Eileen J. O’Connor
Eileen J. O'Connor, PLLC
Eileen J. O’Connor
Eileen J. O'Connor, PLLC
Solely, or in collaboration or consultation with other attorneys, Eileen J. O’Connor advises on, and represents clients in connection with, civil and criminal federal tax disputes, from administrative investigations through trial and appellate proceedings. She formulates and advises on regulatory and legislative solutions to disputes with government agencies. In addition to designing winning trial strategies and appellate arguments, she has presented oral arguments in the United States Supreme Court and in United States Courts of Appeals, and has testified at numerous committee hearings in United States Senate and House of Representatives on issues relating to tax administration and enforcement.
After serving for six years as the Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice, Ms. O’Connor joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in Washington, DC, in July 2007, and became head of its federal tax controversy and tax policy practice. During her time with the law firm, she, among other things, represented individual, corporate, and non-profit clients in IRS audits, appeals, and criminal investigations, in offshore voluntary disclosures, and, in the case of Swiss banks, in connection with the DOJ Tax Division’s program to obtain non-prosecution agreements.
As Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s Tax Division, Ms. O’Connor headed a division of more than 600 people, supervising the litigation in federal courts, civil and criminal, trial and appellate, of its 350 attorneys. Significant cases during her tenure involved corporate and individual abusive tax shelters and offshore tax evasion. She created and implemented continuing programs to coordinate parallel civil and criminal investigations and judicial proceedings with the Internal Revenue Service and United States Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country, and was a member of the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force. In recognition of her outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the Justice Department’s mission, Ms. O’Connor received the Edmund J. Randolph Award for Outstanding Service. For her contributions to federal tax administration and enforcement, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and the IRS Chief Counsel awarded her their highest honors.
Early in her career, Ms. O’Connor was a Corporate Tax Law Specialist in the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service. She is also a CPA and for more than 20 years was a national tax consultant with top national accounting firms. Ms. O’Connor has taught in the graduate tax law program of Georgetown University School of Law, and was Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Tax Policy at the George Mason University School of Law, and has long been a frequent speaker at bar conferences and business seminars.
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Contributions
Regulatory Year in Review
Eileen J. O'Connor
Within a week of his inauguration, President Trump signed an Executive Order instructing his Administration to take action to keep his campaign promise to reduce government regulation. The EO requires federal agencies to eliminate two regulations for every one they issue, and to hold annual incremental cost of regulations to zero. How is his Administration delivering on those promises?
Read this articleWhy is EPA’s Transparency Proposal Controversial?
Eileen J. O'Connor
The proposed rule was welcomed by those who believe it will improve rulemaking and public understanding of it.
Read this articleTrends in Government Priorities, 1960 – 2019
Eileen J. O'Connor
A new report – by Susan Dudley of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and Melinda Warren of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis – shows that President Trump plans to increase regulatory activity for border security and immigration in 2019, and to dramatically reduce the budgets of agencies involved in environmental regulation.
Read this articleWill OIRA Extend its Review to Independent Agencies?
Susan Dudley and Eileen J. O'Connor
At the Federalist Society’s Sixth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference, Office of information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) Administrator Neomi Rao spoke about the new agreement she had hammered out with the Treasury Department to bring OIRA’s review of IRS regulations more in line with its review of other agencies’ regulations. She also strongly hinted that independent regulatory agencies may be next, observing that “OIRA review can promote a more constitutional and coherent regulatory policy,” and that the “good regulatory practices promoted by OIRA can apply to all agencies that regulate the public.” In her latest Forbes column, Susan Dudley agrees. She argues that OIRA review encourages greater transparency, analytical rigor, and accountability in regulations, and urges the Administration to extend long-standing executive orders requiring OIRA review to all agencies that issue regulations binding on the public.
Read this articleReading Past The Headline In OMB’s Report To Congress
Eileen J. O'Connor
As required by the Regulatory Right to Know Act, enacted in 2000, the Office of Management and Budget submits an annual report to Congress outlining the costs and benefits of regulations issued the previous year. It appears, from the latest report, issued in draft form last Friday, that the benefits of regulations in effect the past ten years are three to eight times their costs.
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