Ethical Problems in Federal Tax Practice, Fifth Edition

Deborah Schenk

Deborah Schenk (LL.M. '76) joined the faculty at New York University School of Law 30 years ago and has been a faculty leader ever since. She is the long-time editor-in-chief of the Tax Law Review, a renowned tax policy journal with few counterparts in legal academe. Both in and out of the classroom, Schenk displays endless energy. She generously spends large amounts of time working for bar associations and volunteering for several community organizations.

Her impressive writing portfolio has established her as one of the nation’s leading tax policy scholars. In addition to her work on the Tax Law Review, she has produced numerous articles and three books: Federal Taxation of S Corporations, Federal Income Taxation, Principles and Policies, which she wrote with Professor Michael Graetz of Columbia, and Ethical Problems in Federal Tax Practice, which she wrote with the late Professor Bernard Wolfman of Harvard and Professor Diane Ring of Boston College Law School. Schenk actively serves the New York State Bar, where she has been on the Executive Committee of the Tax Section and is a past Chairman of the Committee on Professional Ethics. On the national level, she is a past member of the Council of the ABA Tax Section, past Vice President of the American Tax Policy Institute, a director of Tax Analysts, and a member of the ALI and the American College of Tax Counsel.

A Stone Scholar at Columbia University, Schenk received her J.D. in 1972. In 1976, she was awarded an LL.M. from NYU School of Law, and has visited at Harvard and Yale Law Schools. Schenk has an abiding interest in the problems of low income taxpayers. She has testified several times before various congressional committees on reform proposals that would affect this group and for many years provided pro bono tax advice for low income taxpayers.

Diane Ring

Diane M. Ring is a Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, where she researches and writes primarily in the field of international taxation, corporate taxation, and ethical issues in tax practice. Her recent work addresses issues including information exchange, international tax relations, advance pricing agreements, and ethics in international tax. Ms. Ring was a consultant for the United Nation’s 2013 project on treaty administration for developing countries. She was the U.S. National Reporter for the 2012 IFA Conference on the Debt Equity Conundrum, and the U.S. National Reporter for the 2004 IFA Conference on Double Nontaxation. She was the Assistant General Reporter for the 1995 IFA Conference on Financial Instruments and was a consultant to the IFA research project on the impact of technological and financial innovation on the taxation of income and activities.

Ms. Ring is also co-author of three case books in taxation– one on corporate taxation, one on international taxation, and one on ethical problems in federal tax practice. Prior to joining Boston College Law School, Ms. Ring was an associate professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and an assistant professor at Harvard Law School. Before entering academia, Ms. Ring practiced at the firm of Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C., specializing in the area of international tax and the taxation of financial instruments. Ms. Ring also clerked for Judge Jon O. Newman of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Bernard Wolfman

Before joining the Harvard faculty in 1976, Wolfman was the dean and Gemmill professor of tax law and tax policy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. A consultant on tax policy to the U.S. Treasury Department from 1963 to 1968 and from 1977 to 1980, Wolfman served as a member of the Council of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation and as council director of several committees. From 1974 to 1994, he served as a consultant to the American Law Institute and, from mid-1987, he served for two years as special consultant to Iran/Contra Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh. Wolfman was a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and its regent for the First Circuit. He was also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.