The Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award was established in 2002 to recognize one or more individuals or organizations for outstanding and sustained achievements in pro bono activities in tax law. During the 2024 May Tax Meeting in Washington, DC, Section Chair Scott Michel presented the award to Guinevere M. (Gwen) Moore.
ABA Tax Times
Recipient of the 2024 Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award: Gwen Moore
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This year the committee selected Guinevere More as the recipient of the 2024 Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award. Many of you will be familiar with Gwen’s many and varied pro bono activities over the years as she has been steadfastly committed to sharing her time and talents since the start of her career. In addition to many hours spent representing individual taxpayers through the Calendar Call program and other pro bono referral networks, Gwen has organized trainings for other professionals to participate in Calendar Call. She will always take on a pro bono matter even when her firm is not accepting new clients or even when in the middle of a substantial jury trial.
Gwen has also been deeply involved in larger litigation projects to promote social justice. In Doe v. Trump, she was a crucial part of the team litigating a class action case on behalf of U.S. citizens married to non-US citizens who were ineligible for Covid relief under the CARES act.
In 2022, together with the Moore Tax Law Group team, Gwen represented the Center for Taxpayer Rights as amicus curae before the Supreme Court in Bittner v. United States. This dispute addressed the statutory interpretation of penalty amounts under Section 5321. In ruling for the taxpayer, the Supreme Court quoted from this brief.
Gwen has been an active member of the Tax Section since she was admitted to the bar, served as Chair of the Standards of Tax Practice Committee, where she was very involved in comments on the 2014 Circular 230 revisions, co-founded the women’s networking breakfast at the Civil Fraud and Criminal Tax Institute and as a Council Member now is an inaugural leader of the Live Well, Lawyer Well program.
She is a devoted mentor to a new generation of lawyers and social justice advocates. As her nomination letter says, “She is never bashful about enlisting others to fight for a just cause and encouraging others’ participation and involvement to facilitate a necessary change. Her conviction and belief is contagious and her ability to rally the troops to create a strength in numbers is nothing but effective.”
Gwen Moore is a most worthy recipient of the 2024 Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award, and the Tax Section is immensely grateful for her dedication to others and for her commitment to the fair and equitable administration of the tax laws.