Mary L. Smith (Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman)
Last week, we reported that the DOJ issued a defense of President Obama’s nominee to head the the Department’s Tax Division, Mary L. Smith. But tax bloggers were not satisfied. ”The Tax Lawyers Blog,” run by tax attorney Peter Pappas, responded with a post titled: “White House Says DOJ Tax Division Nominee is Qualified, I say Bologna,” while “Taxgirl,”run by Kelly Phillips Erb, went with “Justice Tax Division Nominee Has No Tax Experience.”
Pappas took particular issue with the DOJ’s claim that “The Tax Division is not a policymaking entity.” He noted that the last two Tax Division chiefs, Eileen O’Connor and Nathan Hochman, had extensive experience in tax law. O’Connor, for example, was a corporate tax law specialist at the IRS. “And how is it that an essential qualification of the job is not a thorough grounding in substantive tax law?” Pappas wrote. And it seems that Taxgirl is just shocked that so many people wrote recommendation letters for Smith, including Hochman. You can read Hochman’s letter here.
