In 1949, Congressman Robert Doughton, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee hired Irwin on his staff, leading to Irwin eventually serving for nineteen years as Chief Counsel for that committee.[2][3][1] While serving in that capacity, Irwin met his wife, Doris, who was on the committee.[3] From 1962 to 1963, Irwin returned to the Georgetown University Law Center, this time as an adjunct professor.[2]
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Irwin to a seat on the United States Tax Court vacated by the resignation of Russell E. Train.[1][2] Irwin served the remainder of Train's term, and was then reappointed to full term by President Richard Nixon in 1970.[2] On the court, Irwin "wrote 462 opinions, including four concurrences and seven dissents".[3] Irwin's most noted opinion on that court was one allowing country singer Conway Twitty to deduct the cost of repaying friends for their losses incurred while investing in Twitty's failed effort to start a restaurant chain. Irwin concluded the opinion with several lines of rhyme about the case.[4] Irwin served until his resignation in 1983, with President Ronald Reagan nominating Stephen Swift to replace him.[5]
Irwin died in September 1995, at his summer home in Whitehead, North Carolina, and was memorialized in a special session of the Tax Court on December 1, 1995.[3]
^ abcdefghOfficial Congressional Directory (1979), p. 746-47.
^ abcdefgUnited States Tax Court, ""Opening Remarks of Chief Judge Lapsley W. Hamblen, Jr. at the Memorial Service for Judge Leo H. Irwin on December 1, 1995"", United States Tax Court Reports, Volume 105 (1995), p. ix-xx.