Alum Fleischer in Demand on Tax Debate

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June 21, 2007 – Victor Fleischer, a 1996 Columbia Law School graduate and a former research fellow has emerged as a sought-after expert on the ongoing Congressional debate about whether to raise the tax rate for private equity firms that go public.

 

Fleischer, now a professor at The University of Illinois College of Law, was crowned ``Professor of the Day’’ on June 20 by the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog. He was quoted in a June 16 story in the New York Times about the Blackstone Group’s plans to go public and what their tax bill should be. Last month, he presented his research to a Senate Finance Committee roundtable looking at the tax rate issue for equity firms.

 

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College in 1993 and his law degree from Columbia Law School in 1996, he served as a Research Fellow in the Law School’s Transactional Studies Program. He went on to teach at the University of Colorado before moving to his current post at Illinois.

 

The Columbia Law School’s Transactional Studies Program, which helps students better understand the world of business law and develops scholars – such as Fleischer – who can go on to teach the subject, was founded in 2003 by its inaugural chair, David M. Schizer, with the support of then Dean David Leebron. David Schizer is now Dean of Columbia Law School.

 

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School graduates have provided leadership worldwide in a remarkably broad range of fields – government, diplomacy, the judiciary, business, non-profit, advocacy, entertainment, academia, science and the arts.

 

Led by Dean Schizer, Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, and criminal law. The Law School offers J.D., J.S.D. and LL.M. degree programs to a diverse student body. For further information, visit www.law.columbia.edu..