In May 2021, Professor Ann F. Thomas was elected to the American College of Tax Counsel. The College is a professional association of tax lawyers. Professor Thomas joins Professor Alan I. Appel, Director of International Tax Studies, who is also a member of this highly regarded group.
Membership in the College is reserved for leaders in tax law who have made an exceptional contribution to their chosen profession. Members must be nominated for the honor of membership and must then undergo a rigorous screening process prior to being elected as Fellows of the College.
The College provides a venue for the Fellows to work together to promote sound tax policy and to engage in thoughtful discussion with the government about matters affecting the tax system. In addition, through its affiliated organizations, the American Tax Policy Institute and the Tannenwald Foundation, the College supports public conferences on tax policy issues and encourages the publication of scholarly articles. The College also sponsors the annual Griswold Lecture on Tax Policy, given each winter at the College’s Annual Meeting.
As part of its mission to improve the tax system, the College provides recommendations to Congress and the Internal Revenue Service for improving the nation’s tax laws and the way that they are interpreted and administered, and it provides input into the judicial system by filing amicus curiae briefs in selected tax cases.
Professor Thomas joined the full time faculty at NYLS in 1995. In addition to teaching numerous tax law courses and first semester Contracts, she leads the School’s Graduate Tax Program. She became the inaugural Otto L. Walter Distinguished Professor of Tax Law in 2013.
On her sabbatical next year, Professor Thomas will be 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. Currently, she is completing an article analyzing the role of the federal income tax in fostering the racial wealth gap for a symposium volume of the New York Law School Law Review.
Before joining academia, Professor Thomas had a distinguished career as a tax partner practicing corporate, real estate, and international tax at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson where she worked for 17 years.
In addition to her leadership in tax law, Professor Thomas is Co-Director of the School’s Faculty Diversity Committee. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the African American Policy Forum and was elected its Board Chair in June 2021.
NYLS Leads in Tax Law
NYLS offers cutting-edge tax courses and events through its Graduate Tax Program. The School’s LL.M. in Taxation has been ranked No. 1 by New York Law Journal readers for 11 years straight. The Graduate Tax Program hosts a day long workshop on professional responsibility in tax practice each spring and offers additional tax CLEs throughout the year.
The School’s leadership in tax law is especially relevant to preparing our students and alumni to make a difference as the nation prioritizes pandemic recovery, job innovation and creation, and protecting the most vulnerable—all of which are linked to tax.