Cono R. Namorato is a member in Caplin & Drysdale's Washington, D.C. office. He rejoined the firm in 2006 after serving for two years as Director of the Office of Professional Responsibility for the Internal Revenue Service. He had been a member of the firm for 25 years previously, joining the firm in 1978 after ten years in the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as Chief of the Criminal Section and Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of criminal tax enforcement nationwide. During his more recent term at the IRS, Mr. Namorato supervised the Service's increasing efforts toward achieving compliance nationwide among tax practitioners with newly enhanced standards of conduct, and he also served as senior advisor to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue on complex enforcement matters.
Mr. Namorato's legal experience has been wide-ranging. He has represented corporations and individuals, including corporate executives and senior public officials, in potential or ongoing criminal tax investigations, sensitive civil IRS examinations, and complex voluntary disclosures. He has counseled companies, including Fortune 500 corporations and worldwide professional firms, in resolving sensitive legal and ethical problems and has directed complex internal investigations into financial frauds. Mr. Namorato has also assisted tax lawyers and accountants in tax, ethics and compliance issues.
Mr. Namorato has held prominent positions in the American Bar Associations Sections of Taxation and Litigation, and is a frequent speaker on matters relating to professional ethics, criminal tax and other white collar criminal enforcement issues. He received his law degree from the Brooklyn Law School, after beginning his career at the IRS, where he served as a Special Agent in the Intelligence Division (now the Criminal Investigation Division).