Tax Advisers - Deloitte

United States
Richard W Skillman
Caplin & Drysdale
One Thomas Circle, NW
Washington, DC 20005
US
Tel: (1) 202 862 5034
Fax: (1) 202 429 3301
Email: rws@capdale.com
Website: www.caplindrysdale.com
Richard W Skillman is a member of Caplin & Drysdale’s Washington, DC office. He
rejoined the firm in May 2002 after serving first as deputy chief counsel and most
recently as acting chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service.
As acting chief counsel, Mr Skillman was the chief legal official of the IRS having final
authority for all legal and litigating positions of the IRS and management responsibility
for approximately 2500 chief counsel employees in more than 50 offices nationwide. As
deputy chief counsel, he oversaw all technical divisions in the Office of Chief Counsel
and had primary IRS responsibility for all tax regulations and other published guidance.
During Mr Skillman’s period of government service, he was centrally involved in all
significant legal developments in the IRS, including the development of regulations and
other administrative actions relating to corporate tax shelters.
Prior to his government experience, Mr Skillman practised tax law for 27 years at
Caplin & Drysdale. His practice covered a broad cross-section of domestic and
international tax issues and involved both tax planning and representation in tax
controversies. His areas of tax concentration included executive compensation and
other employee benefit matters, insurance companies and products, corporate tax, tax
accounting, and international tax.
Mr Skillman is a member of the tax sections of the ABA and of the DC Bar. He
formerly taught corporate tax as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University
Law Center and has lectured and written articles on a broad range of tax subjects.
Mr Skillman holds a BA from Amherst College and a JD from New York University
Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the NYU Law Review. After law
school, he served as law clerk to Judge Gibbons of the US Court of Appeals for the
Third Circuit and to Chief Justice Burger of the US Supreme Court.
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