Johnnie Walters on the Nixon Tapes and Related Materials (5/14/13)

Johnnie Walters, former AAG Tax and then Commissioner of Internal Revenue, was in the mix during the turbulent years when Richard Nixon was abusing the powers of the office of President.  His background is at this site, here, for the dedication of his papers to the University of South Carolina.  Those of us who remember those times, remember that Johnnie was a good and decent man and disappointed President Nixon because he would not do his political bidding as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

I just came across some transcripts on the Miller Center website.  The Miller Center, here, is transcribing and putting on the web presidential voice recordings.  Us old timers will remember that President Nixon secretly recorded a number of Oval Office meetings and telephone calls, which ultimately contributed to his downfall.  Among those transcribed are some referring to Johnnie Walters.  Here is a link to a search on that site for Johnnie Walters, which picks up the material related to Johnnie.

I cut and paste below one of the offerings from these materials; the web page is here.  The discussion appears to revolve around getting a more compliant Commissioner of Internal Revenue to replace Johnnie Walters who resisted the White House's political overtures:

President Nixon: The IRS thing is important but, God, we ought to be able to get some loyal son of a bitch. 

H.R. "Bob" Haldeman: I think we can. 

John Ehrlichman: We will, we will. 

President Nixon: There ought to be some guy that will do our bidding. That’s what we want, isn’t it? I don’t want that to drop between the stools. I don’t want another Johnnie Walters. We’ll get some—OK. [Unclear] a guy on your own staff. How about [Egil "Bud"] Krogh? Is he a tax lawyer?

Frank Blanchfield Death (5/13/13)

Obituary from the Augusta Chronicle,.here:

 CHARLOTTE - Francis Joseph Frank Blanchfield, Jr. passed away at his home on Sunday, May 12, 2013, after a long struggle with Diabetes. Born in Chicago, Illinois on September 19, 1945, Frank was the oldest son of the late Francis J. Blanchfield, Sr. and the late Margaret H. Blanchfield. He is survived by his wife, Sandra G. Blanchfield of Charlotte, NC, and his son, Brian A. Blanchfield of Tucson, Arizona. Other survivors include his sister, Melissa A. Gurnari of Bloomingdale, NJ, and her husband Joey; his brother, James S. Blanchfield of Huntersville, NC, and his wife Diane; and six nieces. Frank graduated with top honors in political science from the College of Holy Cross in 1967, and then attended New York University Law School on a prestigious Root-Tilden Scholarship. At NYU he was President of the Student Bar Association and recipient of the Vanderbilt Medal. After law school Frank served in active duty as First Lieutenant and Instructor in Criminal and Military Law at the US Army Military Police School in Fort Gordon, Georgia. Upon fulfillment of his military service, Frank returned to NYU to receive an LLM in Taxation in 1974. After four years of private practice as an associate and partner with the Augusta, Georgia law firm of Hull, Towill, Norman, Bennett & Johnson, Frank worked for the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General (1977 to 1979) and then Deputy Assistant Attorney General (1979 to 1980), where he served with distinction and received the U.S. Attorney General's Medal. In 1980 Frank returned to private practice in Charlotte, NC, where he worked for more than thirty years with several regional, national and international law firms which he either founded, co-founded or served in leadership roles in office and practice management. He retired from Mayer Brown LLP in September 2010. Throughout his career, Frank's business judgment and tax expertise were highly regarded by CEO's and senior management of public and privately held companies, tax managers, accountants, individual clients and attorneys who had the privilege of working with him. Frank was recognized as a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. He had a keen interest in tax policy and often assisted in guiding tax policy on both state and national levels, including working as an advisor to the US Treasury Department in co-drafting the Puerto Rican Income Tax Act of 1975. In 1990, Frank was selected by Justice Harry Blackmun for participation in the Aspen Institute Justice and Society Seminar, a testament to his capacious and searching intellect. Frank enjoyed being a mentor, enthusiastically offering his insight, judgment, tax expertise, superb writing skills and ever present humor to the partners, associates and staff of the law firms in which he served. Frank's role as counselor included his commitment to serving the community. Among the many service opportunities he embraced, Frank served on the Arts and Science Counsel Board (as Chairman and Board Member) and the North Carolina Dance Theatre Board, and gave generously to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In each instance Frank was fully engaged and his service was backed by his personal commitment to contribute his time, talents and financial resources for the betterment of the organizations and the community they served. Frank's commitment to community also included providing legal services without charge to individuals with little means who faced difficult legal challenges. Throughout his life and legal career, Frank's actions and work were epitomized by professionalism, dedication to excellence, commitment to community, generosity, and by his tireless devotion to his family and the many friends and associates whose lives he touched. In addition to his numerous work and community contributions, Frank will be missed for his inclusive personality, quick Irish wit, and laughter which were present throughout his life. The Heritage Funeral Home is serving the Blanchfield family. Visitation will be held at Heritage Funeral Home located at 3700 Forest Lawn Drive, Matthews, NC on Wednesday, May 15th from 5:00PM to 8:00PM. The funeral service will be held at St. Gabriel Catholic Church located at 3016 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC at 11:00AM on Thursday, May 16th. Interment will follow in Forest Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: 205 Regency Executive Park Drive, Suite 102, Charlotte, NC, 28217. 

Published in The Augusta Chronicle from May 14 to May 15, 2013

Although I have not compared it word for word, the Charlotte Observer obituary, here, appears the same.

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Thanks to Justin Thornton for the above information.  Justin also advises that Tax Division alumni serving as pallbearers were Patrick J. Sheedy, Thomas D. Blondin, Steven L. ("Jake") Snyder, Wilmer ("Buddy") Parker III, and Justin.

In the meantime, alumni or friends of the family wanting the home address to contact the family can either email me (jack@tjtaxlaw.com) or call me (713-521-9977).  If you email, please put some information as to your relationship with the family.

Jim McCune Death on 3/19/13 (3/25/13)

The Washington Post records today that Jim McCune ("Gentleman Jim") died on 3/19/13.  The obituary is here.  Key excerpt related to Tax Division:

His legal career began at the Department of Justice in 1961 working first in the Administrative Division and later in the Tax and Civil Rights Divisions. Working under Robert Kennedy during the Civil Rights Movement, Jim was part of the drive to implement the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and instrumental in the Natchez Mississippi School Desegregation Case. He joined the U.S. Army as a Judge Advocate General Officer and served for 30 years.

Also:

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to CentralVirginia.JDRF.org are appreciated by the family. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.hollomon-brown.com 

2013 DOJ Tax Division Alumni Event - CANCELED

The DOJ Tax Division Alumni Reunion Event previously planned for 5/10/13 has been CANCELED.  The notice of the cancellation has been emailed on 3/29/13 to those on the YahooGroups list and is posted on this blog page (to right) here.

Louis F. Oberdorfer Dies (2/22/13)

The news reports are the Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer has died at age 94.  See the Legal Times Blog here, which has a good bio summary.

The Wikipedia summary, here -- very short -- is pretty good, with the Tax Division experience highlighted:

Professional career 

After working as a law clerk, Oberdorfer went into private practice in Washington D.C. with the firm Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison as a tax attorney until his friend Deputy Attorney General Byron White asked him to join the Robert Kennedy Justice Department in 1961. He was hired as Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division but, since the division was largely organized and self-sustaining, he focused his energies on many legal issues, particularly civil rights. 

He returned to private practice in 1965 with Wilmer, Cutler, & Pickering. Oberdorfer remained friendly with the Kennedy family and personally represented Jacqueline Kennedy in a 1966-1967 public legal battle with historian William Manchester over the ownership of interview materials and their publication in his book The Death of a President about the John F. Kennedy assassination. In 1968, Oberdorfer was elected co-chairman of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He served as president of the District of Columbia Bar Association in 1977-1978. When Griffin Bell became attorney general in 1977, Oberdorfer was considered for the deputy position, but was instead appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He has championed opposition to mandatory sentencing policies, especially with respect to drug offenders. He assumed status as a senior judge in 1992. He also taught part-time at Georgetown Law Center from 1993 until his death.

Also, the D.C. Bar had a series on Legends in the Law, including one on Judge Oberdorfer, here.   I cut and paste the part on his tenure in the tax division (with the predicate part about his entry into the field of tax law; I also highlight some things of interest, at least to me).

BR: How did you enter private practice? 

LO: I had an offer from the firm of Paul Weiss Wharton & Garrison. Lloyd K. Garrison, who was serving as special master appointed by the Supreme Court in the case of Georgia v. The Pennsylvania Railroad, came into Black’s chambers one day and invited me to come into the New York office of Paul, Weiss. I didn’t want to go to New York, but they then had a small tax office in Washington headed by Randolph E. Paul who wrote the first scholarly treatise on the federal income tax and the first scholarly treatise on the federal estate tax. At the time Paul and his partners were the ultimate pros in the tax field. I went down to the office to talk to them and they said they do only tax work, which I wasn’t interested in. Paul said, "I turned down around a hundred thousand dollars of non-tax business last year. Why don’t you come down here and take care of the non-tax cases." I took the job and I never saw a non-tax case! By default I became a tax lawyer.

David Hubbard Appointed DAAG for Civil Matters (2/15/13)

On 2/15/13, Tax Notes Today reported that:

David Hubbert was appointed deputy assistant attorney general for civil matters in the Justice Department Tax Division in October 2012, replacing John DiCicco, who retired in January 2013. Hubbert was previously chief of the civil trial section, Eastern region. He joined the DOJ in 1985 through the honors program and was a trial attorney in both the civil trial section, Western region, and the appellate section. Hubbert received his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his BS from the University of Arizona.

Jerry Feffer Death (2/13/13)

I just received notice from the Tax Division that Jerry Feffer has passed away.

The "long-form" Washington Post Obituary is here.  (For some reason, it was not posted until 3/4.)  I recommend this one to readers.  The "short-form" Washington Post Obituary is here.

I encourage those reading the blog to post their own memories as comments to this blog.  Be sure and put your comments as comments (and not as a reply to another comment unless you mean that it reply to someone else's comment).  For instructions on how to comment, see the link in the upper right hand corner of this blog.  Thanks.

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Bob Fink of Kostelanetz & Fink LLP  posted the following in the New York Times, here:

FEFFER--Gerald,. I have just lost my dearest friend, Jerry Feffer. I write this notice to share with others a few of my thoughts in the hope that in doing so, it will somehow help to assuage the pain and void that is felt from Jerry's passing. Jerry had an extraordinary legal career as a highly respected federal prosecutor and a Deputy Assistant Attorney General with the Department of Justice. But it was in private practice as a partner with the firm of Kostelanetz & Ritholz, and later at Williams & Connelly, that Jerry attained nationwide recognition as the leading criminal tax defense attorney in America. That is what gave Jerry fame but it was Jerry, the man, the husband, the father and friend that brought him love. He was caring, generous, playful and wise. One of those extremely rare human beings whose heart was always open to understand and feel the concerns of others, and whose mind could always absorb the ideas of others without prejudgment. Everyone who had contact with him adored him. When he would put his arm on your shoulder, flash his brilliant smile and share his thoughts with you, you knew that all would be well. He shall be missed by so many. Robert S. Fink Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP