Mitchell M. Gans (Hofstra)
- B.B.A. 1971, Hofstra
- J.D. 1974, Hofstra
Mitchell M. Gans holds the Steven A. Horowitz Chair in Taxation at Hofstra. He is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU. He teaches courses in the areas of tax and estates.
After graduation from law school, he clerked for Jacob D. Fuchsberg (Associate Judge, New York Court of Appeals) and then worked as an associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett in New York. While working as an associate in the tax-and-estate departments at Simpson Thacher, he met Jonathan G. Blattmachr (who is now a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy). Over the past 30 years, Professor Gans and Mr. Blattmachr have collaborated on many projects and co-authored several articles.
Professor Gans’ scholarship has focused on the intersection of trusts and estates and tax. He has written largely about transfer-tax issues, as well as income tax issues that arise in the trusts-and-estates context. In 2001, in his most influential article, he demonstrated, along with Mr. Blattmachr, that the Treasury had failed to assess accurately the cost of its proposal to repeal the estate-and-gift-tax system. After becoming the subject of a page-one story in the New York Times, the article resulted in a critical modification of the Administration’s proposal. The Senate decided to retain the gift tax even after repeal of the estate tax in order to avoid the negative consequence to the budget that the article had identified. The Senate’s decision to retain the gift tax is widely attributed to the article.
A 2003 article on family partnerships is regarded as one of the most definitive one on the subject. It has been extensively cited and has been the subject of much discussion. It was just recently cited by Judge Halperin of the Tax Court in a path-breaking decision. A 2004 article just received the “Best Writing” award from the Real Property, Probate and Trust section of the ABA.
In two recent articles on Circular 230, he argues, again along with Mr. Blattmachr, that in certain respects the new covered-opinion rules are invalid. The argument is based on the First Amendment and Treasury’s failure to make the new rules consistent with penalty provisions contained in the Code.
Professor Gans is widely regarded as a leading authority in family partnerships and valuation. Last Fall, he taught a course on valuation, on behalf of NYU Law School and IRS Chief Counsel, to IRS attorneys throughout the country by satellite television. In recent months, he has been invited to deliver papers at the University of Miami Institute on Estate Planning; the NYU Institute on Federal Taxation; ALI-ABA; the Bureau of National Affairs; the Estate Planning Counsel; and the Association of the Bar. He will be delivering a paper on deference and family partnerships to IRS Chief Counsel in September. He will also be delivering a paper at ACTEC’s annual meeting on the decoupled estate tax under EGTRRA.
He is an Academic Fellow at ACTEC (American College of Trust and Estate Counsel). He is also a member of the Surrogate’s Court Committee of the Association of the Bar. He currently serves on ACTEC’s Task Force on Circular 230.
In the last two years, he was selected by Hofstra’s graduating class as the most effective teacher.
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