Saturday, August 7, 2004

This week’s Tax Prof Spotlight inaugurates a series of profiles of folks starting their careers this fall as tenure-track tax professors at American law schools. We hope the profiles will help introduce our newest tax colleagues to the academic tax community.

Amy Monahan never thought she would be a tax professor. She notes that “as an undergraduate International Studies major at Johns Hopkins, I was obsessed with the world of comparative politics. As I began to consider graduate work in the area, I realized that I wanted to do something more practical than comparative politics while still having the option of teaching. Law school seemed like a good choice.”

Once at Duke Law School, Amy had a hard time shaking the international bug. Indeed, she was Managing Editor of the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law and published a student note in that journal. But when she reluctantly took her first tax class (because she thought she had to), she was hooked: “I never expected to like it, but my professor’s enthusiasm was contagious. He made students see the relevance of the tax system and the extent to which it governs all kinds of economic relationships. I also discovered that I enjoyed the process of sifting through the Code and Regs and trying to solve the puzzle.” [Editor’s note: Amy’s experience validates new Columbia Dean (and Tax Prof) David Schizer’s point here equating taking tax to eating spinach.]

As a summer associate at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP in Chicago, Amy had the opportunity to experience the practice of tax law, and the subspecialty of employee benefits: “It turned out that employee benefits law was a perfect fit for me. It combines the analytical puzzles of tax law and ERISA with a very human side of the law – providing employees with health coverage and retirement security (okay, and a few CEOs with millions upon millions of dollars).”

After graduating from law school, Amy practiced with Sidley for four years. Although she enjoyed practice, the teaching bug remained in the back of her mind. As luck would have it, an opportunity arose at Notre Dame, where her husband was completing his Ph.D. in Philosophy. Amy joined Notre Dame in 2003 as a visiting scholar at the Center for Ethics & Culture and as an adjunct assistant professor teaching Legal Writing at the Law School. Her affiliation with the Center allowed her to pursue her research interests in retirement and health policy from a tax perspective, and to get her first manuscript published: Addressing the Problem of Impatients, Impulsives and Other Imperfect Actors in 401(k) Plans, 23 Va. Tax Rev. 471 (2004).

Amy is grateful to all those at Notre Dame who helped her during her first year as a teacher and scholar: “It was a wonderful way to begin my academic career. I am particularly grateful to Associate Dean Jack Pratt, without whose encouragement I may never have had the courage to give the tenure-track market a try.”

Amy notes that her story “has a happy ending. I have joined the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia and, to my great delight, so has my philosopher-husband. I look forward to getting my feet wet teaching Basic Federal Income Tax this fall, and to pursuing my current research project examining health savings accounts (and consumer driven health plans in general) from a tax policy standpoint.” She also will be teaching Partnership Tax, Advanced Topics in Taxation, and Tax Research.

Each Saturday, TaxProf Blog shines the spotlight on one of the 700+ tax professors in America’s law schools. We hope to help bring the many individual stories of scholarly achievements, teaching innovations, public service, and career moves within the tax professorate to the attention of the broader tax community. Please email me suggestions for future Tax Prof Profiles, particularly for our series on new tax professors. For prior Tax Prof Profiles, see here.