Ellen P. Aprill, John Anderson Chair in Tax Law. Prof. Aprill is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and a member of the American Law Institute. She holds a BA with high honors and distinction from the University of Michigan, an MA and CPhil from UCLA, and a JD magna cum laude from Georgetown, where she served as articles editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. Upon graduation, she clerked for Judge John Butzner of the Fourth Circuit and Justice Byron White of the United States Supreme Court. After practicing with the firm of Munger Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles, she became attorney advisor in the Office of Tax Policy at the Department of the Treasury. She has authored numerous articles, participated in numerous panels, institutes and symposia, and served as chair of the AALS Tax Section, chair of the Tax Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, editor of the ABA Tax Section Newsletter, and articles editor of The Tax Lawyer, the ABA Tax Section’s scholarly journal. She is currently Vice-Chair— Communications for the ABA Tax Section.
Ryan Austin, Adjunct Professor. A magna cum laude graduate of Michigan Law School, Prof. Austin is an associate at Loeb & Loeb. He has significant experience representing clients in federal and state tax controversy proceedings at both the administrative and judicial levels, including companies in bankruptcy.
Ronald L. Blanc, Adjunct Professor. A former law clerk to Justice Byron White of the United States Supreme Court, partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella, and founding partner of Blanc Williams Johnston & Kronstadt, Prof. Blanc is currently Of Counsel to the firm of Arnold & Porter. In 2007, he was named to Best Lawyers in America for Tax Law. He received a BS degree (with special honors) from the University of Colorado and his LLB (now JD) degree from New York University, where he graduated Order of the Coif and served as an Editor of the Law Review.
Elizabeth Bluestein, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Bluestein is Vice President and General Counsel at Public Counsel, the largest pro bono law office in the nation. She serves as chair of the California State Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services and advisor to the State Bar Business Law Section's Nonprofit and Unincorporated Associations Committee and is past Chair of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the Tax Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Prior to joining Public Counsel, Prof. Bluestein practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. She is a graduate of Harvard College, magna cum laude, with a BA in Social Studies, and of UC Berkeley Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif.
Justin Bowen, Adjunct Professor. After working for many years in the tax department at O'Melveny & Myers, Prof. Bowen recently started his own firm, where he advises clients on the tax aspects of their business activities, including corporate and partnership formations, financings, acquisitions and dispositions, and also provides tax counsel to clients and their advisors in the context of tax audits. He earned his JD, cum laude, and his LLM, with high distinction, from Loyola Law School.
Catherine Chang, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Chang is Associate Area Counsel in the IRS' Office of Chief Counsel, SBSE Division. She is a graduate of UCLA and the Pennsylvania State Dickinson School of Law.
C. Stephen Davis, Adjunct Professor. A name partner in Cahill Davis & O'Neall, LLP, Prof. Davis’ practice is devoted exclusively to property tax and assessment litigation, trials and counseling. He has represented numerous taxpayers before county assessment appeals boards throughout California, the California Superior Court and the California Court of Appeal, and has published in the Journal of Multi-state Taxation, California Tax Lawyer, Real Property Law Reporter, and Property Tax Report. He earned his JD from Loyola Law School.
Jeffrey C. DeFrancisco, Adjunct Professor. A graduate of Loyola Law School’s Tax LLM program, Prof. DeFrancisco is a name partner at Calleton Merritt DeFrancisco & Real-Salas LLP, where he specializes in sophisticated estate, tax and wealth transfer planning techniques, and co-author of the Income Taxation of Estates and Trusts chapter of the California Education of the Bar's book on Estate Planning. He has been included in Pasadena Magazine's Top Attorneys list since 2011.
Scott Dommes, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Dommes is an associate in the tax and joint venture group at Allen Matkins, practicing in the firm's Tax and Joint Venture Group. Prior to joining Allen Matkins, he was an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP and in the transaction advisory services group at Ernst & Young. He is a magna cum laude graduate of UC Hastings Law School and earned his LLM in taxation, with highest distinction, from Loyola Law School.
Richard Fung, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Fung is a tax principal in Ernst & Young’s Transactional Advisory Services group, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, restructurings and workouts. He has published several articles for the Practising Law Institute and the Mergers & Acquisitions Monthly Tax Journal and is editor of the BNA Tax Management Portfolio on personal holding companies. He received his JD degree from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Robin Gilden, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Gilden is Of Counsel with the firm of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, where she focuses her practice in business taxation, and a former partner with Venable LLP. She has twice been included in Southern California Super Lawyers' Top 5%. Prior to entering private practice, Prof. Gilden worked in the tax departments of two Fortune 100 companies. She holds a JD and a BA, magna cum laude, from NYU, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Sam Greenberg, Adjunct Professor. As a tax associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson, Prof. Greenberg focuses his practice on the taxation of domestic and international transactions, and was recently named a Rising Star by Southern California Super Lawyers magazine. He earned his JD and LLM degrees at Loyola Law School, where he was an Articles Editor for the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, and received the Gregory W. Goff Award and the Lynn Witte Award from the Los Angeles County Bar Association Tax Section for the highest academic achievements in tax. He has published in the Federal Courts Law Review.
Thomas W. Henning, Adjunct Professor. Former chair of the Tax Section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Prof. Henning is a partner with Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory LLP, with over 35 years of experience in business tax practice. He has repeatedly been included in both Southern California Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America in the fields of Litigation & Controversy - Tax, and Tax Law, and has published in Tax Lawyer, the NYU Institute on Federal Taxation, and the U.S.C. Tax Institute. While attending NYU’s Graduate Tax Program, he was a Kenneson Fellow and graduate editor of the Tax Law Review.
Sanford Holo, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Holo is past chair of the Tax Section of the LA County Bar Association, a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, a former partner at Musick Peeler & Garrett LLP, and the 2006 recipient of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Tax Section's Dana Latham Award, to "a then-living leader of the Los Angeles tax bar who has made an outstanding contribution to the community and to the legal profession in the field of taxation." He received his BA (honors in economics) from the University of Michigan, his JD from Harvard Law School and his LLM in taxation from NYU.
Jennifer M. Honey, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Honey is recognized by the California State Bar as a certified specialist in the field of estate planning, and has served as a tax and estate planning advisor for several of Los Angeles' largest private foundations as well as high net worth individuals, families, estates, and family businesses, including the Getty and Keck estates. Before founding her own firm, she served as an associate with the law firm of Reish & Luftman and a consultant for the Family Wealth Planning Group of the Los Angeles office of Arthur Andersen. She holds an LLM degree in Estate Planning and Estate &Gift Taxation from the University of Miami Law School and has published in the Journal of Accountancy, among others.
Jennifer M. Kowal, Director, Tax LLM Program and Associate Clinical Professor. Formerly Harvard Law School’s International Tax Program deputy director, Prof. Kowal is the Tax LLM Program’s first full-time director. Before taking her position at Harvard, she practiced business tax law at Irell & Manella in Los Angeles and Ropes & Gray in Boston. In 2009, an article on electronic tax research of which she was co-author won the Outstanding Article award from the American Association of Law Libraries. She is also one of two principal authors of the ABA Tax Section's forthcoming guide to Tax LLM programs. She holds a BS with distinction from the University of Kansas and a JD from UCLA School of Law, Order of the Coif.
Michael Larkin, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Larkin is Tax Counsel for the California State Board of Equalization (BOE) and the supervising attorney for the BOE's Tax Appeals Assistance Program Sales and Use Tax Clinic, in which law students represent taxpayers with sales and use tax appeals before the Board. Prof. Larkin has represented or supervised the representation of hundreds of clients with state tax appeals ranging from income tax to sales and use tax.
Alexander M. Lee, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Lee heads the transactional tax practice in the Los Angeles office of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, specializing in complex international corporate transactions. He received his JD from UCLA Law School and his LLM in Taxation from NYU, where he was a Tax Law Scholar and graduate editor of the Tax Law Review.
Margaret G. Lodise, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Lodise is a name partner of Sacks Glazier Franklin & Lodise, where she specializes in estate, trust and conservatorship litigation, in addition to handling estate, trust and conservatorship administration. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and has been a Chair of the Trusts and Estates Executive Committee of the State Bar of California, a Chair of the Executive Committee of the Trust and Estate Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the President of the Women Lawyers' Association of Los Angeles. She is listed in both Southern California Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America. Prof. Lodise is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and Loyola Law School’s Tax LLM program.
Kathryn Meyer, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Meyer is Associate Area Counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. She has also served as Assistant United States Attorney in the Tax Division of the United States Attorney’s Office. Prof. Meyer is a graduate of Boston University’s graduate tax program.
Katherine T. Pratt, Professor of Law. Prof. Pratt has served on the faculties of the NYU Graduate Tax Program, Saint Louis University School of Law and New York Law School, published in Vanderbilt Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and Wisconsin Law Review, among others, and is co-author of Federal Income Taxation: Examples and Explanations, one of the leading supplements in the field. In 2009, an article on electronic tax research of which she was co-author won the Outstanding Article award from the American Association of Law Libraries. She is also one of two principal authors of the ABA Tax Section's forthcoming guide to Tax LLM programs. Prof. Pratt earned her BA from the University of Florida, her JD from UCLA, and an LLM in taxation and an LLM in corporate law from NYU. Prior to teaching, she practiced with the firm of Rosenfeld Meyer & Susman in Beverly Hills.
Edward M. Robbins, Adjunct Professor. Currently a principal in the firm of Hochman Salkin Rettig Toscher & Perez PC and a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, Prof. Robbins is former Chief of the Tax Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California and President of the Federal Bar Association of Los Angeles. He has represented the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court many times. His work on behalf of the government earned him numerous awards, including IRS Criminal Investigations Outstanding National Criminal Tax Prosecutor in 2004. Prof. Robbins received his JD with honors from Golden Gate University and his Tax LLM, magna cum laude, from the University of San Diego.
Matthew Schonholz, Adjunct Professor. A former law clerk to Judges Nora Manella and Dickran Tevrizian of the Central District of California and member of the Tax Advisory Services group in Transaction Tax M&A at Ernst & Young, Prof. Schonholz is currently an associate in the tax group at Sidley Austin LLP. He earned his JD, magna cum laude, from University of Pennsylvania Law School and his Tax LLM with high distinction from Loyola Law School.
Theodore P. Seto, Frederick J. Lower, Jr. Chair. Prof. Seto has published articles in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Tax Law Review, among others, has visited at Cornell Law School and the University of Paris X, and is author of Federal Income Taxation: Cases, Problems, and Materials (West 2012). He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review. After completing law school, he clerked for Judge Walter Mansfield of the Second Circuit, practiced with the firms of Foley Hoag & Eliot in Boston and Drinker Biddle & Reath, where he was a partner in the tax group, and served as Articles Editor of The Tax Lawyer. In 2008, he served on the Obama campaign's Tax Policy Advisory Committee.
Craig Shaltes, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Shaltes is Senior Tax Counsel at California's Board of Equalization (BOE), with more than 19 years in income tax appeals. Since 2006, he has supervised the BOE’s Tax Appeals Assistance Program Franchise and Income Tax section, in which law students represent taxpayers in appeals before the Board. Prior to joining the BOE, he spent several years in private civil litigation practice. Prof. Shaltes earned his JD and LLM in taxation from McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific.
Ken Simon, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Simon is the Senior VP of Global Taxation & Treasury at Herbalife International of America, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange-listed company which distributes into more than 80 countries, and is responsible for the company’s worldwide tax and treasury functions. Prior to joining Herbalife, he was Vice President - Tax at Avon Products. He has over 30 years of corporate and international experience and expertise in initiating business partnerships to support tax strategies. He is a CPA (inactive) and earned his JD at St. John's and his Tax LLM at Boston University.
Roland Simpson, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Simpson has practiced for more than 35 years in the areas of employee benefits, fiduciary responsibility, multiemployer plans and executive compensation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers in Employment Benefits Law. In 2012, Best Lawyers in America named him Los Angeles Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law Lawyer of the Year. Prof. Simpson is past President of the Los Angeles Chapter and Chairman of the Joint Council of Presidents of the Western Pension & Benefits Conference and a graduate of UCLA Law School.
Joseph Sliskovich, Professor of Law and Faculty Advisor, JD/MBA Program. Prof. Sliskovich serves as faculty advisor for Loyola’s JD/ MBA dual degree program and coordinator of its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which provides over 4,500 hours per year of volunteer income tax return preparation and counseling services to low-income Los Angeles individuals and families. He earned his BA cum laude from the University of Southern California, his JD from Loyola Law School and his LLM in taxation from NYU, and joined the Loyola faculty in 1980 after practicing at Price Waterhouse.
Stephen J. Turanchik, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Turanchik is an associate in the tax group at Paul Hastings, where he focuses on tax litigation at the state and federal levels as well as tax controversy work at the administrative levels. Prof. Turanchik worked previously for the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, where he litigated over 300 tax cases in federal, bankruptcy, state and probate court and received an Outstanding Attorney award. He is a graduate of Fordham Law School and holds an LLM in Taxation from NYU.
Don R. Weigandt, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Weigandt is a former Managing Director with the J.P. Morgan Private Bank, where he focused on helping clients to maximize after-tax wealth across multiple generations using innovative tax, estate planning and charitable techniques. He joined J.P. Morgan in 1998 after a 25-year career in private law practice in New York and Los Angeles. Prof. Weigandt earned his law degree from Columbia University’s School of Law.
Frederick Wooldridge, Adjunct Professor. Prof. Wooldridge is an international tax partner at Ernst & Young. He has over 30 years of practice experience in international taxation, and specializes in advice to multinational clients on structuring crossborder transactions and investments. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law.