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NEW CENTER EMPHASIZES UVA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO TAX LAW THE VIRGINIA CENTER FOR TAX LAW has been established at the Law
School, with Professor Andrew Hayashi serving as the center’s first director. The center will bring to the fore faculty scholarship in tax law—emphasizing the present conversation while building upon UVA Law’s historical strengths and storied past in tax. Because of the problems the nation and the world face, the addition of the center comes at a timely moment. “The United States is right at the center of what seems to be a global reconsideration of fiscal and economic policies, focusing on race, inequality, and the relationship between capital and labor,” Hayashi said. “Tax law, policy and administration are at the core of this conversation.” Hayashi is the Class of 1948 Professor of Scholarly Research in Law and an expert in tax law, tax policy, and behavioral law and economics. Prior to joining the Law School, he was a fellow at the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University, where his research focused on the effects of tax policy on real estate and housing markets. He practiced tax law earlier in his career as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Hayashi holds a doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. The center’s other faculty include Michael Doran, Joshua Fischman, Kevin A. Kordana, Ruth Mason, Paul B. Stephan ’77 and Ethan Yale. In addition to their scholarly endeavors, the faculty remain engaged with practice organizations such as the ABA Tax Section, the American Law Institute, Congress, the Treasury Department and the IRS. “Tax is a wide-ranging area of law, and we are very fortunate to have a faculty that can cover so much of it,” Hayashi said. “My colleagues have diverse interests and topical and methodological expertise. Their scholarship reflects that, and it makes for an exciting intellectual culture.” 20
UVA LAW Y ER | Spring 2021
UVA’s strength in tax owes a considerable debt to the past, Hayashi said. The late alumni Mortimer Caplin ’40, former IRS commissioner, and Edwin S. Cohen ’36, a former undersecretary of the Treasury, are among the Law School’s storied government servants who taught at the Law School. Professors Emeriti George Yin, Mildred Robinson and Thomas R. White III have also been exemplars, Hayashi said. The trio have served in influential volunteer and public service roles. Yin served as chief of staff of the U.S. Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, one of the most influential tax positions in the country. And, of course, countless alumni who weren’t academics have served in senior positions in government and private practice. “These are people who are responsible for the distinguished history of tax scholarship and service at UVA,” Hayashi said. Virginia offers one of the strongest tax law curricula in the country, and is home to the Virginia Tax Review, the nation’s leading student-edited tax journal. In addition to their work in the classroom and on the journal, students have won the International and European Tax Moot Court competition three times in a row, and fielded the first U.S. team to win the event. Faculty, students and alumni also learn about cutting-edge issues in tax from the Virginia Tax Study Group, an annual tradition at the Law School that brings together alumni from private practice, government and academia. In the fall, the annual UVA Invitational Tax Conference brings leading tax academics to Grounds to discuss scholarly works in progress. Students are invited to attend both meetings. During the summer, the Law School hosts the Virginia Conference on Federal Taxation, an annual conference that marked its 70th anniversary in 2018. —Eric Williamson
