I'm a special trial attorney for the Internal Revenue Service. I work in the Small Business/Self-employed division. I have a background working on fraud cases, cases that involve people attempting to hide money in off-shore bank accounts. Currently I'm developing casework for agents to audit. I have worked on a detail as an investigator on the staff of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), where I helped draft proposed legislation that would give the Treasury Department new tools to identify and address compliance issues with taxpayers who are using the secrecy laws and practices of foreign jurisdictions to evade tax.

EDUCATION | BA History, Fairmont State College; JD Marshall Wythe Law School, College of William and Mary

HOW TO GET STARTED | All of our hiring is now done through USAJobs, a Website for government jobs. We do some recruiting at law schools. If you want to work for IRS Counsel, go to law school, take at least a couple of tax classes, get good grades, and watch for opportunities.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | This job is what you make of it. You can work 9-5, but if you want to stand out, you have to be willing to work hard. You have to have intellectual curiosity and be willing to dig a little deeper. You have to be persistent, be willing to try different approaches.

how I got started | I started working for the IRS in 1974 right out of law school. During the summer before my third year of law school I had done an internship with the IRS Counsel field office in Washington DC and liked the experience. I also was on the Law Review in law school and wrote a couple of articles on tax issues, which developed my interest in the subject. When I graduated, I applied for a position with the IRS.

why this job?| The variety of things an IRS lawyer does is what initially caught my eye. Every case involves a different business or occupation, so I'm always learning about new things. Also, I get a lot of satisfaction from enforcing the law and protecting the public interest. People have gotten away with hiding money in offshore accounts for years, and we're finally making real progress in addressing that problem. The public has to pay more money when dishonest people don't pay their share. By going after the major tax evaders. It makes the tax burden on all of us more fair.

why I love this job!| The people -- both my co-workers and my managers have been very supportive. I love the variety. The goal, as I was told the day I was hired, is to get the right answer -- neither to overtax the taxpayer nor allow him to avoid his responsibilities. I like that I get to have input in determining what that right answer is.

my typical day| If I'm in the office, I'm responding to e-mails or on the phone giving advice to agents, or working on documents. If I'm traveling, it's usually for interviews or meetings or to teach.

what they are | There are many technical challenges related to learning about particular aspects of tax law. I don't consider myself a tax expert -- I learn about taxes as I work on each new case or problem. Another challenge -- being with a government agency, the budget process is controlled by Congress, so there can be disruptions of the work flow from time to time if the annual budget doesn't get passed. Also, dealing with the bureaucracy can be a challenge. As with any large organization, things are sometimes slow to change.

all about growth | The opportunity for growth is limitless. It just depends on what direction you want to go in. There are opportunities to move to more complex and interesting work within the job. There are opportunities to move into management. There are openings all over the country, and you have the opportunity to move from one position to another within the agency or even from one government agency to another.

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