Francis Allegra

Francis Marion Allegra (October 14, 1957 – August 27, 2015) was an American federal judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims. Early life and education Allegra grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio. He graduated from Borromeo College of Ohio in 1978, with a degree in philosophy, and then, in 1981, received his Juris Doctor (magna cum laude) from the Cleveland-Marshall Law School at Cleveland State University. Following graduation, he served as a law clerk to Chief Trial Judge Philip R. Miller of the U.S. Court of Claims from 1981 to 1982. Professional career From 1982 to 1984, Allegra was an associate at the Cleveland law firm of Squire, Sanders, and Dempsey, where he specialized in tax and bond work. In 1984, he joined the Appellate Section of the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. From 1984 through 1994, he was an appellate litigator, handling many of the Tax Division's most complex cases in Federal courts of appeals throughout the country. During this period, Allegra steadily rose through the ranks of the Tax Division ranks, becoming first a special assistant to the assistant attorney general of the Tax Division and then counselor to the assistant attorney general of the Tax Division. In 1994, Allegra was appointed counselor to the associate attorney general (the third-highest-ranking official at the Justice Department). Shortly after that, he was appointed deputy associate attorney general. In the latter role, Allegra worked with the Tax and Antitrust Divisions, as well as with the National Economic and Domestic Policy Councils at the White House.