US Treasury’s Ruth Madrigal joins Steptoe

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

US Treasury’s Ruth Madrigal joins Steptoe

Madrigal Ruth 100 x 90

Ruth Madrigal has joined Steptoe & Johnson as a partner in the tax group in the Washington office.

Madrigal has spent the past six years at the US Treasury department’s office of tax policy, where she served as the exempt organisations (EO) attorney and policy adviser. While at Treasury, Madrigal drafted regulations and other administrative guidance relating to the tax-exempt sector, including Treasury guidance on programme-related investments and other types of mission-related investments, updated rules facilitating foreign grant making, and new regulations detailing requirements for tax-exempt hospitals. She also contributed to legislative proposals relating to charitable organisations and charitable giving, and represented the department in public hearings and in meetings with other federal agencies, foreign governments, Congress, and state regulators.

At Steptoe, Madrigal will build upon the firm’s tax-exempt organisations practice, led by Suzanne McDowell and Catherine Wilkinson.

Madrigal previously worked in private practice at Caplin & Drysdale, where she advised EOs on a broad range of issues, including entity choice, private foundation rules, intermediate sanctions, unrelated business activities, and reporting and governance issues. She also worked at Irell & Manella, advising on tax and corporate transactions.

Steptoe is the second US firm in recent days to announce the hire of a former government official, as firms get ready for a year of tax action under President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20.

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Imposing the tax on virtual assets is a measure that appears to have no legal, economic or statistical basis, one expert told ITR
The EU has seemingly capitulated to the US’s ‘side-by-side’ demands. This may be a win for the US, but the uncertainty has only just begun for pillar two
The £7.4m buyout marks MHA’s latest acquisition since listing on the London Stock Exchange earlier this year
ITR’s most prolific stories of the year charted public pillar two spats, the continued fallout from the PwC Australia tax leaks scandal, and a headline tax fraud trial
The climbdowns pave the way for a side-by-side deal to be concluded this week, as per the US Treasury secretary’s expectation; in other news, Taft added a 10-partner tax team
A vote to be held in 2026 could create Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, a $3.6bn giant with 3,100 lawyers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific
Foreign companies operating in Libya face source-based taxation even without a local presence. Multinationals must understand compliance obligations, withholding risks, and treaty relief to avoid costly surprises
Hotel La Tour had argued that VAT should be recoverable as a result of proceeds being used for a taxable business activity
Tax professionals are still going to be needed, but AI will make it easier than starting from zero, EY’s global tax disputes leader Luis Coronado tells ITR
AI and assisting clients with navigating global tax reform contributed to the uptick in turnover, the firm said
Gift this article