Michael Graetz, National Tax Law Expert, Joins Columbia

            MICHAEL GRAETZ, NATIONAL EXPERT ON TAX LAW, JOINS

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June 11, 2008 (NEW YORK) - Michael J. Graetz, a leading expert on national and international tax law whose work has influenced U.S. tax policy for decades, will join Columbia Law School’s faculty.

 

Professor Graetz, currently the Justus S. Hotchkiss Professor of Law at the Yale Law School, has made substantial contributions to virtually every aspect of tax law and policy including federal income tax, the corporate income tax, the estate tax, international taxation, budget policy, and the financing of Social Security and healthcare.

 

“Professor Graetz is a sensational addition to our intellectual community,” Dean David M. Schizer said. “He brings extraordinary insight and eloquence to the most important and difficult problems in taxation, and his work has had profound impact on a broad audience, ranging from legal academics and economists to practicing lawyers, government officials, and lay readers.”

 

Professor Graetz has long been involved in the making of public policy. He served in the United States Department of the Treasury early in his legal career and then again as Deputy Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) and as Assistant to the Secretary and Special Counsel during the George H.W. Bush administration. He has also testified before Congress and presidential commissions numerous times, and has served as a reporter for the American Law Institute. He has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and invitations to give named lectures at a half-dozen law schools. 

 

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to interact with the tax policy community at Columbia and throughout New York,” Graetz said.

 

Professor Graetz has written or edited numerous books, including 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States (Yale University Press 2007); Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight Over Taxing Inherited Wealth (with Ian Shapiro) (Princeton University Press 2005); Foundations of International Income Taxation, (Foundation Press 2003); and The U.S. Income Tax: What it Is, How it Got That Way and Where We Go From Here, (Norton 1999) and True Security: Rethinking American Social Insurance (with Jerry Mashaw) (Yale University Press 1999).

 

Professor Graetz’s appointment is one of 21 faculty who have come to Columbia Law School since Dean Schizer became dean in 2004. This cohort of distinguished scholars enhances the breadth of the Law School’s research capabilities and curriculum and offers greater opportunities for interaction between faculty and students. Professor Graetz’s appointment begins in July 2009.

 

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, and criminal law.