Richard Beck, Professor of Law. Education: University of Chicago, B.A. 1963,
Ph.D. 1973; Yale, J.D. 1980; New York University, LL.M. (Taxation) 1984. After
practicing tax law for four years in New York City, Professor Beck returned to
academia and taught for two years in the University of Denver Graduate Tax
Program. In 1986, he joined the faculty of New York Law School where he has
remained ever since. Professor Beck is co-author of a casebook on corporate and
partnership taxation, and is the author of numerous law review articles in the
tax field. He has testified several times before congressional tax writing
committees as an expert on spousal liability for income taxes. He is a member of
the Tax Section of the ABA, of the New York State Bar Association, and of the
Association of the Bar of the City of New York committee on business entities.
Professor Beck currently teaches Individual Tax, Tax Policy, International Tax,
and Taxation of Property Transactions. He also regularly lectures on
international tax as guest professor at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Pamela R. Champine, Associate Professor of Law. Education: University of
Illinois, B.S. 1985 with highest honors; Northwestern, J.D. 1988 cum laude; New
York University, LL.M. (Taxation) 1990. Professor Champine's years of
experience, first in private practice and later as Law Secretary to Surrogate
Eve Preminger, furnish a comprehensive perspective on the tax and non-tax issues
that arise in estate planning and management of personal affairs generally. Her
scholarship ranges from articles addressing intricate tax issues to policy-based
articles analyzing fundamental doctrines in the law of wills to a book
addressing tax and non-tax aspects of drafting wills and trusts. Professor
Champine will teach Problems of Timing in the LL.M. program. She also teaches
Property and Wills, Trusts & Future Interests.
William P. LaPiana, Rita and Joseph Solomon Professor of Wills, Trusts, and Estates. Education: Harvard University, A.B. 1973 summa cum laude, A.M. in history 1975, J.D. 1978 cum laude, Ph.D. in history 1987. From 1979 to 1983 Professor LaPiana was associated with Davis Polk and Wardwell where he worked primarily in the estates group. He began teaching in 1983 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and joined the New York Law School faculty in 1987. His teaching responsibilities include wills and trusts, property, federal estate and gift tax, estate planning, and American legal history. His dissertation was published as Logic and Experience: The Origin of Modern American Legal Education. He has also written on various aspects of nineteenth-century American legal history and is a regular participant in the New York University legal history colloquium. In addition, Professor LaPiana is the author of several articles on estate planning and a co-author of Disclaimers in Estate Planning: A Guide to their Effective Use and has contributed to Klipstein and Bloom, Drafting New York Wills. In 1992 he was elected an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and in 1998 was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. He was the Reporter for the revised Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act, which was promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in July 1999.
Ann F. Thomas, Professor of Law. Education: Harvard-Radcliffe, A.B. 1973; Yale, J.D. 1976. Professor Thomas brings to the classroom 17 years of experience--10 as partner--working in the corporate tax department at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions. Professor Thomas studies and teaches about comparative systems of corporate taxation around the world and sees a need in the increasingly global marketplace for an expansion of international cooperation on business and tax issues. Professor Thomas is in the process of finishing a book examining the history of the U.S. tax system during the Progressive Era and the emergence of the modern income tax system in 1913. She teaches Business Law Issues in Structuring the Closely Held Enterprise, Comparative Tax Law, Corporate Tax, and Individual Income Tax.
ABOUT NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL
Located near the centers of law, government, and finance
in New York City, New York Law School is one of the oldest independent law
schools in the United States. Its faculty of noted and prolific scholars has
built the school's curricular strength in the areas of tax law, labor and
employment law, civil and human rights law, media and information law, urban
legal studies, international and comparative law, and interdisciplinary fields
such as legal history and legal ethics. The Law School enrolls 1,400 students
and has more than 11,000 graduates.
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CONTACT: New York Law School Public Affairs
Jim Hellegaard, 212/431-2191
jhellegaard@nyls.edu
