» 2014 Chapman Law Review Symposium Speaker Profiles

Professor Steven A. Bank holds the Paul Hastings Endowed Chair in Business Law at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law and is the Faculty Director of the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy. Professor Bank was the Faculty Director of UCLA School of Law’s Program in Business Law and Policy from 2005 to 2007 and Vice Dean of UCLA School of Law from 2007 to 2013. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD from the University of Chicago. He has published numerous articles and books in the fields of business and tax history, including Anglo-American Corporate Taxation: Tracing the Common Roots of Divergent Approaches (Cambridge 2011) and From Sword to Shield: The Transformation of the Corporate Income Tax, 1861 to Present (Oxford 2010).

Jordan M. Barry is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of San Diego. His research primarily focuses on tax law and policy, corporate and securities law, and law and economics. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University and his JD from Stanford Law School, where he served as Managing Editor of the Stanford Law Review. Prior to joining the University of San Diego faculty, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jay S. Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced law at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He was awarded the Thorsnes Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2012 and was named the Herzog Endowed Scholar earlier this year.

Todd Carper is a Principal in Ernst & Young’s West Sub-Area Indirect and State & Local Tax (“SALT”) Practice. Carper is also an Adjunct Professor of State & Local Tax at Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law. He holds a B.A. from the University of Southern California and a JD from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. Mr. Carper specializes in multi-state income/franchise taxes as well as state and federal business credits and incentives. He also coordinates services with respect to sales and use tax, property tax, employment tax, medical device excise tax, VAT and customs for clients. He also serves as the Area Director of Income/Franchise Tax (“ADIFT”) for the West Sub-Area SALT practice.

Kelly Phillips Erb uses her website Taxgirl.com and other media outlets to discuss and explain tax in comprehensible language. She has also written about taxes for Reuters, Time, and AOL’s WalletPop, and has been tapped for her ability to explain taxes in plain English by Esquire, National Public Radio’s Marketplace, CBS Radio’s Marketwatch, Inc., and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She received her JD and LL.M. in Taxation from Temple University School of Law.

J. Clifton Fleming is the Ernest L. Wilkinson Chair and a Professor of Law at Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School. He received his B.S. from Brigham Young University and his JD from George Washington University, where he was Notes Editor of the George Washington Law Review. Fleming’s academic and teaching career has spanned the globe.  He has been a Fulbright visiting Professor of Law at the University of Nairobi, and a visiting professor at the University of Queensland, Central European University in Budapest, Murdoch University School of Law in Perth, and holder of a visiting scholar chair at the University of Florida Law School. In 2011, he held the Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria. He has also been the Professor-in-Residence in the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel in Washington, D.C..

Jonathan Barry Forman is the Alfred P. Murrah Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma, where he teaches courses on tax and pension law. He received his B.A. from Northwestern University, his M.A. in Psychology from University of Iowa, his JD from University of Michigan, and his M.A. in economics from George Washington University. Professor Forman recently served in Washington, DC, as the Professor in Residence for the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel for the 2009-2010 academic year. He is the author of Making America Work (Urban Institute Press 2006) and more than 300 other publications. Professor Forman is also active in the American Bar Association, the Association of American Law Professors, and the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has lectured around the world, testified before Congress, and served on numerous federal and state advisory committees.

David Hasen is an Associate Professor of Law at the Santa Clara University School of Law. His work as a tax scholar has appeared in the Emory Law Journal, Texas Law Review, Tax Law Review and other journals. Professor Hasen earned his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and his JD from Yale Law School, where he served as a Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Oksana Jaffe has served as Chief Consultant to the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation since 2008. Oksana received her B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from Kiev National University in Ukraine, her JD from Rutgers University School of Law, and her LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law. Oksana provides technical assistance to Assembly Members on tax law, analyzes legislation, provides tax counsel in connection with the annual budget process, organizes periodic hearings to provide a forum for reviewing tax issues, and acts as a liaison between the California Assembly and various state tax agencies.   Oksana represents the Committee as an advisor to the Franchise Tax Board and the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the California State Bar.

Tracy A. Kaye is a Professor of Law at the Seton Hall University School of Law, specializing in federal income, international and comparative tax law. She graduated magna cum laude with her B.S. in Accountancy from the University of Illinois, her M.S. in Taxation at DePaul University, and cum laude with her JD at Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Kaye is the former Chair of the American Bar Association Tax Section’s Teaching Taxation Committee. She is currently the Co-Director of Seton Hall Law School’s Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program and the Internal Revenue Service Chief Counsel's Externship Program. Professor Kaye is also the Third Circuit Regent of the American College of Tax Counsel Board of Regents and a member of the Academia Committee for the International Fiscal Association.

Edward D. Kleinbard is a Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and a Fellow at The Century Foundation. Before joining University of Southern California Law, Professor Kleinbard served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. Professor Kleinbard received his JD from Yale Law School. He also earned his M.A. in History and B.A. in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from Brown University. His recent papers include Stateless Income (Florida Tax Review), The Lessons of Stateless Income (Tax Law Review), The Better Base Case (Tax Notes), Paul Ryan's Roadmap to Inequality (Tax Notes), Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan (Tax Notes), Tax Expenditure Framework Legislation (National Tax Journal), and An American Dual Income Tax: Nordic Precedents (Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy). Professor Kleinbard has testified before the Congress on tax policy matters, and has written opinion pieces for the New York Times, the Huffington Post, CNN.com, and other media outlets.

Professor Michael Lang joined the Chapman faculty in 2002 to launch the Tax LL.M. Program as its first Director, and returned to full-time teaching in 2007. Professor Lang actively contributes to the work of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation, for which he has chaired both the Standards of Tax Practice Committee, reflecting his interest in ethical issues in the tax field, and the Committee on Teaching Taxation. He is currently active as a member of the Section's Task Force on Patenting Tax Strategies. Professor Lang is an elected Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. His publications range from articles in leading tax periodicals, such as the Tax Lawyer, the Tax Law Review, the Florida Tax Review and Tax Notes, and law reviews to a treatise on Federal Tax Elections (with Colleen Khoury), a casebook on Federal Tax Accounting (with Elliott Manning and Steven J. Willis), and more than two decades of compiling the Index to Federal Tax Articles (with Isa Lang). He is currently co-authoring a casebook on Tax Practice Ethics (with Linda Galler). He was also a collaborator in the first edition of Boris Bittker's multivolume Federal Taxation of Income, Estates and Gifts.

Professor Lang earned his undergraduate degree, cum laude in Linguistics and Near Eastern Languages at Harvard University, and his Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. 

Roberta Mann is the Loran L. Stewart Professor of Business Law at the University of Oregon School of Law. She earned her M.B.A. and JD cum laude from Arizona State University, where she also served as Assistant Editor of the Arizona State University Law Journal. She also received her LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Mann practiced in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, concentrating primarily on the areas of partnerships, corporate, estate and gift, and natural resources. She also served on the Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation in U.S. Congress.

Omri Y. Marian is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. He received his B.A. and LL.B. from Tel Aviv University. He also received his LL.M. in International Taxation and SJD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Robert K. Morrow is a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law. He received his LL.M. in Taxation with honors from Golden Gate University School of Law and his JD from The American University Washington College of Law. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Morrow was Associate Dean and Director of the LL.M. Taxation Program of Golden Gate University School of Law in Los Angeles. He was previously the Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel to Castling Group, LLC, a private equity firm with offices in Santa Monica, San Francisco and New York. He also maintained a private law practice in Los Angeles and Orange County for 18 years, representing clients principally in matters of taxation, venture capital, and corporate law.

Robert J. Peroni is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. Professor Peroni currently holds the Fondren Foundation Centennial Chair for Faculty Excellence. He received his JD from Northwestern University, his LL.M. from New York University and BSC from DePaul University. He is a co-author of six books and has written many articles on taxation and professional responsibility topics. He has been active on several committees of the American Bar Association's Section of Taxation and has served as the Chair of the Taxation Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Douglas A. Schaaf is a Partner and Chair of the Tax Department at Paul Hastings. He graduated magna cum laude with his B.B.A. from St. Norbert College and his JD from University of Notre Dame Law School. Much of his practice involves providing tax advice in cross-border transactions; acquisitions and recapitalizations of corporations; partnership formation and restructuring matters; tax advice concerning the acquisition and disposition of real estate; tax controversy matters at both the state and federal level; and tax aspects of executive compensation arrangements. He has more than 25 years of experience in a broad range of tax matters.

Bahar A. Schippel is a Certified Specialist in Tax Law and Partner at Snell & Wilmer. She graduated magna cum laude with her B.S. and cum laude with her JD from Arizona State University. Ms. Schippel graduated magna cum laude with her LL.M. from the University of San Diego School of Law. She currently serves on the Council of the American Bar Association Tax Section and is a Past Chair of the American Bar Association Tax Section Partnership Committee. Ms. Schippel is also the Past Chair of the Tax Section of the State Bar of Arizona and is currently the Chair of the Arizona Tax Advisory Commission, which oversees the tax specialization program in Arizona. She is also on the Wolters Kluwer Legal Tax Advisory Board, which includes the nation's leading authorities on tax law.

Walter D. Schwidetzky is a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. He primarily teaches tax courses.  His specialty is partnership taxation.  He has been elected to the American Law Institute. He earned his B.A., M.B.A., JD, and LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Denver. Schwidetzky co-authors Partnership Taxation (LexisNexis) and the Limited Liability Handbook (West). He is widely published in peer-reviewed and law school law journals.

Darien Shanske is a Professor of Law at the University of California Davis School of Law. Professor Shanske holds a JD from Stanford Law School, a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Rhetoric, a M.A. from McGill University in Philosophy, and a B.A. from Columbia University. His academic interests include taxation, particularly state and local taxation, local government law, public finance, and political theory, particularly jurisprudence.

John A. Swain is the Chester H. Smith Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Professor Swain graduated summa cum laude with his B.S. from Dartmouth College. He received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Policy. Professor Swain has devoted most of his professional life to the study and practice of state and local taxation and is widely regarded as one of the nation's leading academic authorities on state and local taxation. Swain's work is regularly cited by courts and administrative tribunals throughout the nation. Professor Swain has also testified before Congress on matters of state tax policy and has appeared as an expert witness in state tax controversies, most recently in a matter regarding the property taxation of the Alaskan Pipeline.