A Tax Division Attorney, Jordan Howlette (LinkedIn here), is mentioned prominently in this Thomson Reuters article: Natalie Runyon, Meaningful Work: How the pursuit of fairness leads some lawyers to the DOJ, here. Here are the relevant excerpts:
In reading the U.S. Department of Justice’s mission, it is hard not to get chills in digesting the magnitude of it. In particular, the parts about “defending the interests of the United States according to the law” and ensuring “fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans,” produce a resounding emotional response on its significance.
It is this very mission that inspires thousands of attorneys to join the department. Jordan Howlette and Jessica Massey are two of these lawyers.
The DOJ as a ‘beacon of hope’
Howlette pursued his dream of becoming a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney, after serving in the military and taking the bar exam while deployed in Afghanistan. He says that he viewed the agency as a “beacon of hope, in that the agency served as a bulwark against those seeking to harm others and a staunch defender of our civil liberties.”
Now, working on the civil side of the tax division as the litigating arm of the Internal Revenue Service, Howlette says he finds meaning each day because he gets to pursue justice through prosecutions by “seeking injunctions against dishonest tax return preparers who promoted fraudulent tax schemes and arrangements.” Many victims are from low-income backgrounds and are usually people of color, and Howlette says he finds this aspect of his work in particular, meaningful as an attorney of color himself.
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Autonomy, prosecutorial discretion & development opportunities
