Eric J. Konopka

Eric’s representative experience includes:

• Briefing and arguing bankruptcy appeals involving third-party releases of liability, including consensual and nonconsensual releases and related issues of statutory and equitable mootness.
• Representing the debtor in a direct appeal concerning whether defensive setoff rights are claims under the Bankruptcy Code.
• Defending decisions in a Chapter 15 bankruptcy case by refining merits arguments and developing a novel mootness strategy, which ultimately led to a favorable settlement.
• Invalidating a tax regulation that attempted to rewrite the effective date of a statute.
• Successfully urging the Sixth Circuit to hold — contrary to indications from its own precedent — that the deadline to petition the Tax Court for redetermination of a deficiency is not jurisdictional and is subject to equitable tolling.
• Obtaining a favorable Tax Court decision in one of the largest transfer pricing cases in history.
• Successfully defending a Tax Court victory regarding the deductibility of certain patent infringement litigation costs in the Third Circuit.
• Convincing a state high court that a city was misinterpreting the state’s real property tax law.
• Persuading a state tax appeals tribunal that an administrative law judge’s interpretation of state law was incorrect, leading to a US$150 million tax refund.
• Convincing the Supreme Court to take the unusual step of denying a petition for certiorari by the Solicitor General in a tax case, despite an evident circuit split.
• Persuading the D.C. Circuit that FERC’s interpretation of a FERC-approved settlement agreement was incorrect, resulting in a refund of costs paid under that agreement to Latham’s client.
• Successfully challenging a method for allocating the costs of high-voltage projects in the D.C. Circuit, which is expected to result in substantial refunds to the petitioner group.
• Persuading the D.C. Circuit to uphold FERC’s decision to allow certain entities to give up certain rights to avoid substantial future allocations of costs for high-voltage projects.
• Successfully defending FERC’s decision to require a power plant to upgrade its equipment to ensure the reliability of the electric grid.
• Defending FERC orders authorizing liquefied natural gas projects from environmental challenges.
• Persuading the Ninth Circuit to reverse the dismissal of an antitrust action.
• Securing vacatur of the dismissal of constitutional claims by the Ninth Circuit, facilitating a settlement of the action.

Recent Speaking Engagements 

• Panelist, ABA Tax Section Midyear Meeting, “What Happens If Chevron Is Overturned?” (Jan. 2024)
• Panelist, ABA Tax Section CLE Webinar, “Chevron Overruled: A New Legal Landscape for Agency Deference” (July 2024)
• Panelist, Federal Bar Association, Western District of Michigan, Annual Bankruptcy Section Seminar, “Supreme Court/Purdue Pharma Update” (July 2024)
• Presenter, IRS LITC Annual Grantee Conference, “Equitable Tolling in the US Tax Court” (Dec. 2024)
• Presenter, ABA Tax Section Administrative Practice Committee, Recent Developments Regarding Equitable Tolling in the US Tax Court (Sept. 2025)