Update on Larry Meuwissen (3/7/15)

ALJ Larry Meuwissen retired on February 28, 2015 after more than 22 cumulative years of federal service in DOJ Tax, Department of Interior, and the last 13 years with the  Social security Administration.  Larry and his wife, Joyce, just returned from 5 weeks in Africa and are planning to open their bed and breakfast, Sans Adieu,  in St. Paul MN sometime this summer.  Look for them on airbnb in June.

Cono Namorato to Be DOJ Tax AAG (2/24/15)

President Obama has announced his intent to nominate Cono Namorato as the Assistant Attorney General of DOJ Tax.  The announcement included the following description of Cono:

Cono R. Namorato is currently a Member of the law firm Caplin & Drysdale, a position he has held since 2006 and previously from 1978 to 2004. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Namorato served as Acting Deputy Commissioner for certain designated matters and as Director of the Office of Professional Responsibility for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the Department of the Treasury. Before beginning his career at Caplin & Drysdale, Mr. Namorato held various positions within the Tax Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Deputy Assistant Attorney General from 1977 to 1978, Assistant Chief and then Chief of the Criminal Section from 1973 to 1977, and Supervisory Trial Attorney and Trial Attorney from 1968 to 1973. Mr. Namorato began his career in 1963 as a Special Agent for the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS in the Brooklyn District. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. Mr. Namorato has headed various tax-related committees and subcommittees for the American Bar Association, serving as Chair of the Tax Section’s Subcommittee on Criminal Tax Policy, Chair of the Committee on Tax Litigation, and Co-Chair of the Committee on Complex Criminal Litigation of the Litigation Section. Mr. Namorato received a B.B.A. from Iona College and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

JAT Comment:  I have known Cono since my earliest days at DOJ Tax in 1969.  Cono was in the Criminal Section.  I was in the Appellate Section.  Our Sections had offices adjacent to each other.  Cono befriended me earlier and I always appreciated that.  He is a class act.

Reunion of SD NY Attorneys (11/3/14)

I thought some of you might be interested in this article on a Reunion of lawyers from SD NY.  Benjamin Weiser, Generations of Lawyers Gather for a Reunion Like No Other (NYT 10/26/14), here.  Some of our group formerly worked there or worked with that office on tax cases.

Ron Cimino Retires from DOJ Tax (10/25/14)

Ron Cimino has retired from DOJ Tax after more than 40 years.  The Main Justice article is here.

As the article recounts, Ron has had many roles at DOJ Tax, from trial attorney to Section Chief of CES-Western to DAAG for Criminal Matters.

He served well.

Kathy Keneally Joins DLA Piper.

Former DOJ Tax AAG, Kathryn Keneally, will join DLA Piper.  See press release here.

Tom Frazier's Death (9/23/14)

Tom Frazier who was with the Tax Division from about 1958 through 1962 died on 9/12/14.  His obituary is here.

The obituary indicates that a "Celebration of his life will be held at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Washington, DC on November 30 at 2 p.m."

Jed M. Silversmith Joins Blank Rome (630/14)

From the press release at Philly.com, here.

Blank Rome L.L.P. has hired Jed M. Silversmith as of counsel in the white-collar defense and investigations group in the firm's Philadelphia office. He joins the firm from the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Tax Division, where he served as a trial attorney prosecuting criminal tax cases in federal courts throughout the United States. He also is a former trial attorney for the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Note that the picture beside this blurb is not Jed's.

Jed's Blank Rome bio and real picture is here.

Johnnie Walters' Death (6/26/14)

Johnnie Walters died Tuesday, 6/24/14.  Johnnie was formerly AAG Tax and, thereafter, Commissioner of Internal Revenue.  His big claim to fame was, as Commissioner, ignoring the Nixon White House insistence that the IRS use its powers to go after perceived enemies.

There will be several obituaries and I will link some of them.

• NYT here.
• GreenvilleOnline here.

Johnnie was a good man.

A little personal anecdote.  Johnnie came to NYU to interview students for positions at DOJ Tax.  I interviewed and arranged a date to come to DC for further interviews.  I showed up at Guy Tadlock's office, but was met wtih the question "Why are you here. We've already decided to make you the offer."  Of course, no one told me.  So, they let me wander the halls of Justice (you could do that in those days) and then leave without further ado.

DOJ Tax AAG Kathy Keneally is Leaving DOJ Tax (5/27/14)

The DOJ Press release is here.

Kathy has been a dedicated public servant.  Some of her accomplishments are set forth in the press release, but I am also sure that she has touched and benefited the Tax Division in many other ways, large and small.

Our best wishes to Kathy.

The press release indicates that she will return to her home in New York.  I expect that she will return to private practice and serve clients with the same professionalism she exhibited in private practice and as AAG.

Law360 Article on Fran Allegra (5/19/14)

Law360 has printed this article on DOJ Tax Alum, Judge Fran Allegra of the Court of Federal Claims.  The Tenacious Technocrat: Judge Francis Allegra (Law360 5/13/14), here.  I won't try to excerpt or summarize the article.  It is relatively short, so I encourage alumni to read it.

I will say along the theme of the article that I assign my tax procedure students one of Judge Allegra's cases to read,  Principal Life Ins. Co. v. United States, 95 Fed. Cl. 786 (Fed. Cl. 2010), here.  See Principal Life -- A Masterpiece of Tax Procedure (Federal Tax Procedure Blog 11/29/13), here.