ST. PAUL, MN - Earlier this year, Governor Walz asked a merit selection panel consisting of leadership in his administration and the tax law community to solicit applications, review candidates, and recommend finalists for appointment to the Minnesota Tax Court. The panel announced today that it is recommending three candidates for consideration to fill the vacancy that occurred earlier this month.

Shannon Harmon: Shannon Harmon is an assistant county attorney with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, where she prosecutes felony complex economic crimes, including tax evasion and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults. She previously worked in the office’s Civil Division, where she represented the county in property tax matters before the Minnesota Tax Court. Harmon also served as an attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office in the Tax Litigation Division. Her community involvement has included serving as a reader through the Reader/Writer Program and as a mentor through the University of St. Thomas School of Law Mentor Externship program and Minnesota Women Lawyers’ Student to Attorney Mentoring program.

Beverly Luther Quast: Beverly Luther Quast is a vice president of tax planning at U.S. Bank, where she advises on tax aspects of business transactions, mergers, and acquisitions. She was previously senior tax counsel at 3M Company, where she advised on federal, state, and international tax matters related to supply chain, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, corporate reorganizations, and compliance. Luther Quast has also worked as an international tax counsel at Ameriprise Financial and as a senior international tax consultant at Deloitte Tax, LLP.?Her community involvement includes mentoring new law students and tax lawyers, providing pro bono tax counsel, serving on her synagogue's finance committee, and volunteering for her college alumnae association. Luther Quast previously served as chair of the Minnesota Lavender Bar Association and as an adjunct professor of corporate taxation at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Wendy Tien: Wendy Tien is a judge on the Minnesota Tax Court. She previously served as an assistant attorney general and manager of the Tax Division of the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, where she represented the state and its agencies in a wide range of tax, bankruptcy, and commercial litigation matters. Her community service includes volunteering as a judge for the MSBA Mock Trial program and sponsoring law students through the University of Minnesota Law School’s Judicial Externship program.

For more information about the judicial selection process, please visit the Governor’s Judicial Appointments webpage.