Katherine T. Pratt

Katherine (Katie) Pratt
Professor of Law

Contact Information
Phone: (213) 736-8163
Fax: (213) 380-3769
E-mail: katherine.pratt@lls.edu

919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211


Educational and Professional Background

BA, University of Florida
JD, Distinguished Advocate, UCLA School of Law
LLM in Taxation, New York University School of Law
LLM in Corporate Law, New York University School of Law

After her graduation from law school, Katherine Pratt worked as an associate with Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman in Beverly Hills. She began her teaching career in 1990, after earning two LLM degrees, in tax law and corporate law, from New York University School of Law. Professor Pratt has taught at New York University School of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law, and New York Law School. She has been a member of the Loyola's full-time faculty since 1997. She teaches Income Tax I, Tax Policy, Honors Tax Policy Colloquium, Business Associations, and Contracts.

Professor Pratt's current scholarly interests include the federal income tax treatment of medical expenses and employer-provided health care, food excise taxes, obesity regulation, and federal budget issues.  Her previous scholarship also has addressed corporate tax and corporate finance issues.


Works in Progress

The Boundaries of the Medical Expense Deduction

Normative Justifications for Food Excise Taxes


Recent Scholarship

The Virtual Tax Library: A Comparison of Five Electronic Tax Research Platforms,” forthcoming Fla. Tax Rev. (2008) (peer-reviewed) (with Jennifer Kowal and Daniel Martin)

“Federal Income Tax: Examples & Explanations” (5th ed.), Aspen Publishers (2008) (with Joseph Bankman and Thomas Griffith)

"Deficits and the Dividend Tax Cut: Tax Policy as the Handmaiden of Fiscal Policy," 41 Ga. L. Rev. 503 (2006)

"Federal Income Taxation: Examples and Explanations" (4th ed.), Aspen Publishers (2005) (with Joseph Bankman and Thomas Griffith)

"Corporate Cancellation of Indebtedness Income and the Debt-Equity Distinction," 24 Va. Tax Rev. 187 (2004)

"Inconceivable? Deducting the Costs of Fertility Treatment," 89 Cornell L. Rev. 101 (2004)

"Federal Income Taxation: Examples and Explanations" (3rd ed.), Aspen Publishers (2002) (with Joseph Bankman and Thomas Griffith)

"The Debt-Equity Distinction in a Second-Best World," 53 Vand. L. Rev. 1055 (2000)

"Federal Income Taxation: Examples and Explanations" (2nd ed.), Aspen Publishers , (1998) (with Joseph Bankman & Thomas Griffith)

"Federal Income Taxation: Examples and Explanations" (1st ed.), Aspen Publishers , (1996) (with Joseph Bankman & Thomas Griffith)

"Recommend Federal Tax Sources for Law School Libraries," 87 L. Libr. J. 387 (1995)

"Funding Health Care Reform with an Employer Mandate: Efficiency and Equity Concerns," 39 St. Louis U. L.J. 155 (1994) (symposium issue)

"Shifting Biases: Troubled Company Debt Restructurings After the 1993 Tax Act," 68 Am. Bankr. L.J. 23 (1994) (peer-reviewed)


Recent Presentations Regarding Obesity Regulation

Countering the “Personal Responsibility” Norm in Obesity Policy Debates, Public Health Advocacy Institute Fourth Annual Conference on Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic, Boston, Massachusetts, November 2006 (invited by PHAI to participate as a speaker)

The Externalities Justification for Food Excise Taxes, Public Health Advocacy Institute Third Annual Conference on Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic, Boston, Massachusetts, September 2005 (invited by PHAI to participate as a speaker)

Normative Justifications for Food Excise Taxes, UCLA Medical School, Center for Human Nutrition, Los Angeles, California, June 2005 (invited by UCLA Center for Nutrition to present the workshop talk)

Normative Justifications for Food Excise Taxes, UCLA School of Law, Tax Policy & Public Finance Workshop Series, Los Angeles, California, April 2005 (invited by UCLA School of Law to present the workshop talk)

Food Excise Taxes as a Response to the Obesity Epidemic, Public Health Advocacy Institute Second Annual Conference on Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic, Boston, Massachusetts, September 2004 (invited by PHAI to participate as a speaker)


Courses Taught

Income Tax I, Tax Policy, Honors Tax Policy Colloquium, Business Associations, Contracts

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