Two tax experts with high-profile government and private practice experience have joined New York boutique Kostelanetz & Fink and will launch the firm's new Washington, D.C., office.

“We hope to grow,” said partner Caroline Ciraolo, who came to Kostelanetz & Fink this month after leading the U.S. Department of Justice's Tax Division during the final two years of the Obama administration. Ciraolo had earlier chaired the tax controversy and litigation group at Baltimore's Rosenberg Martin Greenberg.

Joining Ciraolo in the firm's new D.C. office is Jay Nanavati, a former assistant chief of the Tax Division's Criminal Enforcement Section who spent the past five years as a partner at Baker & Hostetler.