Why Hire a Former DOJ Tax Division Attorney? What Mark Milton’s Federal Government Experience Means for Your IRS Case
When a taxpayer faces a serious IRS problem, the question of who handles the case often matters as much as the legal strategy itself. A former U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division attorney brings something most tax lawyers cannot: direct experience representing the federal government in tax litigation, a working understanding of how the IRS and DOJ build and evaluate cases internally, and the credibility that comes with having been on the government’s side of the table.
Mark C. Milton, Founder and Managing Attorney of Milton Law Group, served as a Trial Attorney in the DOJ Tax Division — the federal government’s specialized tax litigation arm prior to its dissolution — after being recruited through the prestigious Attorney General’s Honors Program. He received the DOJ’s Outstanding Trial Attorney Award in 2014. This article explains what that background actually means for taxpayers today and why it changes the trajectory of an IRS case.
Key Takeaways
- The U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division was the federal government’s centralized tax litigation arm for nearly 90 years until its recent dissolution and the redistribution of its functions across other DOJ components.
- The Tax Division employed fewer than 350 attorneys at any given time during its existence, and only a small subset were recruited through the Attorney General’s Honors Program — the federal government’s most selective entry-level legal recruitment track.
- Because the Tax Division no longer exists, the universe of attorneys who served there is now finite and closed making former Tax Division experience an increasingly rare credential in the tax controversy bar.
- Former DOJ Tax Division attorneys understand how the federal government evaluates settlement, how IRS Chief Counsel coordinates with DOJ litigators, and what makes a taxpayer’s case stronger or weaker in the eyes of opposing counsel. This is institutional knowledge that carries over even as the organizational structure has changed.
- Mark C. Milton served as a DOJ Tax Division Trial Attorney before founding Milton Law Group and now represents taxpayers nationwide in federal tax controversy matters.
- This background is fundamentally different from what national “tax resolution” companies offer. Those firms are typically staffed by non-attorney sales representatives, not licensed attorneys with federal litigation experience.
What Was the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division?
The DOJ Tax Division was the federal government’s centralized tax litigation arm for nearly 90 years. Until its recent dissolution, the Division’s attorneys represented the United States in virtually all civil and criminal tax matters in federal court ranging from refund suits and summons enforcement to injunctions against tax shelter promoters and prosecutions of federal tax crimes. The Tax Division worked in close coordination with the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country.
While the IRS handled administrative tax matters — audits, collection, Appeals — the DOJ Tax Division was the entity that took over when a tax case entered federal court. That included federal district court, the Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, and the federal courts of appeals. The U.S. Tax Court was the one significant exception: those cases are litigated by IRS Chief Counsel attorneys, not DOJ.
The Tax Division was comparatively small. Fewer than 350 attorneys served in the Division at any given time, divided among civil trial sections organized by geography, a criminal enforcement section, an appellate section, and specialized units handling matters like Court of Federal Claims litigation and offshore enforcement. The selectivity of the Division — combined with the institutional knowledge it accumulated over decades — made former Tax Division attorneys a relatively rare presence in private practice even before the Division was dissolved.
With the Tax Division now closed, that pool is finite and will not grow. The attorneys who served in the Division during its existence represent a closed group whose firsthand experience cannot be replicated by future government recruits.
What Happened to the DOJ Tax Division’s Functions?
Although the Tax Division itself no longer exists as a standalone DOJ component, federal tax litigation has not disappeared — its functions have been redistributed across other parts of the Department of Justice. Civil tax litigation responsibilities have moved into other DOJ components and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices nationwide. Criminal tax enforcement continues through coordination between DOJ prosecutors and IRS Criminal Investigation. The underlying processes — how cases get referred, evaluated, litigated, and resolved — remain substantially the same, but they are now distributed across a different organizational chart.
For taxpayers, the practical effect is this: the federal government still aggressively pursues tax litigation, the IRS still refers cases for civil and criminal action, and DOJ attorneys still represent the United States in court. The institutional memory of how that work gets done lives in the attorneys who built it — including former Tax Division attorneys now in private practice.
What Is the Attorney General’s Honors Program?
The Attorney General’s Honors Program is the U.S. Department of Justice’s most selective entry-level attorney recruitment track and the only way new law school graduates and recent judicial clerks can be hired directly into DOJ as line attorneys. Each year, the Honors Program receives thousands of applications for a limited number of positions across the Department’s litigating components. During its existence, the Tax Division was one of those components.
Recruitment through the Honors Program signals that an attorney was selected from a national applicant pool on the basis of academic record, writing ability, and demonstrated commitment to federal practice. Mark Milton was recruited into the DOJ Tax Division through the Attorney General’s Honors Program after graduating with honors from Saint Louis University School of Law, where he received the ALI-ABA Leadership and Scholarship Award.
What Did DOJ Tax Division Trial Attorneys Do?
DOJ Tax Division Trial Attorneys were the federal government’s tax litigators. On any given day, they handled case loads that typically included refund suits brought by taxpayers seeking to recover taxes already paid, suits to reduce federal tax assessments to judgment, suits to foreclose federal tax liens on real and personal property, summons enforcement proceedings, wrongful levy actions, bankruptcy litigation involving tax claims, and injunction actions against promoters of abusive tax shelters and fraudulent return preparers. Trial Attorneys also assisted U.S. Attorneys’ Offices with criminal tax prosecutions and handled parallel civil-criminal coordination.
The work was demanding and substantively varied. A single Trial Attorney might carry dozens of active matters at different procedural stages — managing discovery, taking depositions, briefing dispositive motions, trying cases to verdict, and arguing appeals. The volume and variety produced a particular kind of practitioner: one who had seen how tax cases play out across every stage of federal litigation, not just at the administrative level.
Mark Milton’s case work at the DOJ Tax Division included a co-counsel role in the first-ever LB&I-referred injunction action against promoters of DAD/DAT/§743(f) tax shelters, a matter involving more than $370 million in alleged fictitious losses. All defendants ultimately conceded. He also served as lead counsel in multiple permanent injunction actions against tax shelter promoters and fraudulent federal tax return preparers nationwide, in employment tax refund litigation that resulted in a jury verdict for the full assessment amount, and in a wrongful levy action that prevailed on cross-motions for summary judgment. Results depend on specific facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
What Does the DOJ Outstanding Trial Attorney Award Signal?
The Outstanding Trial Attorney Award was one of the highest honors the DOJ Tax Division bestowed on its line attorneys during its existence. It was awarded annually to a small number of Tax Division attorneys recognized for exceptional litigation results and contributions to the Division’s mission. Mark Milton received the Outstanding Trial Attorney Award in 2014 — recognition by the Department of Justice itself for the quality of his federal tax litigation work during his government tenure.
For taxpayers evaluating tax counsel, the award is more than a line on a resume. It is independent confirmation, by the same federal government that prosecutes tax cases, that the attorney’s litigation work met an unusually high standard. And because the Tax Division no longer exists, no new attorneys will ever receive this particular honor.
Five Practical Advantages of Hiring a Former DOJ Tax Attorney
Government experience translates into practical advantages for taxpayers in five concrete ways — advantages that survive the organizational restructuring at DOJ because they rest on substantive knowledge, not institutional affiliation.
1. Procedural Fluency in Federal Tax Practice
Federal tax procedure is a specialized world with its own rules — IRS examination procedures, Appeals jurisdiction, the Tax Court Rules of Practice, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as applied in tax refund litigation, and the procedural dance between IRS administrative action and DOJ litigation. A former DOJ Tax Division attorney has worked inside this procedural framework from the government’s perspective, which means there are fewer surprises and more anticipation of how the next step in a case will unfold. That procedural knowledge does not become obsolete because the Division was restructured — the rules and procedures still govern federal tax cases.
2. Insight Into How the Federal Government Builds Cases
The IRS does not refer every case for federal litigation, and DOJ does not litigate every referred case to verdict. Both agencies make resource-allocation decisions about which cases are worth pursuing, which are appropriate for settlement, and which positions are likely to hold up in court. A former DOJ Tax Division attorney has been part of those internal evaluations and understands what the government looks for when deciding whether a taxpayer’s position is worth defending against, settling around, or conceding. That evaluative framework continues to drive federal tax litigation today, even under the new organizational structure.
3. Credibility With Opposing Counsel
Tax controversy is a relatively small bar. The DOJ attorneys, IRS Chief Counsel attorneys, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys handling federal tax matters often recognize former government colleagues and understand that those attorneys know the rules of engagement. That recognition does not produce favoritism, but it does produce efficient, professional dealings — which often translates into faster resolutions and better outcomes for taxpayers. Personal and professional relationships built during government service continue to inform how cases get negotiated.
4. Genuine Federal Court Experience
Most tax matters resolve administratively without ever reaching federal court. But the IRS and DOJ evaluate cases differently when they know opposing counsel is genuinely capable of trying a case in federal district court, the U.S. Tax Court, or the Court of Federal Claims. A credible federal litigation posture is leverage at the negotiating table, even when the case never actually goes to trial. Mark Milton is admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar).
5. Strategic Posture Rather Than Reactive Defense
Many tax attorneys approach IRS matters reactively — responding to notices, opposing assessments, defending against collection. A former DOJ Tax Division attorney is more likely to approach the same matter strategically — anticipating how the case will develop if the government commits resources to it, identifying leverage points early, and positioning the taxpayer for the best long-term outcome rather than just the next procedural step.
“When you’ve represented the United States in tax cases, you stop thinking of the IRS as an adversary and start thinking of it as a process — a process with rules, internal incentives, and decision points. That perspective is what taxpayers actually need. The goal isn’t to fight the IRS. The goal is to navigate the system in a way that produces the best realistic outcome given the specific facts of the case. That insight doesn’t disappear because the Tax Division was reorganized. If anything, it becomes more valuable, because fewer attorneys in private practice will have it going forward.”
— Mark C. Milton, Founder and Managing Attorney, Milton Law Group
How a Former DOJ Tax Attorney Compares to Other Options
Taxpayers facing serious IRS problems generally encounter four types of representation in the marketplace. The differences matter.
| Option | Who Provides the Representation | Federal Court Experience | Bound by Attorney Ethics Rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Former DOJ Tax Division attorney | Licensed attorney with federal government tax litigation background | Yes — extensive | Yes |
| Former IRS attorney | Licensed attorney, typically former IRS Office of Chief Counsel | Often U.S. Tax Court only | Yes |
| General-practice tax attorney | Licensed attorney without specific federal tax litigation background | Variable | Yes |
| National “tax resolution” company | Typically non-attorney sales representatives; case work often delegated to enrolled agents or contract attorneys | No | Generally no — sales reps are not attorneys |
Why “Tax Resolution” Companies Are a Different Category Entirely
National tax resolution companies advertise heavily — frequently on television and radio — promising to settle IRS debts for “pennies on the dollar.” For the vast majority of taxpayers, that promise is not realistic. The IRS Offer in Compromise program does exist, but it is governed by specific financial-eligibility formulas, and most taxpayers who qualify for substantial reductions have severely limited income and assets. Sales-driven advertising that suggests otherwise has produced years of consumer complaints and federal and state enforcement actions against various national tax resolution operators.
The structural problem is that most national tax resolution companies are not law firms. The person who answers the phone and signs up the client is typically a commissioned salesperson, not a licensed attorney. The case work is then handed off to back-office staff — sometimes enrolled agents, sometimes contract attorneys — who may or may not have meaningful federal tax experience and who are not the person the client originally spoke with.
Milton Law Group operates on a different model. Representation is provided by licensed attorneys bound by the ethical rules of the bars in which they are admitted. Consultations are with Mark Milton directly. The advice clients receive is upfront, straightforward, and transparent — including clear expectations about what the IRS is and is not likely to agree to in a particular case.
The Boutique-Firm Advantage: Big Law and DOJ Pedigree, Accessible Setting
Mark Milton’s professional background combines experience at an AmLaw 100 firm in St. Louis, the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division, and public accounting firms prior to law school. That combination — Big Law training, federal government litigation experience, and a B.S. in Accountancy cum laude from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — is unusual in the tax controversy bar and will become increasingly rare as the pool of former Tax Division attorneys remains closed.
Milton Law Group was founded to deliver that level of expertise in a boutique setting. Clients work directly with Mark and a focused team rather than being routed through layers of associates and case managers. The firm maintains offices in St. Louis, Belleville, Kansas City, Chicago, and South Florida, with bar admissions in Missouri, Illinois, Florida, and the District of Columbia, and represents taxpayers nationwide in federal tax matters.
Mark has been recognized on the POWER List of Top 100 Attorneys by Missouri Lawyers Media (2022), the POWER List of Missouri Tax Attorneys (2021, 2022, 2025), as a Missouri Lawyers Media Up & Coming Attorney (2022), and as a Missouri Super Lawyers Rising Star (2019–2025). He chairs the annual Summer Tax Summit — a continuing education event drawing senior IRS, IRS-CI, and DOJ officials, federal judges, and top tax controversy practitioners nationwide — and previously served as Co-Chair of the Federal Bar Association’s 39th Annual Tax Law Conference in Washington, D.C.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to the DOJ Tax Division?
The U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division was dissolved as a standalone DOJ component, and its functions were redistributed across other parts of the Department, including civil and criminal litigation responsibilities now handled through other DOJ components and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. The federal government continues to pursue civil and criminal tax litigation; the work is simply organized differently. The pool of attorneys who served in the Tax Division during its existence is now closed and finite.
What is the difference between a former DOJ tax attorney and a former IRS attorney?
A former IRS attorney typically worked in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, handling administrative matters and U.S. Tax Court litigation on behalf of the IRS. A former DOJ Tax Division attorney represented the United States in federal civil and criminal tax litigation in federal district courts, the Court of Federal Claims, the bankruptcy courts, and the courts of appeals. Both backgrounds are valuable, but they reflect different scopes of federal court litigation experience.
How rare is it for a tax attorney in private practice to have DOJ Tax Division experience?
Increasingly rare, and now closed. The DOJ Tax Division employed fewer than 350 attorneys at any given time during its existence, and not all former Tax Division attorneys moved into private tax controversy practice. With the Division now dissolved, no new attorneys will be recruited into it making former Tax Division experience a finite credential held by a closed group of attorneys.
Does Mark Milton represent taxpayers nationwide or only in his office locations?
Milton Law Group provides federal tax representation nationwide. Mark Milton is admitted to the bars of Missouri, the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Florida, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court, which has jurisdiction over federal tax disputes nationwide. The firm maintains offices in St. Louis, Belleville, Kansas City, Chicago, and South Florida.
Why is federal court experience important if my IRS case is at the audit or Appeals stage?
Most tax cases resolve administratively without ever reaching federal court. But the IRS and DOJ evaluate cases differently when they know opposing counsel is credibly capable of trying a case in federal court. Federal litigation experience is leverage at the negotiating table, even when the case never goes to trial.
Does Milton Law Group offer free consultations?
No. Milton Law Group offers paid, privileged consultations with Mark Milton directly. Paid consultations are protected by attorney-client privilege, which means the conversation is confidential and the advice is candid. The firm believes prospective clients are better served by substantive consultations with a senior attorney than by free intake calls with non-attorney sales staff.
What types of tax matters does Milton Law Group handle?
The firm handles federal tax controversy matters including IRS audits, IRS collections, unfiled returns, payroll tax and trust fund recovery penalty matters, federal court litigation, white collar tax defense, tax planning and preparation, and estate planning. The firm also represents athletes, entertainers, and NIL recipients on tax matters.
About Mark C. Milton
Mark C. Milton is the Founder and Managing Attorney of Milton Law Group. Mark served as a Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division — the federal government’s specialized tax litigation arm prior to its dissolution — after being recruited through the prestigious Attorney General’s Honors Program. He received the DOJ’s Outstanding Trial Attorney Award in 2014. Mark brings nearly two decades of combined experience in tax controversy, federal litigation, and accounting — having previously practiced at an AmLaw 100 firm in St. Louis and worked at two large public accounting firms in Chicago and St. Louis prior to law school.
Mark earned his J.D., with Honors, from Saint Louis University School of Law, where he received the ALI-ABA Leadership and Scholarship Award, and his B.S. in Accountancy, cum laude, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is admitted to the bars of Missouri, the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Florida, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar).
Mark serves as Chairman of the Summer Tax Summit, is Co-Founder and Past President of the St. Louis Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, served as Co-Chair of the FBA’s 39th Annual Tax Law Conference in Washington, D.C., and is the Taxation Section Chair of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL). He has been recognized on the POWER List of Top 100 Attorneys by Missouri Lawyers Media (2022), the POWER List of Missouri Tax Attorneys (2021, 2022, 2025), and as a Missouri Super Lawyers Rising Star (2019–2025).
Trusted Legal Representation for Troubled Taxpayers
Contact the IRS Problem Solvers at Milton Law Group to schedule a paid privileged consultation by calling 833-LAW-1040 or at miltonlawgroup.com/schedule-now.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship with Milton Law Group or any of its attorneys. Every tax matter depends on its specific facts and circumstances, and readers should consult a qualified tax attorney about their particular situation. Results depend on specific facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.