R
Rahill, formerly Attorney Advisor and Tax Librarian in the Tax Division from 1983-1988, was appointed an Immigration Judge in April 1997. (Press Release from PR Newswire dated 6/2/97.)
The following are excerpts from an obituary for Judge Raum, certainly one of the best Tax Court judges ever, from the Washington Post on 2/16/99:
Arnold Raum, 90, a District resident and former federal government lawyer who had served as a judge on the U.S. Tax Court from 1950 to 1998, died Feb. 13 at a hospital in Miami as a result of complications from a fall. He had a second home in Key Biscayne, Fla.
Judge Raum, who took senior judge status at the age of 70, continued to hear cases on the Tax Court until breaking his hip in a fall near the courthouse in Washington in June 1998. He fell a second time, at the post office in Key Biscayne on Jan. 28, and was hospitalized until his death.
He came to Washington and began his government career in 1932. After two years as a lawyer for the Reconstruction Finance Corp., he transferred to the Justice Department, where he was a tax division special assistant to the attorney general from 1934 to 1939.
Also in 1939, he served as special prosecutor in a series of tax evasion and fraud cases involving prominent residents of Louisiana.
Then, from 1939 to 1950, he was deputy solicitor general of the United States, often serving as acting solicitor general. The solicitor general is the government's lead attorney before the courts and often acts as the nation's chief lawyer in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As deputy solicitor general, Judge Raum argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court, specializing in tax cases. Among those cases was a landmark defense of the constitutionality of the Social Security law and a case that established federal rights to off-shore oil deposits.
Judge Raum, who was born in Lynn, Mass., was a 1927 summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University and a 1932 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University law school, where he also was law review editor. He also was a Sheldon fellow at Cambridge University in 1932 and a Coast Guard veteran of World War II.
In addition to his government work, he had taught at Yale University law school in 1937 and 1938, and at Harvard University law school in 1947.
* * * *
Survivors include his wife, the former Violet Gang Kopp, whom he married in 1957 and who lives in Washington and Key Biscayne; three adopted children, Robert Kopp of Bethesda, Katherine Kopp of Watertown, Mass., and Elizabeth Kopp Levin of Boston; and four grandchildren.Carr Ferguson sent the following on Judge Raum's tour of duty with DOJ:
Jack -
My father, who served in the Tax Division during part of Judge Raum's time there, remembered Arnold Raum not only for his good mind and hard work, but also for his violin, which he sometimes played in the office. Fiddling while thinking, a la Sherlock Holmes, no doubt.
CarrSumner Redstone, of Viacom fame, was by reports a brilliant lawyer and, while in the lawyer phase of his life, served for a time as a special assistant to the United States Attorney General in the Tax Division. There is, of course, a wealth of information in the public domain about Mr. Redstone. (See e.g., the Gladwell article cited and linked below, HLS blurb.and biography) and this Slate article (quoting Redstone as describing himself early on as a "tax lawyer" and, as a result of a Supreme Court case, "a famous tax attorney.") At the risk of underinclusion, I quote The Wall Street Journal Law Blog for 8/23/06 to add a little nontax pizzaz to these otherwise stodgy pages:
August 23, 2006, 8:49 am
Redstone (Harvard, LL.B.) Dumps Cruise (Not a Lawyer)
Posted by Peter Lattman“Here’s the problem. You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”
— Tom Cruise, admonishing “Today” host Matt Lauer while criticizing Brooke Shields for taking prescription drugs to treat postpartum depression
For that and other truly priceless episodes — e.g., wildly jumping up-and-down Oprah’s couch while declaring his undying love for Katie Holmes — Viacom boss Sumner Redstone said his Paramount Pictures studio was ending its 14-year relationship with Tom Cruise’s production company. In an interview with the WSJ, Redstone said, “As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal. His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.”
Now as you’re reading this you might be saying to yourselves, “Yeah, this is sexy and all, and I know the Law Blog is starstruck, but what does it have to do with the law?” Well, besides the lawsuits that will likely flow from the spat, we thought we’d take this opportunity to remind you that Redstone, the 83-year-old billionaire media mogul, is a lawyer.
According to Malcolm Gladwell’s entertaining New Yorker review of his 2001 autobiography, Redstone (born Sumner Murray Rothstein) graduated from the Boston Latin School with the highest GPA in the school’s 300-year history. He then graduated from Harvard College, served as an Army cryptographer during WWII, and then pursued a legal career, attending Georgetown Law before transfering to Harvard Law School, from which he received his LL.B.
Gladwell describes Redstone’s career as a litigator as “brilliant.” He worked first for the Justice Department in San Francisco and then in private practice. Redstone apparently even argued a case before the Supreme Court. (The Law Blog’s crack research staff will try and find out which case.) He reportedly left the law to take over his father’s movie theatre-chain business, and then used his legal acumen (natch) to transform it into one of the world’s largest media companies.
As for Cruise (not a lawyer), his entourage says Redstone didn’t fire him and his company; instead, they say they’d planned to leave, having already lined up $100 million for their own independent production company.
Renaud was named partner in the law firm of Hazel & Thomas, P.C. where she has been practicing since she left the Tax Division, Northern Region, in 1992. Ms. Renaud specializies in employment litigation and counseling on behalf of employers. Address information click here.
Rice, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Tax Division in the late 1950's in the Eisenhower administration, died February 10, 1997.
Dick Roberts passed away in his sleep last night, 9/10/2002, at the age of 82, per his son Tom. Condolences may be expressed to Dick's widow, Patricia Roberts, at 4024 Casey Key Rd., Nokomis FL. 34275. We will post further details as we receive them.
The following is the obituary notice in the Washington Post of 9/21/02:
Richard M. Roberts, 82, tax counsel to the law firm Hammel, Park, McCabe & Saunders in Washington from 1975 until his retirement in 1989, died of pancreatic cancer Sept. 10 at his home in Nokomis, Fla.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Roberts prosecuted tax fraud cases as deputy assistant attorney general in the tax division of the Justice Department from 1962 to 1975.
He was a native Washingtonian who lived in McLean before retiring to Florida in 1989. He attended Washington and Lee University and received two law degrees from George Washington University. He served in the Army's 69th Infantry Division in Europe during World War II.He was a fellow of the American Bar Association and a member of the Metropolitan Club.
His marriage to Mary Jane Roberts, his first wife, ended in divorce.
His second wife, Barbara Roberts, died in 1991.
Survivors include his wife, Patricia Roberts of Nokomis; three sons from his first marriage, Richard Roberts Jr. of Trappe, Md., Charles V., of Vero Beach, Fla., and Thomas D., of Washington; two sons from his second marriage, Geoffrey H., of Bradenton Fla., and Andrew C., of Gainesville, Va.; a brother; and five grandchildren.
Rodio, who formerly worked in the Criminal Section for 11 years, joined the chief investigator in resigning from the House committee probing alleged fund-raising abuses in last year's presidential election, according to an article in the Indianopolis Star of 7/2/97. The resignations were in protest to the actions of the the investigative coordinator in allegedly leaking information to the press. Alumni interested in the details of the intrigues leading to the resignations will undoubtedly find information in the public press about it.
Rogers, who formerly worked in the Appellate Section, died on March 10. The following are from obituaries in the indicated newspapers"
Newsday 3/15/98
Edward Lee Rogers, a pioneering environmental lawyer and the first general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund, died March 10 from injuries sustained in a car accident near his McLean, Va., home. He was 66.
Working out of a crowded one-room office over the Stony Brook post office, Mr. Rogers helped bring a series of ground-breaking lawsuits as the Environmental Defense Fund's staff attorney from 1969 to 1973, when environmental law was still in its infancy. Now headquartered in Manhattan, the defense fund has grown to become one of the nation's most prominent environmental groups.
Born in Portland, Ore., and an avid outdoorsman, Mr. Rogers was working as a tax lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice when he decided to put his environmentalist beliefs into practice by joining the nascent group, which quickly became a leader of the nationwide movement to ban the pesticide DDT. The Environmental Defense Fund lost that battle in court, but won the war in 1973 when the newly created U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the ubiquitous bug-killer after it was linked to wildlife abnormalities.
In 1973, Mr. Rogers moved to Maine, serving as an environmental lawyer for that state, and to Washington, D.C., in 1977. He held a series of jobs during the Carter administration, overseeing water projects undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers before entering private practice, where he handled a succession of prominent cases, including several that challenged allegedly unsafe uses of genetic engineering.
He is survived by his wife, Ailene Kane Rogers, and daughters Ruth and Helen Rogers, all of the Washington, D.C., area; a son, John Rogers of Andover, Mass.; and two grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Rachel Carson Council, 8940 Jones Mill Rd., Chevy Chase, Md. 20815.
Washington Post 3/14/98
Edward Lee Rogers, 66, a Washington lawyer who had served as general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund and acting assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works during the Carter administration, died March 10 in a car accident near his home in McLean.
A Fairfax County police spokeswoman said that Mr. Rogers was driving west in the 2000 block of Westmoreland Street when his car was hit head-on by a car that crossed the center line. Mr. Rogers was pronounced dead at the scene.
An avid outdoorsman and environmentalist, Mr. Rogers devoted most of his career to environmental causes. After working several years as a Justice Department appellate tax lawyer, he became the first general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund in 1969. Mr. Rogers guided the nonprofit organization, which was incorporated in 1967, during the infancy of environmental law. He developed a reputation as a formidable environmental litigator as he became involved in legal efforts to stop chemical companies from discharging the pesticide DDT into sewer systems and to block construction projects that threatened rivers and lakes.
In 1973, he moved to Maine, where he held several jobs including assistant attorney general for the state's Environmental Protection Division. He returned to Washington in 1977 as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works and later as acting assistant secretary. In that capacity, he had legal and policy responsibilities for water resource development projects of the Army Corps of Engineers.
He had been in private practice since 1981, working on issues related to the environment and public health. Among his recent cases, he challenged the Department of Agriculture's development of genetically altered animals and obtained a court injunction against construction of a biological warfare laboratory intended for research on genetically engineered organisms.
He was born in Portland, Ore. He received an undergraduate degree and a law degree from the University of Oregon and an advanced degree in tax law from New York University. He came to Washington in 1957 to serve as a law clerk to Tax Court Judge Russell Train.
Survivors include his wife, Ailene Kane Rogers of McLean; two daughters, Ruth Rogers and Helen Rogers, both of Washington; a son, John Rogers of Andover, Mass.; his mother, Ruth Jorgensen of McLean; and two grandchildren.
Mitch Rogovin, formerly Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division, died on Feb. 7, 1996. We have had two submissions on Mitch, one by Professor Richard F. Pugh of the University of San Diego Law School, and the other by Carr Ferguson. Both of these are presented below. Our thanks to Professor Pugh and to Carr.
By Richard F. Pugh
Mitch Rogovin was one of the finest leaders I’ve known. When his phone call came to me out of the blue in 1966, asking me to become his first assistant, it was a serendipitous event for me. I was then Professor of Law at Columbia University and had never contemplated work at the U.S. Department of Justice; but after a conversation with Mitch in his Tax Division office in Washington, I was sold. And what a fantastic experience for me it turned out to be, thanks mostly to Mitch and the remarkably talented group of lawyers in the Tax Division.
Mitch had begun his government career in the Office of the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service and, before many years had passed, he became the Chief Counsel. As such, he must have had his share of negotiations with the IRS's litigators in the Tax Division, who occasionally balked at litigating positions the IRS wanted the Department of Justice to take. Mitch, although a tough negotiator, obviously earned the respect of the Tax Division folks with whom he had negotiated even before he moved across the street from the IRS to the Department of Justice to become Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. When I arrived on the scene, Mitch had already acquired strong support in the Tax Division, and the regard and respect for him in the Division continued to rise.
Mitch set a terrific example. He worked hard and cared deeply about whether the public interest was being served by what the Tax Division was doing. He was remarkably sensitive to the subtle and not-so-subtle pressures from within and without the government that could be, and from time to time were, brought to bear on decisions he had to make; but he treasured the reputation for independence that the Division (and the Department) had earned, and he guarded and nurtured it with all of his resources. That sense that our independence was our most precious asset, so palpably conveyed by Mitch, affected all of us.
Mitch was fair-minded down to his boots and had wonderful judgment, impregnable integrity, and the guts to defend what he believed to be the right position to take in the public interest. Early in our relationship, Mitch decided on a division of responsibility that left him, with invaluable support from Dick Roberts, Fred Folsom, and Fred Ugast, taking responsibility for criminal and general litigation matters, and me, with invaluable support from Moxley Featherston, Manny Sellars, and so many others, taking broad responsibility in civil litigation, refund suits, compromises, and particularly in appeals. The appellate work gave me the chance to work with incredibly knowledgeable and experienced lawyers, like Lee Jackson and Mickey Rothwacks, who were, deservedly, legends in their time.
Mitch had to tackle the toughest decisions, which usually involved criminal tax matters. These were complicated in some instances by sharp disagreements with the FBI, which had, on occasion, complicated tax prosecutions by “bugging” conversations of the accused and material witnesses. Others would have to report on the battles between Mitch and J. Edgar Hoover and his point man with the Tax Division, Deke Deloach. I know Mitch stood his ground. Perhaps some corroboration of this was reflected by the fact that I never received so much as a “hello” from Mr. Hoover, Clyde Tolson, or Deke Deloach when, by coincidence, I rode on the Department of Justice private elevator with them.
Mitch never laid claim to being the technical equal of many of our colleagues in the Tax Division (nor, heaven knows, did I). But Mitch was plenty bright and had a knack for identifying the heart of the matter and finding a way to deal with it, typically in a creative and persuasive way.
Things sometimes heated up for Mitch, particularly when the FBI bugging reared its head in one of our prosecutions. “Unflappable” is a word that really fit him under pressure. I never saw him lose his cool. I remember warmly sessions when a group of us would help Mitch prepare for a Supreme Court argument. Mitch, often with a cigar in his mouth or near at hand, was never disconcerted from the key issues by our bombardment of questions. The same was true when he stood before the Court. No question threw him off stride. Simply, directly, and, most of all, persuasively, he would put our position before the Justices. No one would guess he hadn’t done it dozens of times!
Mitch cared deeply about his family, friends, and colleagues. It was evident in the things he did and said every day, and his caring touched us all. Mitch also cared deeply about the world beyond, particularly the world of the disadvantaged and those whose civil liberties were beleaguered or worse. He volunteered on a number of occasions to carry out special assignments on behalf of Attorney Generals Nick Katzenbach or Ramsey Clark in the civil rights area. The importance of these efforts was heightened by the riots in Washington that followed on the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 8, 1968. Many of us witnessed the appalling events surrounding the riots from the command center and the roof of the Justice Department.
Mitch went on in the years following his stint in the Tax Division to a distinguished career in private practice, first as a partner in Arnold & Porter and later in Rogovin, Stern & Huge, of which he was a co-founder. He represented a wide variety of high-profile public and private clients in celebrated cases. His clients included the CIA, John B. Anderson’s presidential campaign, a congressional panel investigating the Civil Service Commission, and the Wilderness Society. He also headed a special committee appointed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to investigate the Three-Mile Island nuclear incident in 1979. His career was so rich and diverse that it is hard to identify a central theme, but surely a major focus, and probably the one in which Mitch believed most ardently and supported most vigorously, was the cause of civil liberties. He represented Neil Sheehan, the New York Times reporter, in connection with Sheehan’s bombshell series of articles in 1971 on the Pentagon Papers; was general counsel for Common Cause from 1970 to 1975; and was co-chairman of the Council for Public Interest Law as well as a director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
Although many of his Tax Division colleagues watched his subsequent career with admiration, if not awe, it is Mitch’s years in the Division that we remember most vividly and warmly. The Tax Division has had many excellent leaders over the years, but most of us who were privileged to serve with Mitch will always feel that few have been his equal.
By Carr Ferguson
Lee Jackson's retirement from the Division brought back so many of us that Mitch - then AAG - had to requisition the Great Hall. The crowd filling it loved Lee, loved speechifying, singing and, it turned out, drinking Lee's health over and over. I was one of NYU Law School's four tax professors who took the new Metroliner to Washington to pay Lee our respects. Jerry Wallace, founder and head of the Graduate Tax Program, had served in the Division under Sam Clark during W.W. II. Charlie Lyon had been Truman's second A.A.G., after his investigation for the King Committee had led to the removal of T.Lamar Caudle, his first. I'd been a Trial Section attorney for five years in the '50's, when Andy Sharpe and later Jim Garland ran the only Trial Section the Division had. Jim Eustice was the only one of our number who hadn't served in the Division, but he came along to complete the party and to try to see something of what had attracted our lifelong love of the place. Fortunately for me, my Dad, who'd been a trial attorney in the Division some twenty years before my time, was on the West Coast and depended on me to give Lee his best wishes.
Lots of Dad's friends were there, however, some of them still serving, as they had when I had been there as "Young Fergy."
Well, the laughing and shouting over other voices required a lot of lubrication, and the party, for some reason, seemed to get even louder as it got smaller. Finally, Mitch gently made the point that my NYU buddies had left hours earlier for the last New York train and that it had become clear to him that, as it was past 1 in the morning, it would be in the best interests of the Division if I would finally accept his invitation to leave peacefully. As an inducement, he promised that Sheila would take me into the Rogovin home, feed me something, find a bed for me to sleep off whatever he thought needed sleeping off, and breakfast me in the morning, when I could make my way back to NYU in broad light, returned to a proper level of academic decorum. Sheila was as good as his word, opening her front door on two giggling tax lawyers, ties loose and hair bedraggled, and whipping up scrambled eggs and coffee, with every pretense of pleasure. She even rustled up a toothbrush and razor for her unprepared guest. I Remember this point, because, temporarily unable in the morning to piece together where I was, I followed a cold shower with a stinging shave through a lather of Colgate toothpaste. Wrong can. Thanks. I needed that. Mitch and Sheila, amused, indulgent, had been acquaintances before that night but were warm friends thereafter.
Rod Rosenstein who currently (as of this posting on 6/8/05) serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Tax Division has been nominated as the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. According to the press (including most recently an article in the Baltimore Sun on 6/5/05), he came up through the ranks in DOJ (including a stint with special prosecutor Starr). He is relatively young (40) and, by reports a gifted attorney.
The following is from the May 4 Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Ross Burton Gregory Ross, age 67, of St. Paul, died Thursday, May 1st in Minneapolis. An attorney who practiced in tax matters with the Minneapolis law firm Lindquist & Vennum, he was listed by Woodward/White, Inc., as one of the Best Lawyers in America, and was a frequent recipient of MSP Pulications' Minnesota Super Lawyer designation. Burt was born April 11, 1936 in Chicago, IL. He received his undergraduate degree in history at Chicago's Roosevelt, University in 1958. He was a member of the Board of Editors at DePaul University Law Review from 1959-61. After graduating from DePaul University College of Law he received a master's degree in taxation from Georgetown University. He worked with the Tax Division of the United State Department of Justice for five years before entering private practice in Minneapolis-Saint Paul in 1968. For more than 17 years, starting in 1984, he headed Ross Rosenblatt, Ltd., which handled commercial matters for private companies and complex estate planning and succession transfer matters. In January 2002, Lindquist & Vennum acquired the trust, estate and business law practice of Ross Rosenblatt, Ltd. Burt and his wife, Cynthia Rosenblatt, joined the firm in an "of counsel" capacity. He spoke frequently on tax matters and published numerous articles, including one published in a Prentice-Hall anthology, "Landmark Papers on Estate Planning."He was a past member of the board of directors for the Guthrie Theatre, Children's Theatre and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Preceded in death by parents, Earl & Bernice Taubman Ross; sister, Judith Strack. Survived by wife, Cynthia Rosenblatt Ross; daughters & sons-in-law, Stephanie Ross Upin (David), St. Paul, Jennifer Ross Bruns (Elliott), Chicago, Pamela Ross Weinstein (David), Mpls; son, Hart Rosenblatt, Chicago; grandchildren, Emily Upin, Heather Upin, Noah Bruns and Jack Weinstein. Funeral services SUNDAY, 1:30 PM, MT. ZION TEMPLE, 1300 Summit Ave., St. Paul. In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to the Burton G. Ross Fund c/o Mpls Foundation, 800 IDS Tower, Mpls, MN 55402. SHIVA, 1545 Edgcumbe Road (Sun., Mon. & Tues. at 7 pm). Arr. Hodroff & Sons
On 10/26/05, Larry advised of the following press release
ROSS APPOINTED TO BOARD OF INTERNATIONAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
Private Investigative Agency Increases Global Reach
Larry Ross, President of Ross Financial Services, Inc. (RFS), and a nationally recognized leader in the field of business intelligence, has been appointed to the board of the International Intelligence Network (Intelnet), a worldwide association of elite private investigators, including former senior level government officials involved in intelligence and fraud investigations.
In receiving this recognition, Ross said "I am honored to be appointed to the board of this group of the top investigators in the world and excited about the challenge of collaborating with them to deliver even more powerful bottom-line results for our clients."
Ross Financial Services, Inc. is a private investigative firm serving the legal and business communities. RFS locates and analyzes the critical, time-sensitive intelligence needed to resolve business disputes and to reduce risk in business transactions. Intelnet affords RFS a global reach, providing trusted members who utilize the highest standards of quality and professionalism in completing assignments on behalf of clients.
American expectations of transparency and full disclosure from business partners often conflict with a European penchant for secrecy. Even with a waiver of confidentiality, it is very difficult to obtain information about European criminal proceedings, convictions, liens, judgments, and litigation involving a potential employee or partner. Because of the Intelnet connection, RFS bridges this business cultural gap.
In a recent case, corporate and financial documents located in multiple states and offshore were unearthed to help a client involved in a complicated business dispute. The court relied on RFS testimony to "pierce the corporate veil" and delivered a finding of fraud. The $2.5 million dollar judgment included punitive damages.
The Legal Times on 6/28/04 published an intervew of Steven Paley and his partner, Mark Rothman, both DOJ Tax Alums. The following is a summary of the article that, I hope, does not break the copyright laws:
They formed met at DOJ Tax in 1964 and started their firm as a tax specialty firm in 1972 in Montgomery County, Maryland. The firm was then a two lawyer, one secretary shop. They quickly became specialists in forming professional corporations. They have been very successful and have grown into a 35 lawyer fimr in Bethesda. The name of the firm is Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg, Eig & Cooper. "The firm, which handles the tax, estate planning, business litigation, and real estate legal concerns for local businesses, is a fixture of Montgomery County, Md."