Death of Michael K. Cavanaugh (2/11/23)

Michael K. Cavanaugh, a DOJ Tax Alum, died this past weekend.  His obituary is here.

Excerpt from the obit re his DOJ Tax service is:  “He earned an LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law. Michael was a trial attorney with the Tax Division of the Department of Justice prior to becoming a partner at Keck, Mahin, & Cate and then Foley & Lardner.”

I understand that his DOJ Tax tenure was in Appellate in the early 1960s; a search of cases confirms that.

The following information from the obit might be useful to Alums, particularly those in the Chicago vicinity:

Visitation Thursday, February 16, 2023, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Michalik Funeral Home, 1056 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60642. Family and friends will meet Friday, February 17, 2023, at Assumption Catholic Church, 323 W. Illinois St., Chicago, IL 60654 for a 10:30 a.m. Funeral Mass.

Death of Michael Swygert-Smith 9/22/22 (2/9/23)

Michael Swygert-Smith (known as Mike Smith in his Tax Division days) passed away on 9/22/22.  The obituaries are in the Washington Post here, and The Winchester Star, here.

The obits say Mike worked in the “Tax Appellate Division of the Department of Justice under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy” and that he left “After a number of years arguing tax cases before the Fifth Circuit in the Southeast , and working as an aide on RFK's political campaigns.” The Fifth Circuit then did include some Southeast states (later split off into the Eleventh Circuit), but I have to assume that Mike’s appellate docket included other areas of the Fifth Circuit (e.g., Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi) and indeed other Circuits. (That was my experience in DOJ Tax Appellate, coming along not too long after Mike.)