Contingent Fee Deferral: Strategies & Options

Jeremy Babener | Structured Consulting

Jeremy is a nationally recognized tax expert. He counsels plaintiffs and plaintiff-side law firms on settlement planning, helping to maximize recovery outcomes. He also reviews and structures settlement transactions for trust companies, insurance companies, and other financial institutions.

Jeremy has worked across a broad spectrum of cases and settlement sizes, including individual claims, mass torts, and class actions. His role often includes drafting and refining settlement terms, proposing tax-efficient and financial strategies, and negotiating their adoption with defense teams.

He has developed and evaluated financial vehicles, trust arrangements, and income deferral solutions. Among these is the Plaintiff Fund Charity, a no-cost program that protects plaintiffs’ Medicaid eligibility when they fundraise for medical needs.

Jeremy is an active member of the ABA TIPS Plaintiffs’ Practice Committee and leads the Legal Committee of the Society of Settlement Planners. Earlier in his career, he served as a Fellow in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department.

He frequently speaks on settlement taxation and ethics at law schools such as NYU School of Law and the University of Chicago, contributes articles to Forbes, Bloomberg, and the ABA, and shares his insights on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC.

Peter Darling | ILTA

Peter Darling is a settlement advisor and former litigation attorney who helps plaintiffs and trial lawyers craft tax-efficient, financially beneficial and strategic settlement strategies. With a career spanning over two decades, Peter’s work incorporates expertise in law, business development, strategy and marketing.

He began his career as an advertising copywriter under Peter Arnell at Arnell/Bickford Associates, contributing to major campaigns for clients like Donna Karan and Lifetime Television and winning the J. Walter Thompson copywriting competition.

After earning his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School Peter practiced commercial litigation before co-founding Flycast Communications in 1997. Flycast grew to 350+ employees, went public, and was sold for $750 million. He has been on the founding teams of two more venture-backed startups: ComScore Networks and Hercules AI, as well as consulting with dozens more. Peter later launched a consultancy focused on strategy, marketing, and business development for professional services firms, advising leading law and advertising firms across the U.S.

Peter has worked with companies across Asia, Europe, and North America. He holds a B.A. with honors in English Literature from Swarthmore College and is a certified Kauffman FastTrac trainer, speaker, and published author in the legal and consulting industries.

I. Understanding the tax advantages of deferring fees | 2:00pm – 2:20pm

II. Differences between deferral options | 2:20pm – 2:40pm

III. Steps needed to protect contingent fee deferral | 2:40pm – 3:00pm