Baron & Budd Enlists Former Commissioner of IRS to Fight Tax Fraud

Said O’Connell, the former head of the Texas Attorney General’s Civil Medicaid Fraud Division, “Peggy adds an unparalleled level of knowledge of federal tax law to the service Baron & Budd can provide to whistleblowers. Confidence in the team that will represent them is critical in the decision by these people to come forward to do what is right, but what is also very courageous.”

Richardson, who oversaw approximately 100,000 employees in her role as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service from 1993-1997, worked closely with state and local tax administrators nationwide championing improved tax administration and better taxpayer service. Following her government service, Richardson was the National Director of IRS Practice & Procedure at Ernst & Young until June 2003 and is currently a tax and business consultant.

“I’m been impressed with Baron & Budd’s commitment to fighting corporate fraud and wrongdoing in a number of arenas, and I’m excited about working with the firm to fight fraud in an area I know so well and have devoted my career to,” says Richardson.

Richardson, a native of Waco, Texas, graduated from Vassar College with a degree in political science and received her J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School where she was an editor of the Law Review. After law school, she clerked at the U.S. Court of Claims (now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) and then joined the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, where she became the first woman promoted to executive rank in the history of that Office. She was with the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan from 1977 until 1993. She is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia bars, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and on the ALI-ABA Advisory Panel on Business and Corporate Law.
[/private] About Baron & Budd, P.C.

For more than 30 years, the law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C. has championed the rights of people and communities harmed by corporate misconduct. With approximately 50 attorneys and offices in California, Texas and Louisiana, Baron & Budd enjoys a national reputation as a leader of the plaintiffs’ bar, having been repeatedly recognized by the NLJ’s Plaintiffs’ Hot List. The firm represents individuals with mesothelioma and other diseases caused by exposure to asbestos and other toxic substances; water authorities seeking clean-up costs for drinking water contamination; government entities and whistleblowers fighting corporate fraud through Qui Tam and False Claims Act cases; securities investors defrauded by corporate wrongdoing; and consumers in class actions and insurance coverage litigation.