Death of Murphy Booth 5/29/21 (6/1/21)

Murphy Booth passed away on Saturday, May 29, 2021, after a short battle with cancer.

Murphy’s public service with the federal government spanned more than 42 years. He first joined the government in 1977 working for the Soil Conservation Service at the Department of Agriculture followed by more than three years at the Veterans’ Administration. Murphy joined the Tax Division on January 22, 1984, working in the Criminal Section. He worked for many years in the Criminal Enforcement Section, Northern Region, before moving to the Office of Management and Administration in 1997. 

His obituary is here:  https://www.goinghomecares.com/obituaries/Murphy-Booth?obId=21249778. 

At this time, plans for a memorial service are not available. If I lean of plans for a memorial service, I will post the information here.

Follow by Email Feedburner Email Notice Service Being Discontinued (5/10/21)

Some DOJ Tax Alumni have signed up for and have been receiving email notifications of new blog entries via a service called Feedburner through the “Follow by Email” widget that formerly was in the right hand column on this blog.  The Feedburner service is being discontinued in July 2021.  I am therefore eliminating that widget so that Follow by Email will not longer be available for new  subscribers for that service and,  I suppose, the Follow by Email service will stop working in July 2021 for persons who were already registered.

There are other services that, I understand, can provide similar functionality, but I just have not spent the time to try to figure out how they work and how to implement them on the blog site.  If and when I figure that out, I provide a replacement for the "Follow by Email" functionality.

I have downloaded the email addresses of those who were registered as of today.  So, if I get a substitute service for this functionality, I will email those persons with notice so that they can register.

Mike Desmond Joins Gibson Dunn (5/7/21)

Gibson Dunn has announced here that Mike Desmond joined the firm as a partner.  Mike was most immediately the IRS Chief Counsel, but earlier in his career had been a DOJ Tax trial attorney, according to the press release, from 1995 to 2000.  There is no indication as to the section or sections in DOJ Tax in which he served.

Former AAG Loretta Argrett Gives Talk for Tax Court Diversity and Inclusion Series (3/3/21)

The Tax Court has a Diversity and Inclusion series announced February 12, 2021.  The series is announced on the Tax Court Engagement & Outreach site here.  The first speaker was Loretta Argrett who spoke on 2/24/21.  Here recorded talk is linked on the site and can be directly viewed here.

Readers of this blog will remember the Ms. Argrett previously served as Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division in the Clinton Administration.  Her bio is offered on the Stanford law School Women Trailblazers Project,  here.  The excerpt related to her Tax Division service is:

At the beginning of the Clinton Administration, Ms. Argrett became the Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division, in the Justice Department and was the first African American to serve in that position. She also became the first African American woman in the Department's history to hold a position that requires Senate confirmation. During her six years at the Department, Ms. Argrett actively championed women and recruited them for positions of leadership. She restructured the Division not only to increase its effectiveness and efficiency, but to provide advancement opportunities for legal support personnel, many of whom were African American "single moms." At one point during her tenure at Justice, the three top positions in the Division were held by women.

Death of Rodger Moore 2/6/17 (2/28/21)

Rodger Moore died on 2/6/17.  I was just notified of this, so sorry for the belated notice.  

His obituary is here.  The obituary says:

He was employed by the U.S. Military Court of Appeals and retired as a trial attorney for the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Rodger served in Refund 2 while I was in that section (1974-1977) and, as I recall, was an old-timer (47 years old).  I am not sure what his trajectory in DOJ Tax was other than that.

Death of Stanley Ruby 1/2/21 (1/10/21)

Stanley Ruby died on Jan. 2.  His obituary from the Cincinnati Business Courier is here.  The obituary says:

Ruby began his career in Washington, D.C., where he was a clerk for Judge Tannenwald Jr. on the U.S. Tax Court. He continued his career as an attorney in the tax division at the Department of Justice. 

In my database, I have that he served in the Appellate Section from 1968 to 1970.  I joined the Appellate Section in 1969 and remember him as a very good lawyer.

Setting Up New DOJ Tax Division Alumni Mailing List (1/5/21)

I have just been notified that our DOJ Tax Division Alumni YahooGroups was discontinued in December.  I probably had been notified earlier but give it the attention I should have.  In recent years, I had used that service only to do mass emails to DOJ Tax Division Alumni who requested to be on the list.  I think the last time I looked, there were perhaps 100 on the list.  I can't access the list now,  so I don't know who was on the list.

I am looking to establish an alternative email list, probably using the Google Groups service.  However, I will have to enter to make all persons who want to be on the list members of the Google Groups service.  Membership means that members will receive emails sent to the Google Groups service and can post emails to the service (which I will vet in order to prevent inappropriate use of the list).  In terms of members' use, the service will be very much like the YahooGroups service.

I will start working on setting that up later this week.  If any DOJ Tax Division alum wants to be on the new mailing list, please let me know at jack@tjtaxlaw.com.  Emails sent through the service will be limited.  I think in the past the number was less than 10 a year on average and certainly no more than 20 per year.

Sorry for this disruption in service.

Death of George Hrdlicka 12/31/20 (1/3/21)

George Hrdlicka died on December 31, 2020.  His obituary is here; and his law firm bio is here.  George had an outstanding career and life.  George was a founder of the firm now known as Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams and Aughtry, founded by Hank Chamberlain, George Hrdlicka, Bob White and Bob Waters, all alumni of the Tax Division.  That firm (generally referred to as Chamberlain Hrdlicka) has had many DOJ Tax Division Alumni, including me, over the years and the founding partners there mentored and contributed to the professional and personal development of many of those alumni and to others in the firm.  Also among the DOJ Tax Alumni was Sidney Williams, now a named partner in the firm and still going strong in his 80s.

 Here are the key excerpts from his obituary related to his DOJ Tax experience and the professional trajectory thereafter.

 He started his law career at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. in the late 1950s where he represented the Internal Revenue Service in the Federal Courts all over the Midwest. He met his lifelong partner, Judy Paulus, in D.C. and they married in 1964.

 In 1965, his former DOJ colleague Harold Chamberlain enticed George down to Houston where the opportunities were boundless. George and Judy packed it up, left D.C. and arrived in Houston. He co-founded what is now the law firm Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams and Aughtry with Hank Chamberlain, Robert White and Robert Waters. They worked in a small office handling all manner of tax cases and lived on nothing in the beginning. Judy would exclaim, “We ate eggs all week and chicken on Sunday.” Notably, George worked actively at the firm until his early 80s and never officially retired. He had lunch with his close friend and law partner Sidney Williams weekly for the better part of his career. Ever the teacher, mentor and counselor, George also taught at University of Houston Law Center for 30 years as an adjunct professor in Partnership Tax. His gift was to break down complicated tax concepts and teach them in a simple way that students and clients could understand.

And, indicative of his life, the following is an excerpt from the obituary:

His last adventure was in his home in Houston. There was nothing more important to him than his family whom he sacrificed opportunities once they entered his life. Resilient until the end, he waited until he could be in his home from the hospital to say goodbye. His final breath holding Judy’s hand whom he loved, always concerned that she would be taken care of for life. He left a legacy of kindness, intellect, hard work, insightful calm thinking, modesty and respect for others, a witty sense of humor, adventure, love, and generously enriching others. He will be missed and remembered as living a full life and going out with a bang on Judy’s 81st birthday, the perfect ending to their love story.

The obituary says:  "A service and Celebration of Life will be held at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Memorial Park when it is safe to gather."

On a personal note, while in my brief tenure with Chamberlain Hrdlicka, I worked substantially with George.  He was a class act. 

Mizelle Nominated to District Judgeship (8/13/20)

President Trump nominated Kathryn Kimball Mizelle to be a District Judge for the Middle District of Florida.  See White House press release here.  The relevant part of the announcement is here (emphasis supplied):

Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, of Florida, to serve as Judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Kathryn Mizelle is an attorney at Jones Day, where her practice focuses on complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals.  Ms. Mizelle previously served at the Department of Justice as Counsel to the Associate Attorney General, a Trial Attorney in the Tax Division, and as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.  Ms. Mizelle also serves as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.  Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Mizelle served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court, Judge Gregory G. Katsas of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Chief Judge William H. Pryor, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and Judge James S. Moody, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.  Ms. Mizelle earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Covenant College, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she served as the Executive Notes & Comments Editor of the Florida Law Review.

Death of Sumner Redstone (8/12/20)

Sumner Redstone died on August 11, 2020.  See Wikipedia, here.  Also from Wikipedia:

After completing law school, Redstone served as special assistant to U.S. Attorney General Tom C. Clark (who later served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1967) and then worked for the United States Department of Justice Tax Division in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, and thereafter entered private practice.

I am not sure about that Tax Division in San Francisco, but he did work in the Tax Division.  See Tax Division Alumnus in the Tax News (DOJ Tax Division Alunni News 10/27/15), here (quoting Estate of Redstone v. Commissioner, 145 T.C. 259, 261 (2015), here).

The New York Times obituary is here.