Jennifer Wilson Nominated to be U.S. District Judge for MD Penn (5/4/19)

Jennifer Wilson, a Tax Division Alum, has been nominated by President Trump to  the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.  The White House release is here.  The release says:

Jennifer Philpott Wilson of Pennsylvania, to serve as Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. 

Jennifer Wilson is a Partner with Philpott Wilson LLP, in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, where her practice includes civil litigation, criminal defense, and family law matters.  Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Wilson served as a Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice’s Tax Division and was an Associate with Chadbourne & Park LLP.  She has been an Adjunct Professor at Penn State University Dickinson School of Law, teaching a course on “Written Advocacy and Judicial Opinions.”  Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Wilson served as a law clerk to Judge Jon P. McCalla of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee and to Judge Julio M. Fuentes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Ms. Wilson earned her B.A., cum laude, from Swarthmore College and her J.D., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School, where she served as the Executive Notes and Comments Editor for the Brooklyn Law Review.

Renée McDonald Hutchins Appointed Dean of Law School (4/22/19)

Renée McDonald Hutchins, a DOJ Tax Alumnus, has been appointed Dean of the University of the the David A. Clarke School of Law (University of the District of Columbia Law School).  See press release here.  The relevant excerpt about her DOJ Tax experience is:

Hutchins moved to Washington, D.C., in 1997 to work as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. She served as a trial attorney in the Criminal Enforcement Section of the department’s Tax Division as well as a special assistant in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Her work with the Department of Justice brought her to the attention of Sills Cummis & Gross, where she became a Senior Associate in the firm’s white-collar criminal defense and general civil litigation practice in 2000.

Grimberg Nominated to be U.S. District Judge (4/4/19)

On April 2, 2019, President Trump nominated Steven D. Grimberg to be a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Atlanta.  The announcement is here, which I just cut and paste because it is brief:

Steven D. Grimberg of Georgia, to serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. 

Steven Grimberg is a Managing Director and General Counsel of Nardello & Co., where he heads the global investigation firm’s Atlanta, Georgia, office.  Before joining the firm in 2018, Mr. Grimberg prosecuted white collar crimes as an Assistant United States Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Economic Crimes Section in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia and as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice’s Tax Division.  Mr. Grimberg also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law, teaching courses on criminal procedure, criminal law, and trial advocacy.  He received his J.D., with distinction, from Emory University School of Law and B.A., with honors, from the University of Florida.

According to his current firm bio, here:

Steven served as an Assistant United States Attorney and a Deputy Chief of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, where he investigated and prosecuted numerous complex white collar criminal cases involving corporate fraud, embezzlement, public corruption, insider trading, tax evasion, computer hacking, bank fraud, and health care fraud. 

During his time with the US Attorney’s office, Steven helped supervise a section of approximately 25 federal white collar prosecutors and other professionals. He developed and led a Cyber Crime Unit, comprised of prosecutors who worked closely with highly-skilled law enforcement agents from the FBI, United States Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, and other law enforcement agencies to investigate, disrupt, dismantle, and prosecute some of the most prolific cyber-criminal organizations in the world. Steven served as a National Security Cyber Specialist for the US Department of Justice, which meant that he was the point of contact in the Atlanta metro area for all cyber-related threats and attacks that had national security implications. He regularly engaged in outreach to the private sector, collaborating on cyber defense practices through one-on-one meetings, seminars, panels, task forces, table top exercises, and case interactions. 

Steven served for over 12 years in various capacities at the US Department of Justice, during which time he received numerous awards and recognitions, including the prestigious US Department of Justice Director’s Award on two occasions. Prior to becoming a prosecutor, he worked in private practice for seven years representing clients in complex civil litigation across the country.

I don't have information about the DOJ Tax section(s) in which he worked.  If anyone has that information, please either post it as a comment or email me at jack@tjtaxlaw.com

Desmond Confirmed and Sworn in as Chief Counsel (3/19/19)

See Michael Desmond Confirmed And Sworn In As Trump's First IRS Chief Counsel (Tax Prof Blog 3/18/19), here.  His Wikipedia page is here.

Mike Cox Named VP Taxation for Norfolk Southern (1/24/19)

Michael F. ("Mike") Cox has been named Vice-President Taxation.  See Norfolk Southern names Michael F. Cox vice president taxation (Cision Newswire 1/23/19), here.  The announcement says only with respect to his service in that Tax Division that he was a trial attorney there.

Clare E. Connors Nominated as Attorney General for Hawaii (1/8/19)

Clare E. Connors has been appointed to be the Attorney General of the State of Hawaii.  She awaits Senate confirmation.  See Former assistant U.S. attorney picked to be Hawaii's new attorney general (Khon2 1/3/19), here.  Her Wikipedia page is here.

She had previously been nominated by President Obama named to a district court judge slot, but the nomination expired at the end of Obama's term.  See Wikipedia page above; and Clare E. Connors Nominated for Federal District Court Slot (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 9/9/15), here.

Mike Desmond Nomination as Chief Counsel Stymied (1/9/18)

I picked this up from Checkpoint Newstand for 1/9/19:

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has remained steadfast in blocking Senate floor action on the nomination of Michael Desmond to serve as IRS chief counsel. As described on the agency's website, the chief counsel "serves as the chief legal advisor to the IRS Commissioner on all matters pertaining to the interpretation, administration, and enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code, as well as all other legal matters". There was some hope that Desmond's nomination would come before the full Senate before the end of December but that was not the case. Menendez's office confirmed to the media that he had delayed floor action on the nomination. On Jan. 3, the Senate Finance Committee returned Desmond's nomination, along with a number of other nominations, to President Trump under the provisions of Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6 of the Standing Rules of the Senate. According to the Congressional Research Service, "nominations that are pending when the Senate adjourns sine die or recesses for more than 30 days are returned to the President unless the Senate, by unanimous consent, waives the rule requiring their return. If a nomination is returned, and the President still desires Senate consideration, he must submit a new nomination to the Senate". Menendez has described his opposition to the nomination of Desmond as well as his earlier opposition to the confirmation of current IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig as a protest against the agency's proposed regs, pursuant to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA; P.L. 115-97, 12/22/2017), that would prevent states from declaring certain state and local tax payments as charitable contributions. For the return of the nomination to the President, see here. 

Sex and Tax (Including the Tax Division) in the Movies (1/7/18; 1/19/19)

Many readers will already know that there is a new movie,  On the Basis of Sex (Wikipedia page here), which revolves around a tax case involving a constitutional issue on gender discrimination in the tax law in a case pitting Ruth Bader Ginsburg (yes, the notorious one, often referred to as RBG) and her husband Marty Ginsburg against the Tax Division.  (Sorry to disappoint, but it is not that kind of sex, although the confluence of sex and tax is usually an oxymoron but surely an attention grabber.)   RBG needs no introduction and, I suspect, neither does Marty who was, in my mind, the smartest tax lawyer around.  I have several Marty stories, but none related to the Tax Division Alumni.

The tax case was Moritz v. Commissioner, 469 F.2d 466 (10th Cir. 1972), here, cert. denied, 412 U.S. 906 (1973).  According to the movie portrayal, the principal actors from DOJ were:  Jim Bozarth, (Appellate Section line attorney now in private practice, here), Ernest J. Brown (Appellate Section reviewer and former tax professor at Harvard Law School, now deceased), and Erwin Griswold (Solicitor General and former tax professor and Dean at Harvard Law School, now deceased).  The movie does not include the SG tax assistant, Richard Stone, who would likely have been a principal player in the real drama.

Those who worked in the Appellate Section (like me, there at the time) may see some liberties taken in the movie (like the absence of the SG tax assistant who would have pulled the laboring oar in the SG's office, although my experience was that SG Griswold did take special interest in tax cases and would have done so in authorizing the petition for cert).  Whether the SG was materially involved prior to the Tenth Circuit decision seems unlikely.

I do have a friend, Peter Reilly, a tax blogger at Forbes, here, who has tried to gather information about the portrayals in the movie.  He has discussed the movie with me; to date those discussions with Peter were before I saw the movie.  I could then just talk about the working of the Appellate Section and the players involved, including the missing SG tax assistant (Richard Stone) and others.  Most significantly, Peter talked with Jim Bozarth.  As of this writing, Peter has written three blog entries on his sleuthing about the movie, including comments from the screenwriter, Daniel Stiepleman.  I list those current blog entries (updated) below, but urge readers interested in the topic to check back with Peter's blog because there will be later blog entries.  These are presented in chronological order.

• "On The Basis Of Sex" - What To Read Before You Watch (Forbes Peter Reilly 12/28/18), here.
• On The Basis Of Sex: How A Tax Case Became A Victory For Gender Equity (Forbes Peter Reilly 12/31/18), here.
• On The Basis Of Sex: Portrayal Of Opposing Attorney Has No Basis In Reality (Forbes Peter Reilly 1/4/19), here.
• On The Basis Of Sex - Watch The Other Lawyers (Forbes Peter Reilly 1/13/19), here.  (This is the most focused presentation on the DOJ Tax Appellate lawyers (Brown and Bozarth) and the Solicitor General.

Also, the TaxProfBlog re-posted Peter's first offering here.  Apparently given its very wide readership the TaxProfBlog got some great comments for the article, so I strongly recommend clicking on the Tax Prof Blog link and reading the comments.  Here is my favorite, although not about DOJ Tax lawyers:

My wife and I saw the movie at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The movie is a sweet love story, about a tax issue. We both liked the movie. I thought it was lovely. Just about a nice, married couple, and taxation. Who could ask for anything more?

Having now seen the movie, I will say that much of the presentation about the interactions of and with the DOJ Tax lawyers (Brown and Bozarth) did not strike me as what would have really happened.  Some  of Peter Reilly's blogs linked above get into that.  But, I don't think that they are so far off (except in one respect that I will note) that they take away from the overall movie or the zeal with which the DOJ Tax lawyers presented the case.

My only complaint is that they presented the Tenth Circuit argument almost as if it were a jury trial.  My experience with DOJ Tax Appellate is that the attorneys avoided the drama at oral argument (it is a tax case, after all).  The movie had, for example, Bozarth turning from the judges to look at the taxpayer (Moritiz) and the opposing lawyers (the Ginsburgs), and even casting an aspersion that the Ginsburgs promoted the case for reasons other than the client's interest.  I would be stunned if Bozarth did that (he is too class a lawyer for that) and am disappointed that the makers of the movie felt it appropriate to put that fictional (in my view) event in the movie.

I would appreciate comments from DOJ Tax Alumni.  Please make them below or send them to me at jack@tjtaxlaw.com.  Any information, anecdotes, etc., sent to me will not be published or shared with anyone else (including Peter Reilly without express permission).  One thing I am particularly interested in is who the SG tax assistant was (I may know that later today when a document package is delivered to Peter Reilly) and whether, if the SG tax assistant is still alive, how he might be contacted.

Also, those having difficulty posting comments (some do), please email the comments to me with a request to post the comment and I will take care of posting them.

Article on Mabel Walker Willebrandt, First AAG Tax (11/10/18)

I have just finished reading a wonderful article, William Hoke, Women in Tax Law -- Willebrandt Breaks DOJ Glass Ceiling (Tax Notes Worldwide Tax Daily 11/12/18), here.  (This link may be a temporary link; I have asked Tax Notes for permission to put the article on my Google Docs web site as a permanent link; I have not heard back yet.)  Readers having access to Tax Notes Worldwide Tax Daily may read it before I obtain that permission.

The Hoke article is fascinating with a lot of interesting detail on Willebrandt.  Well written.  Highly recommended.

Hoke cites in the article this "posthumous" interview of Mabel Walker Willebrandt, here, by Jasper L. Cummings, Jr.,a and Alan J.J. Swirski.  Excerpts from this interview:

Mabel Walker Willebrandt headed what became the Tax Division of the U.S. Justice Department from 1921 to 1929. She was famous at the time not for her tax duties but for her duties in enforcing the Volstead Act (Prohibition), which also was handled by her division. She was the second female Assistant Attorney General.*
* See generally Elizabeth K. MacDonald, “The Justice Department and Some Problems of Enforcement:” Mabel Walker Willebrandt, “Prohibition Portia” (posted at Women’s Legal History Project, Stanford University); Mabel Walker Willebrandt, The Inside of Prohibition (1929); Dorothy M. Brown, Mabel Walker Willebrandt: A Study of Power, Loyalty and Law (1984) (which was serialized in the New York Times); The Frederick A. Cook Society website; New York Times obituary, Apr. 9, 1963, at 31; various New York Times Archive articles, including Jan. 11 and 19, 1925, Nov. 17, 1925, Sept. 27, 1928, May 28, 1929, Apr. 15, 1934, and Oct. 22, 1950. 

Q What did you do before you joined the Justice Department?
A I graduated from the law school of the University of California in 1916 and largely defended prostitutes in police court. I served as the first public defender for women in Los Angeles, without pay, and represented over 2000 women. I did become active in Republican Party politics. 

Q Why were you appointed to head Prohibition enforcement?
A Well, as one of my friends said: “Nobody in the Justice Department wanted that job. It had no political  advantages at all. So, of course, they gave it to Mabel.” So I certainly did not seek out that part of the job. Eventually the opposition of the wets kept me from being appointed as the first female federal judge.Q Was there any conflict between your responsibility for Prohibition enforcement and for tax appeals?

A Some would say so. I recall the time I ruled that imported bootleg alcohol could be sold by the  Federal Marshals tax free. Secretary Mellon and the Commissioner were against me on that one and took it up with the Attorney General and Congress. The Times headline said I “overruled Mellon.” 

Q How many cases did you argue in the Supreme Court?
A My office submitted 278 cases on certiorari to the Supreme Court and I personally argued many of them; I am listed on 172 cases. Of course, my staff wrote most of the briefs.

Death of Rick Halberstein (10/29/18)

Richard ("Rick") Halberstein, a DOJ Tax alumni, who served in the Appellate Section according to my records, died on August 29, 2018.  His WAPO obituary, here (scroll down), is short, so I cut and paste it:

Richard Halberstein, 
lawyer 

Richard Halberstein, 75, a Washington lawyer and Capitol Hill neighborhood activist who was a founder and treasurer of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, died Aug. 29 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The cause was respiratory failure, said his wife, Leona Atkins. 

Mr. Halberstein was born in Marion, Ohio, and came to Washington in 1970. He was a tax lawyer with the Justice Department and the House Ways and Means Committee before opening a private law practice in 1976. His specialties included tax, probate, real estate, family law and services to small businesses and organizations. He was co-director of the Capitol Hill Free Tax Clinic. He retired and moved to Fort Lauderdale last year.

I have fond memories of Rick for the short period we overlapped in the Appellate Section.

Sorry for the late posting on this, but just received notice recentlty.