a two-attorney team in a complex real property case against a major U.S. financial institution, and procuring a favorable published appellate opinion in an employment discrimination case. Outside the office, Mr. Ross is involved in the community as a member of the Downtown YMCA’s Board of Directors.