Former IRS Chief Counsel Desmond Joins Gibson Dunn Law Firm

Former IRS Chief Counsel Michael Desmond has taken a job as a partner in the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, the law firm said Monday.

In his new position, Desmond will focus on tax controversy matters, the firm said in a news release. While at the IRS, Desmond was the chief legal adviser to the IRS commissioner and was involved in a broad range of guidance and enforcement actions. This included overseeing the publication of more than 100 sets of proposed and final regulations on the 2017 tax overhaul, the firm noted.

• Desmond stepped down as IRS chief counsel in January.
• Prior to being chief counsel, Desmond had his own law firm in California and was Treasury tax legislative counsel under President George W. Bush. Earlier in his career, he worked as a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s tax division.
• “With his stellar credentials and wealth of IRS, Treasury and Justice Department experience, Michael is in a unique position to work with our preeminent litigation and tax practices to help build a best-in-class tax controversy practice,” Peter Wardle, co-partner in charge of Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement.