Michelle Layser

Partnership taxation, state and local taxation, business taxation, affordable housing and community development law, and property.

Professor Layser joined the USD faculty in 2022. Before coming to USD, Professor Layser spent four years as an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Prior to that, she taught at the Georgetown University Law Center where she served as a Law Research Fellow and taught a seminar course on taxation and social justice. Professor Layser previously worked as a transactional associate at Latham & Watkins LLP. She also worked for the Bloomberg Bureau of National Affairs as a Senior Legal Editor and a Managing Editor.

Major themes in Professor Layser’s research include the use of tax expenditures to deliver public goods, and the effects of these expenditures on economic and social inequality.  In addition to her scholarly publications, Professor Layser has also written various articles for the Illinois Institute of Government & Public Affairs, Law360, The Conversation, and the TaxProf Blog. Professor Layser has presented her work at institutions around the country.

Professor Layser earned her LLM in Taxation from New York University. She earned her JD from the University of Southern California Could School of Law, where she graduated Order of the Coif. She also served on the board of the Southern California Law Review while in law school. She received her BA with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. Most recently, Professor Layser was named the 2025-2026 Herzog Endowed Scholar.