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.

 

Recent DOJ Alumni Statement Condemning on the Flynn Case (2/18/20)

I previously posted the following:  DOJ Alumni Statement Condemning AG Barr (DOJ Tax Alumni Blog 2/18/20), here.  In that post, I advised about an informal DOJ Alumni group, with considerable mass (i.e., alumni participants) who were making a statement of dissatisfaction with Attorney General Barr.  In that notice, I provided it only for the information of DOJ Tax Alumni that might be interested and otherwise did not know about the initiative.  I did not recommend it to anyone.

In the same vein, I offer this new statement by the DOJ Alumni Group.  DOJ Alumni Statement on Flynn Case (Medium 5/11/20), here.

The group says that it will continue to update the list of those supporting the statement here for those who may not have considered it yet.

Again, I am not endorsing the statement for others.  I did join the list, but that is not a recommendation for others to do so.

Trump Announces Intent to Nominate De Mello as Inspector General for Dept of Education (4/5/20)

President Trump has announced his intention to nominate Andrew De Mello, a Trial Attorney for DOJ Tax - Northern Region to be Inspector General of the Department of Education.  The nomination announcement on the web, here, says:

Mr. De Mello currently serves as a Trial Attorney for the Tax Division at the Department of Justice where he manages all aspects of complex, affirmative, and defensive litigation in United States District and Bankruptcy courts.  He has been on detail to the Inspector General’s Office at the Department of Homeland Security as a Senior Special Counsel since October 2019. 

Mr. De Mello received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his juris doctorate from Columbia Law School.

Pat Mullarkey, retired Chief of the Northern Region Section, said on his Facebook page:

Andrew De Mello, a trial attorney in the Northern Region civil trial section of the Tax Division, DOJ, who has been on detail to the Inspector General for Homeland Security for the past year and one-half, was nominated by President Trump on Friday to be the Inspector General for the Department of Education. If there is a problem there, Andrew will find it, assuming he is confirmed.

With that praise, let's hope he is confirmed.

Note: In my original posting, I said that the announcement was of the nomination.  I was corrected that it was only announcement of an intention to nominate.  I am not sure of the normal routine for such announcements -- whether, after announcement of intention to nominate, there is a material delay in the actual nomination or its announcement, or whether some nominations are not made after announcement of intention to nominate.  In any event, this seems to be a case where the nomination should be made.

Larry Wallace of SG's Office and Footnote Fame Dies (2/24/20)

Lawrence G. ("Larry") Wallace, a formidable presence in the Solicitor General’s office for many years, died today.  See Tony Mauro, Larry Wallace, Former Deputy Solicitor General and Courageous Civil Servant, Dies at 88 (Law.com 2/23/20), here.  Although Larry was not a DOJ Tax guy, one of his principal claims to fame, recounted in the article, was his famous footnote in a brief in a tax case involving denying tax exempt status to racially discriminatory schools (Bob Jones University and Goldsboro Christian Schools). The Government won both of those cases at the Fourth Circuit, but when the schools petitioned for certiorari, the Reagan administration decided to pay back the South for its support by attempting to throw the case in the Supreme Court.  Wallace was in the SG’s office at the time.  They needed someone to sign the brief, he agreed provided that he could put in a footnote that he did not agree with the position of the Reagan administration. Here is the Law.com description of that footnote:

In 1982, he included a memorable footnote in a brief signaling that he would not support the Reagan administration’s position in Bob Jones University v. United States. At issue was the Internal Revenue Service policy that denied tax-exempt status to institutions that discriminated by race. The Reagan White House wanted to oppose that policy in the government’s brief. 

When Solicitor General Rex Lee recused, the task of signing the brief fell to Wallace. Wallace did so, but insisted on adding the footnote, which angered Reagan administration officials. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the policy. 

The late Erwin Griswold, who served as the U.S. solicitor general from 1967 to 1973, told The Washington Post in 1982 that Wallace’s action was “an attempt to preserve the credibility of the office.” 

Wallace remained in the office, but he was relieved of handling civil rights cases for the government, and a new position of a politically appointed deputy solicitor general was created. 

Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus on Saturday called Wallace’s legendary footnote “an act of extraordinary personal courage and professional integrity.” Lazarus continued: “The more recent action of the career Justice Department attorneys in resigning from the Stone prosecution to make clear their disagreement with orders from the Attorney General to withdraw their sentencing recommendation is strikingly reminiscent of Wallace’s action.”

An aside, I handled both cases in the trial level.  I handle Goldsboro Christian Schools to decision.  The Government won, with a decision by a S.C. judge, Judge Hemphill, after the N.C. judges recused themselves.  I handled the Bob Jones case until I left DOJ Tax, when Martin Whitaker took over.  Bob Jones won that case.  Both went to the Fourth Circuit which held for the Government.  Then the case went to the Supreme Court with the drama recounted above about the footnote.  There was even more drama when the Supreme Court, realizing that an amicus to argue for the Fourth Circuit holdings.  That amicus was William Coleman respected lawyer and head of the Washington office of O’Melveny & Myers.  Coleman won and, as a result, the Government won despite the attempt by Reagan and his minions to torpedo it.

DOJ Alumni Statement Condemning AG Barr (2/18/20)

Most DOJ Tax Alumni have by now read that there is a statement joined by former DOJ attorneys condemning Attorney General Barr’s conduct in office that seems to have injected political factors into leadership beyond what has become the norm to insulate DOJ from politics.  That statement is here.

When the original announcement hit the newspapers a few days ago, the number was more than 1,000 DOJ Alumni.  I understand that now the number is around 2,000 or more.  The list as updated from time to time may be viewed at the bottom of the statement linked above.  (Added 2/19/20: the count is 2,460 per an email I received on 2/18/20.)

Some DOJ Tax Alumni may not yet be aware of the statement or may be aware only  through news summaries.  And some who may agree with the statement may wish to make their voices heard by joining the statement.  I am not aware of a forum for DOJ Alumni to express their approval of Attorney General Barr or disagreement with the statement.  (Of course anyone reading this blog can do so by commenting on the blog, but remember that readership of this blog is low; if anyone knows of a similar list of DOJ Alumni taking different positions than the statement, please let me know and I will consider posting it as well.)

So I provide a link here for those wishing to join the statement to do so.  (The link is also at the bottom of the statement linked above.)

I am not advocating that any other DOJ Tax Alumni (or any, more broadly, DOJ alumni) reading this blog entry join the statement.  I did join it but that not should not be read as encouragement for anyone else to join.