MOONEY - Key Persons
Bart Wilhoit is an experienced trial attorney with years of practice successfully representing businesses in civil and commercial disputes, state and local tax controversies, eminent domain litigation, tort and commercial litigation and administrative matters. Bart has successfully represented clients in all Arizona state courts including the Superior Courts, Arizona Tax Court and appellate courts.
Bart is licensed to practice in Arizona and Nevada. He is experienced in all phases of litigation, including investigation and evaluation of cases, complex discovery, settlement and alternative dispute resolution, jury and bench trials, arbitrations and appeals. Bart has broad litigation and trial experience in complex commercial litigation matters with an emphasis on valuation related litigation in commercial disputes, contract disputes, state and local tax controversies and all stages of the eminent domain/condemnation process.
Bart takes a pragmatic approach to his clients' matters - considering and evaluating options and potential outcomes from the onset to effectively and efficiently counsel his clients. He is dedicated to providing quality personal and client service, efficient and aggressive representation and dedicated to strong client relationships.
Bart is a graduate of Arizona State University and the UCLA School of Law. A native of Arizona, Bart is married with three children and enjoys all of the outdoor experiences Arizona has to offer. He also enjoys travel and playing music in his band.
Kim Simonis is our "Office Manager," and she keeps all of us in line. It is no exaggeration to say that our law firm would not function very well without her. Kim has worked in the legal field since 1981, initially as a legal secretary and later as office manager for a solo practitioner in Scottsdale.
Kim started working with the lawyers of MWMW in 2000, while all of us were at Fennemore Craig, P.C. in Phoenix, where she worked as a secretary and legal assistant.
Today, Kim manages our office, handles our billing and accounting, and assists all of us as a paralegal and as a legal secretary when necessary. Kim is married to Ron and she is the mother of two sons.
Paul J. Mooney is an experienced trial lawyer who has tried over 300 complex cases in both state and federal courts throughout the country, including more than 45 jury trials. During the last 38 years, he has tried numerous complex cases involving all types of expert testimony. This includes sophisticated products liability cases related to both manufacturing and design defects, as well as failure to warn cases representing both manufacturers and consumers. He has tried cases for both plaintiffs and defendants in significant financial, tort and commercial litigation, with trials in both state and federal courts, and he has tried multiple adversary proceedings in the U. S. Bankruptcy Court.
In particular, Mr. Mooney has extensive experience litigating unitary property tax valuation cases throughout the United States in state and federal courts, and before specialized tax tribunals. Specifically, he has represented taxpayers who own: interstate and intrastate railroads; commodities pipelines (natural gas, oil, gasoline and coal slurry); gas and electric utilities (nuclear, coal-fired, combined-cycle natural gas); telecommunications companies (wireless, broadband and local); mining companies (copper, coal and other base metals); renewable energy providers (solar, bio-mass and wind), and airlines. To date, Mr. Mooney has been successful in recovering over $2 billion in tax refunds for property taxpayers in 31 different states, the vast majority of which was for taxpayers assessed by state agencies.
In addition, Mr. Mooney has argued more than 150 appeals before state and federal appellate courts. This includes arguing more than a dozen cases before the Supreme Court of Arizona, as well as being lead counsel for arguments before the Supreme Courts in both California and Utah. Mr. Mooney has represented taxpayer clients in appeals before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of Appeals (for the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits), and intermediate appellate courts in Arizona, California, Utah and Wisconsin. Mr. Mooney has also tried cases in multiple federal district courts around the country, including: the United States District Courts in Arizona, California (Northern and Central Districts), the Western District of Missouri, Oregon, the Eastern District of Texas and Utah.
Mr. Mooney has spoken on property tax issues and presented papers at seminars sponsored by the State and Local Tax subsection of the American Bar Association's Tax Section, the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), the Institute for Professionals in Taxation (IPT), and the annual Public Utilities workshop on ad valorem taxation sponsored by Wichita State University. Mr. Mooney has written extensively about property taxation in Arizona and he has made CLE presentations at numerous state and local tax seminars. Over the years, Mr. Mooney has also testified before and been appointed to serve on Legislative Committees in Arizona concerning state and local tax matters. He is also the Arizona representative for the American Property Tax Counsel (APTC), a national group specializing in litigating these types of cases.
Mr. Mooney received his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in 1978, where he graduated summa cum laude. He was also a Valedictorian in the Colleges of Social Sciences and Humanities. Mr. Mooney received his law degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1980, graduating cum laude, where he also served as a member of the BYU Law Review. From 1985 until 2008, Mr. Mooney was a Director and Shareholder in the Phoenix law firm Fennemore Craig, P.C., before starting his own law firm.
Mr. Mooney has been married for over 40 years to his wife, LuAnn. They are the parents of five married children and grandparents to eleven grandchildren. Mr. Mooney is an avid golfer and he also enjoys collecting and racing cars, photography and woodworking.
Paul Moore is a commercial litigator who practices primarily in valuation-related matters, including contract disputes, and state and local tax controversies. He has handled a wide variety of valuation matters, representing clients in business disputes, and property, transaction privilege and use tax disputes before state and local taxing authorities, the Arizona Tax Court, and the Arizona Court of Appeals and Supreme Courts. He is licensed in Arizona and Colorado.
He represents taxpayers owning state-assessed properties such as pipelines, telecommunications companies, electric generation facilities and airlines, and all types of locally-assessed real and personal property including hotels, shopping malls, department stores, high-rise office buildings and campuses, apartment complexes, theaters, residential subdivisions, commercial greenhouses, land and hospitals.
Paul is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, and enjoys an excellent reputation with his peers and the bench. As one judge noted, "Mr. Moore is a very experienced tax attorney. He is always prepared and professional in the courtroom. I recommend him very strongly."
Paul is originally from Manchester, England. He holds doctorate and undergraduate degrees in chemistry. He came "stateside" to Texas in 1986 for a year of teaching undergraduate chemistry, but while there he met his future wife Janet and the rest, as they say, is history. Paul became a US citizen in 1997. In his life before the law, he worked for 6 years as an environmental/analytical chemist for a Fortune 500 Company.
Paul and Janet have been married for 30 years and are the proud parents of two children. In his spare time, Paul can often be found in the early weekend hours shouting at a television as he follows the exploits of his hometown heroes, Manchester United.