Annual Tax Presentations
Every year, the Tax LLM program hosts tax scholars from around the country for the Tax Law Speaker Series and the Richard C. Pugh Lecture on Tax Law and Policy. The tax speaker programming provides important learning opportunities for faculty and staff, students and members of the San Diego legal community. Such events fulfill the commitment by the University of San Diego School of Law to be a hub for quality legal research and education in Southern California.
Richard Crawford Pugh Lecture on Tax Law and Policy
The Richard Crawford Pugh Lecture on Tax Law & Policy brings a distinguished practitioner, judge or government official who has played a significant role in shaping U.S. and international tax policy to USD each year to discuss current and developing tax law and policy trends.
The endowed lecture was established in 2009 in honor of the long and illustrious career of USD's Distinguished Professor of Law, Richard Crawford Pugh. Before coming to USD, Pugh was a professor at Columbia Law School, a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general (Tax Division), and a partner at the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton.
- 2025 Rebecca Kyser, Professor of Law, Fordham School of Law - "The Stakes of the Global Tax Deal for International Economic Governance"
- 2024 Nina E. Olson, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights – "Taxpayer Rights in the Digital Age"
- 2023 Kimberly Clausing, Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law – “The Future of International Tax Cooperation”
- 2022 Maurice Foley, Chief Judge of the U.S. Tax Court - "Mountains and Mentors: My Path to the Court"
- 2021 Ann Alstott, Yale Law School - "Child Care Reform After the Pandemic: Towards a Public Option"
- 2020 Rosanne Altshuler, Rutgers University - "The International Tax Landscape: Past, Present and Future"
- 2019 Lily Batchelder, NYU School of Law - "Optimal Tax Theory and Distributive Justice"
- 2018 Pam Olson, PricewaterhouseCoopers - "The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017"
- 2017 Deborah Schenk, NYU School of Law - "Horizontal Equity Redux"
- 2016 Lawrence Zelenak, Duke Law - "Recovering the Forgotten Early History of the Fed. Income Tax"
- 2015 Michael J. Graetz, Columbia Alumni Professor of Tax Law - "Tax Reform Beyond the Headlines"
- 2014 Edward Kleinbard, USC Gould School of Law - "Progressive Tax or Progressive Fiscal System?"
Tax Law Speaker Series
The USD School of Law Tax Law Speaker Series brings high-profile tax scholars to USD to present papers on topics of current research interest. The speaker series is organized by the Associate Professor of Law Michelle Layser.
2025-26
Past Tax Speaker Series
Adam Rosenzweig – Washington University School of Law
Kristin Hickman – University of Minnesota Law School
Diane M. Ring – Boston College Law School
Omri Marian – UC Irvine School of Law
Shayak Sarkar – UC Davis School of Law
John Brooks – Fordham University School of Law
Heather Field – University of California Law San Francisco
Kirk J. Stark – UCLA School of Law
David Schizer – Columbia Law School
Deanna S. Newton – Pepperdine Caruso School of Law
Jeesoo Nam – USC Gould School of Law
Darien Shanske – UC Davis School of Law
Linda Sugin – Fordham University School of Law
Clinton Wallace – University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
Orly Mazur – SMU Dedman School of Law
David Gamage – Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Steven Dean – UC Irvine School of Law
Jeremy Bearer-Friend – The George Washington University Law School
Ruth Mason – University of Virgina School of Law
Daniel Hemel – University of Chicago Law School
Leigh Osofsky – University of North Carolina School of Law
Zachary Liscow – Yale Law School
Jonathan Choi – University of Minnesota Law School
Lilian Faulhaber – Georgetown University Law Center
Jason Oh – UCLA School of Law
Erin Scharff – ASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Young Ran (Christine) Kim – University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Michelle Brumbl – Washington and Lee University School of Law
Joshua Blank – UC Irvine School of Law
Susan C. Morse – The University of Texas School of Law
Kirk Stark – UCLA School of Law
Leandra Lederman – Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Jacob Goldin – Stanford Law School
Willard Taylor – NYU School of Law
Katie Pratt – Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Shu-Yi Oei – Boston College Law School
Steven Rosenthal – The Urban Institute
Rebecca Kysar – Fordham University School of Law
Joseph Bankman – Stanford Law School
Richard Schmalbeck – Duke University School of Law
J. Clifton Fleming Jr. – BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Roberta Mann – University of Oregon School of Law
Brian Galle – Georgetown University Law Center
Susan C. Morse – The University of Texas School of Law
Howard E. Abrams – Emory University School of Law
Adam Chodorow – ASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Karen Brown – The George Washington University Law School
Dennis Ventry – UC Davis School of Law
Calvin H. Johnson – The University of Texas School of Law