Death of Chuck Hurley on 9/30/26 (10/7/26)

Charles Paul Hurley "Chuck" Hurley died on 9/30/26. His obituary is here. The portion of his obituary relevant to Tax Division service is:

Chuck relocated to Washington, D.C., where he led a successful career as a tax litigator. He first joined the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in 1990, where he was responsible for litigating significant tax trials involving complex disputes. Chuck served as lead attorney on two of the Tax Division’s most prominent cases: Long-Term Capital Holdings v. United States and Trigon Insurance Co. v. United States. He left the Tax Division in 2003 to join Mayer Brown LLP, becoming a partner in 2006. He ultimately returned to the DOJ in 2019 to mentor a new generation of trial attorneys before retiring in fall 2021. Chuck and his wife returned to the Cleveland area in 2023, where he spent his remaining years surrounded by loved ones.

The obit says: 

A Celebration of Life Service and reception will be held at The Chagrin Valley Hunt Club, 7620 Old Mill Road, Gates Mills, Ohio, on Saturday, October 17, at 11:00 a.m. 

My database indicates that his DOJ Tax service was:

TAX DIV ALUMNI SECTIONS
SECTION	POSITION	BEGYEAR	ENDYEAR
CIVIL - CENTRAL	Trial Attorney	1990	2006

I don’t recall that I ever met Chuck, but my understanding from the first time I heard about him is that he was an outstanding litigator and a good man.

Death of Mark Josephson on 7/19/26 (9/18/26)

Mark Josephson died on July 19 according to this article under the category label (along with Arts and Culture and news): Mitch Dudek, Mark 'DJ Ice Box' Josephson, an early champion of Chicago rap, has died at 58 (Chicago Sun Times 9/18/26), here. The excerpt related to his DOJ Tax service is:

Mr. Josephson DJed during his time as a U. of C. student and for eight years after graduating. After law school at Northwestern University, he worked for the Department of Justice’s tax division and for then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Clarification: Lisa Madigan was the Illinois Attorney General.

Two comments:

1. I don’t have information in my database about Mark. If anyone has the years of service and positions, please let me know.

2. The obituary linked above is a great read. I recommend it to alumni!

 

Death of Dick Scully 7/14/26 (8/27/26)

Richard A. (“Dick”) Scully dies on July 14, 2026. His obituary is here. The obituary does not discuss his tenure in the Tax Division specifically but does mention that he worked at DOJ.

My database indicates that he served in Civil-Eastern as Assistant Chief and served in General Litigation. Years are not indicated.

Thanks to Bob Sevila for bringing this to my attention.

 

Miscellaneous On the Current DOJ and Trump v. IRS (8/5/26)

I thought I would offer some miscellaneous links to potential items of interest for DOJ Tax Division Alumni:

1. Article with co-author from Tax Division: John Koskinen, Kathryn Keneally, Kathryn Keneally, & Gilbert Rothenberg, Giving the President Tax Immunity Would Be Illegal and Unjust (BloombergTax 8/5/216), here.

2. A more uplifting story of a DOJ Tax Alumnus, Justice Robert H. Jackson (former AAG Tax Division and other high level posts before becoming a Justice), was presented in Michael R. Dreeben, Robert Jackson's The Federal Prosecutor Revisited, 139 Harv. L. Rev. Forum 173 (2026), here. Mr. Drebeen has no service in the Tax Division, although he was a long-time Assistant Solicitor General and during some of the time Deputy Solicitor General. Mr. Drebeen “revisits” then Attorney General Jackson’s iconic address on the role of the federal prosecutor. The original Jackson address is here. The Jackson address was always highly aspirational for me even though I was not a “federal prosecutor.” I just for the most part represented the Government (U.S. or Commissioner) in civil tax cases, but I still thought the tone of the address spoke to my service. The original Jackson address is  particularly timely in these days when so many DOJ norms are being disrespected, sometimes with conduct that violates the aspirations Justice Jackson set.

3. I return to the theme of illegality in the “relief” provided to Trump and others in the Trump Circle, which is the subject of Gil Rothenberg’s article in ¶ 1 above. I just finished my 2026 Federal Tax Procedure Book Student and Practitioner Editions, see my Blog page titled Federal Tax Procedure Book (2026 Editions) (Federal Tax Procedure Blog 8/4/26), here. In those Editions, I conclude with a summary of Trump v. IRS that I am sure all readers of this blog are already familiar with that summary, so I just post here my conclusion in the book after the summary:

Ugolini Returns to direct DOJ Tax Litigation Branch Appellate Section (7/29/26)

Francesca Ugolini, former head of DOJ Tax Appellate Section, returns to DOJ as Director of the Tax Litigation Branch’s Appellate Section. See Erin Slowey, DOJ Veteran to Oversee Unit Tasked With Civil Tax Case Appeals (Bloomberg Law 2/28/26), here (behind paywall).

Death of John Flanagan 6/25/26 (7/1/26)

John Flanagan died on June 25. His obituary is here. The obituary says in part relevant to his DOJ Tax service:

He clerked for a U.S. Tax Court judge, and in 1968 joined the United States Department of Justice as a prosecuting attorney in the Tax Division. He tried cases across the United States, always intrigued that so many people from Cincinnati he met in Washington wanted to return home.

Amended 7/7/26 6:00pm: I am informed that John was in Refund 1, a civil trial section, rather than the Criminal Section (that might be inferred from "prosecuting attorney" in the obituary. 

Report on DOJ Tax Alumni Reunion 2026 (5/21/26; 5/25/26)

I am late posting on the DOJ Tax Alumni Reunion 2026 at the offices of Miller & Chevalier Chartered, here, (“M&C”) I will post a brief report and offer some pictures here. I may update both.

First, I thank Mike Desmond of M&C, here, the staff of M&C, and M&C for all they did to make the event happen. Truly a magnificent event in a great venue with great people.

I only speak to the event from my perspective. Unfortunately being an older generation alumnus, I did not recognize most alumni present. Still, there were enough of roughly my generation that renewing acquaintances was a joy for me.

The event included a brief interlude some leadership over the years made comments. Mike Desmond handled that phase of the reunion, identifying the persons who would make comments and turning over the mike to them. These included Shirley Peterson (former AAG Tax and IRS Commissioner), Eileen O'Connor (former AAG Tax), Paula Junghans (former Acting AAG Tax and Principal Deputy AAG Tax), Rod Rosenstein (former DAAG Tax), and Joshua Wu (Deputy AAG Civil).

The event included mingling, catching up, and many smiles. What a great opportunity!

I am setting up a separate page to the right under Alumni Information with pictures that I have (very few). The page can be linked here. I hope those who took pictures will share the pictures as they feel moved and appropriate by emailing them to me at jack@tjtaxlaw.com. Be sure and identify the persons in the pictures you send.

Also, feel free to comment to this blog entry or to the picture page as you feel so moved. I do moderate the comments.

Death of John McAllister 4/29/26 (5/18/26)

John McAllister died on April 29. His obituary is here. The obituary says in part relevant to his DOJ Tax service:

John began his legal career with the U.S. Department of Justice in the Tax Division's Northern Civil Trial Section. He spent many years in private practice with Groom Law Group in Washington, D.C., where he built a reputation for integrity and dedication. He concluded his distinguished career as an Assistant Attorney General in the Vermont Department of Taxes in Montpelier, Vermont.

My database shows that he served in Civil Trial Northern from 1979 to 1983.

Article on DOJ Tax Obituary (4/15/26)

1. DOJ Tax Alumni may be interested in this offering: Karen Kelly, An Obituary for DOJ’s Tax Division (Justice Connection 4/15/26), here.

While considering the Tax Division and its role and the reasons the Trump administration may want to diminish its role (and disserve the country), readers might want to consider the following from DOJ Tax’s history, particularly the role of Robert H. Jackson, former AAG Tax, Solicitor General, Attorney General, Supreme Court Justice, and Nuremburg War Crimes Prosecutor:

• Congratulations to the U.S. on Excellence Joining the U.S. Department of Justice (1936) (Jackson List 4/8/62), here.
• “The Federal Prosecutor,” in 1940, and in Hope Even Today (The Jackson List 4/1/26), here.

 

Shuffling the DOJ Tax Deck Once Again (4/10/26; 4/11/26)

The Acting Attorney General announced by memo dated 4/7/26, here, some initial details of the National Fraud Enforcement Division that President Trump created by Executive Order 14395, titled "Establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud," here. In part relevant to tax crimes enforcement, the memo says (p. 2, bold-face supplied by JAT):

• Effective immediately, the Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division shall assume operational control of the Criminal Division's Tax Section, the Health Care Fraud Unit, and the Market, Government, and Consumer Fraud Unit, and shall establish the priorities and direct the allocation of resources within them. During this interim period, the existing supervisory chains responsible for the above-named units and section will continue to exercise supervisory authority for their personnel, subject to oversight and direction from the Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division.

Relative to the priorities of criminal tax enforcement, does this re-alignment (more like a shuffling of the deck) accomplish anything meaningful, unless the signal is to use more criminal tax resources to support nontax criminal initiatives rather than to support the tax system.

Added 4/11/26 2:00pm:

ThomsonReuters has this article: Maureen Leddy, DOJ Criminal Tax Section Moves Again (ThomsonReuters 4/10/26), here. Key excerpts: