WASHINGTON – Rebecca Harrigal, the first female director of the Internal Revenue Service's Office of Tax Exempt Bonds, will leave the agency next month to join a law firm.
Harrigal, who has been with the IRS for 26 years, is leaving to join Greenberg Traurig here as a shareholder in its public finance practice. Her last day at the IRS will be Dec. 12, she confirmed to The Bond Buyer on Thursday.
Imraan Khakoo, Harrigal's acting assistant, will become the acting director of TEB upon Harrigal's departure. It is not yet clear how long Khakoo will serve in the position.
Harrigal became director of TEB in October 2013 after serving as deputy associate chief at the IRS' Financial Institutions and Products Division since 2010. She got her start in 1990 at the IRS' chief counsel's office's field service division before serving as chief of the TEB branch in the counsel's office for 11 years.
From 2008 to 2010, Harrigal was chief of the IRS' new products branch.
Harrigal said she expects a public announcement of her plans to be made soon.
Her departure comes as TEB faces a diminished staff and resources. At the National Association of Bond Lawyers' Bond Attorneys' Workshop last month, Harrigal said that TEB lost eight employees in the past year to transfers and retirements.
The office is now down to roughly 65 employees.
