David M. Schizer

Dean and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law

Office: Dean's Office 8th floor Jerome L. Greene Hall
435 West 116th Street
New York NY 10027
Tel: (212) 854 2675
Fax: (212) 854 9740
Email: dschiz@law.columbia.edu

Assistant Info

Name: Eva Werbell/Marie-Pierre Murry
Phone: 212-854-2675
Email: ewerbe@law.columbia.edu
Assistant Info

Name Marie-Pierre Murry

Phone 212-854-2675

Email mmurry@law.columbia.edu

Courses/Current Research:

  • Tax Policy
  • Corporate Governance
  • Derivative Securities
  • Professional Responsibility

Media Contact:

Education:

  • Yale Law School. New Haven, CT. J.D., 1993. Yale Law Journal, Executive Editor.
  • Yale College. New Haven, CT. M.A., History, 1990. B.A., History, Summa Cum Laude, 1990.

Detailed Biography:
David M. Schizer was named the fourteenth Dean of Columbia Law School and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law in 2004. As dean, he has more than doubled the amount of support given to Columbia Law School, significantly broadening the base of donors that contribute leadership gifts. He has strengthened Columbia’s support for students and graduates working in government and public interest jobs. In spring of 2007 he announced guaranteed summer funding for all J.D. students working in public interest internships and in 2008 he announced significant enhancements to Columbia Law School’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) by doubling the income threshold, accelerating loan forgiveness and enhancing benefits to working parents.

To broaden the curriculum and create the opportunity for more intense interactions between faculty and students, Dean Schizer has begun to grow the faculty without enlarging the student body. Since his tenure as dean began, 26 new faculty have been appointed. To support a growing faculty construction of a new floor in Jerome Greene Hall, the heart of Columbia Law School, was completed in 2008 providing 38 new faculty offices and academic space.

One of the nation's leading experts in tax law, Schizer worked at Davis Polk & Wardwell prior to joining the Columbia Law faculty in 1998. He is a graduate of Yale University where he earned his B.A., M.A. and J.D. degrees. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the 1994-95 term, and for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1993-94 term.

Schizer was appointed dean at the age of 35, making him the youngest dean in the school's history.  Prior to his appointment, Schizer served as the Wilbur H. Friedman Professor of Tax Law at Columbia Law School. He started a highly popular Deals course, bringing students, academics and practitioners together to examine the art of the deal in the real world. For his ingenuity in the classroom, students awarded him the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Dean Schizer currently serves on two corporate boards, the Tax Club, the Tax Forum, and on the executive committee and as co-chair of the Committee on Financial Institutions, N.Y. State Bar Assocation Tax Section.  Dean Schizer has written more than 25 books and articles on taxation, financial instruments and regulation.  

Recent Publications:

  • Energy Policy for an Economic Downturn: A Proposed Petroleum Fuel Price Stabilization Plan", (with Thomas Merrill), Yale Journal of Regulation (forthcoming 2009)
  • "Subsidizing Charitable Contributions: Incentives, Information and the Private Pursuit of Public Goals", Tax Law Review  (forthcoming 2009)
  • "Enlisting the Tax Bar", Tax Law Review, Vol. 59, No. 3, 2007
  • "Balance in the Taxation of Financial Instruments: An Agenda for Reform," Columbia Law Review, Volume 104, No. 7, November (2004)
  • "Scrubbing the Wash Sale Rules," Taxes, March (2004) at 67, 71-76
  • "Market Bubbles and Wasteful Avoidance: Tax and Regulatory Constraints on Short Sales," Tax Law Review (with Michael Powers and Martin Shubik), 57 Tax L. Rev. 233, 235-42 (2004)
  • "Understanding Venture Capital Structure: A Tax Explanation for Convertible Preferred Securities," Harvard Law Review (with Prof. Ronald Gilson; 2003)
  • "Frictions and Tax-Motivated Hedging: An Empirical Exploration of Publicly-Traded Exchangeable Securities," (with Prof. William Gentry) National Tax Journal 56 Nat'l Tax J. 167 (2003)
  • "Frictions as a Constraint on Tax Planning," Columbia Law Review (2001)
  • "Tax Constraints on Indexed Options," University of Pennsylvania Law Review (2001)
  • "Sticks and Snakes: Derivatives and Curtailing Aggressive Tax Planning," Southern California Law Review (2000)
  • "Executives and Hedging: The Fragile Legal Foundation of Incentive Compatibility," Columbia Law Review (2000)
  • "Realization as Subsidy," New York University Law Review (1998). 

Dean's Letters to Graduates
Click here to read recent letters from Dean David Schizer to Columbia Law School graduates.