Craig Boise (Case Western)
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B.A. 1991, University of Missouri-Kansas City
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J.D. 1994, University of Chicago
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LL.M (Taxation) 1999, New York University
Like a number of other new tax professors, Craig arrived at the profession by a rather circuitous route. He began college as a piano performance major but ran out of money after two years and, in desperate need of a job, became a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri. It was in the police academy that he developed an interest in law while learning 4th, 5th and 6th Amendment constitutional law cases. He spent five years with the department – including a stint as a member of the SWAT team – returning to college during his last two years to complete a degree in political science.
Craig says that he chose the University of Chicago for law school on the strength of its “reputation for academic rigor.” As a student there, he was a recipient of the Thomas R. Mulroy Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy, and served as Director of Cases for the Hinton Moot Court Board. It was Craig’s then-future wife, April (also a Chicago law student), who persuaded him to take the federal income tax course with her. He reluctantly agreed, hoping that doing so might someday lead to their filing a joint tax return. Much to his surprise, he enjoyed the course (and married April). He credits professors Joseph Isenbergh and Daniel Shaviro with stimulating his interest in tax law.
About a year after completing a clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Craig and April moved to New York, where he practiced at both Cleary Gottlieb and Akin Gump. His practice involved a host of domestic and international tax issues relating to mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, joint ventures, financial products, structured finance, REIT transactions and securities offerings. While in New York, Craig also completed an LL.M in Taxation at New York University in 1999. After their first child was born, Craig and April moved to her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where he joined Thompson Hine LLP.
Craig’s interest in teaching initially was sparked during several lengthy telephone conversations with former law school classmate Steven Bank, who was teaching at Florida State at the time. He soon realized that teaching offered what he most wanted from the law – the chance to pursue his intellectual curiosity about legal rules and to share his knowledge with others. After interviewing with a number of schools, Craig joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in the fall of 2003. He teaches basic federal income tax, international tax and international tax policy. His scholarly interests are in the areas of corporate tax abuse and the impact of domestic and international tax rules on corporate behavior.
Craig says he has learned a great deal from some outstanding tax law professors and from the wealth of experience provided by private practice, as well. “The list of people I have been taught by, or had the opportunity to work with, reads like a “who’s who” of the world of tax law,” he adds.
Craig is active in the ABA Tax Section; he currently chairs its Diversity Committee and is a former subcommittee chair for the Committee on Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers. In his spare time, Craig enjoys sailing, reading and, yes, playing the piano.
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